EUROPEAN METHODS OF STREET CLEANING 



A decided difference exists in different cities in the 

 ways in which it is intended to accomplish the same 

 results in street cleaning. Where in one city Generml ^ 

 the work is chiefly done by hand labor, in *> 

 another much use is made of apparatus operated by 

 horses or by steam. The reasons for this are not 

 readily apparent. 



The explanation appears to be that, until recently, 

 little or no attempt has been made to standardize the 

 methods. Each city in Europe, as in America, has 

 developed its own ways of cleaning streets without 

 much reference to the experience of others, and, once 

 committed to a given system, radical alteration or 

 improvement has been slow. It is not that the streets 

 or traffic differ so materially in different cities, but 

 that the customary ways of cleaning the streets have 

 become somewhat fixed that these differences continue 

 to exist. 



My opinion is that the best results probably could be 

 produced in any city by a judicious combination of the 

 methods used in many cities. For example, the copious 

 use of water and the highly intelligent application of it 

 in the city of London make street-flushing operations 

 by means of hose more effective there than elsewhere. 



The sanding of streets in damp weather was a general 

 procedure, but was done so well in Hamburg that it 

 seemed curious other cities did not follow this method 

 in detail. 



The cleaning of sidewalks and the flushing of gutters 

 received such careful attention in Paris that this plan 

 had in it much to recommend it, at least for cities which 

 have enough water and in which no gutter flushing or 

 sidewalk cleaning is practiced. 



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