HAMBURG 



attached to a hydrant. This has proved the txt and 

 cheapest way to clean the asphalt of the dirt which 

 < "innot readily be removed by sweeping. Cleaning with 

 water wagons and rubber squeegees and by sweeping 

 machines with rubber scrapers has not proved so satis- 

 factory. The cost of cleaning ItKK) square yards of 

 asphalt by flushing, after the Hamburg method, is 

 about 17 cents in Hamburg. 



The sprinkling of public streets to keep down the 

 dust in the summer is done by one-horse water wagons. 

 Each wagon holds about 400 gallons. These 

 wagons are filled direct from hydrants and 

 sprinkle water from fine holes. A wagon during nine 

 hours work requires to be filled forty-four times and 

 can sprinkle 120,000 square yards a day. 



Most streets are sprinkled at least twice a day, but 

 on the very small or very shady streets once is suffi- 

 cient. On very hot and dusty days, by prolonging the 

 service until 9 o'clock, many streets are sprinkled three 

 times. Some sidewalks in much frequented public 

 places are sprinkled by the city by means of hand water 

 wagons, but generally the citizens sprinkle the side- 

 walks in front of their own houses. For this privilege 

 property holders pay a certain amount for the use of 

 water. 



An important part of the work of the street-cleaning 

 department is the removal of snow and ice. For this 

 purpose each one of the twelve districts is sub- 



Snow 



divided into ten snow divisions. As the regu- 

 lar force of the street-cleaning department is not suffi- 

 cient for the whole work, special workmen to the 

 number of about 326, belonging to the engineering 

 department and about 2300 laborers, are called on to 



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