MODERN METHODS OF STREET CLEANING 



obvious that the work of scavenging New York is much 

 more extensive and costly than the official figures 

 represent. 



The streets are swept, for the most part, by hand. 

 Methods of The charter of the city specificially states 

 Work that hand work shall be the principal reliance, 



although machines may be used to supplement it. 



The street sweepings collected by the department in 

 1906 amounted to 1,183,998 cubic yards and weighed 

 567,971 tons of 2000 pounds each. In the most crowded 

 borough of New York (Manhattan), it is estimated that 

 the sweepings average 81 cubic yards per thousand 

 square yards of street pavement through the year or 

 325 cubic yards per thousand inhabitants or 8760 cubic 

 yards per 1000 horses. These ratios are mathematical 

 and probably do not represent conditions which prevail 

 either in large parts of the city or at all seasons. 

 Nothing is more evident to practical street cleaning men 

 than the variations which occur in the quantity of 

 refuse produced in different parts of a city and at 

 different seasons. 



In view of the extent to which machines are employed 

 in cleaning the streets of European cities, it is interesting 

 to observe that the recent commission of investigation 

 in New York concluded that hand sweeping was cheaper 

 than machine sweeping. Estimates were made to show 

 the cost of each. In these calculations it was assumed 

 that the street was paved with sheet asphalt, well con- 

 structed and in good repair, that the travel and other 

 conditions were about the average for New York, and 

 that the work was done by the municipal labor and 

 plant. A machine sweeper was assumed to sweep once 

 about 70,000 square yards of street in one day of eight 



168 



