Popular Science Monthly 



267 



The City Alligator. He Cleans 

 the Sewers of Fort Meade, 

 Florida 



THE alligator has gradu- 

 ated into the useful class. 

 At last his sluggish energy 

 has been usefully directed. 



Recently a six-hundred- 

 foot, twelve-inch sewer pipe 

 in Fort Meade, Florida, be- 

 came clogged with sand 

 and dirt. According to the 

 "Engineering Record" several 

 sewer - cleaning contrivances 

 were used and about $1,500 

 was spent, but to no avail. 

 The pipe remained clogged as 

 before. At this j uncture the superintendent 

 of water and sewers secured a small alli- 

 gator, to which he fastened a rope. The 

 'gator was lowered into the pipe. After a 

 struggle in the unsavory environment he 

 reached the next manhole, dragging the 

 rope after him. When he had traveled one 

 section of the pipe, the rope, to the middle 

 of which knotted chains were attached, was 

 pulled back and forth and the obstructions 

 removed. 



Following this success, other alliga- 

 tors were .used, until at the present 

 time ten are employed for cleaning 

 sewers. They are doing what skilled 

 workmen equipped with modern appa- 

 ratus have failed to do. 



The blotched and wrinkled hide of a living, squirming 

 alligator makes a most efficient sewer-cleaning apparatus 



a complete grocery store on wheels. The 

 vehicle serves a large rural territory where 

 the homes of the farmers are at considerable 

 distance from the town store. It makes 

 more than a hundred stops per day serving 

 its customers with a complete stock of 

 groceries, green goods, meats and candies. 

 The interior of the store is electrically 

 lighted and heated from the exhaust gases 

 of the motor in winter tipe. Beneath the 

 body at the rear are two chicken coops with 

 hinged swing-back bottoms for live poultry. 



Grocery Store on Wheels Serves Large 

 Rural Territories 



THE progressive merchandizing me- 

 thods of to-day made possible by 

 the proper utilization of the motor 

 truck are well illustrated in the 

 accompanying views 

 which picture 



The interior of the grocery car with its 

 snow-white bins and spotless counters 



