The Motor-Truck Sewer Cleaner 



It does the work of four gangs of four men each 



CLEAR WATER 

 COMPARTMENT 

 FEEDS PUMP 



/BAFFLE PLATES SEPARATE 

 WATER FROM SEDIMENT 



(HYDRAULIC H0I5T 

 JOR DUMPING 



^MIXTURE DISCHARGED 

 INTO BODY 



pump driven from the vehicle driveshaf t by 

 means of a silent chain, and a device called 

 the eductor which is lowered into the 

 bottom of the catchbasin at the end of 

 a long telescoping pipe, as shown in 

 the accompanying illustration. 



The body is divided into two 

 main parts, one for the sediment 

 and one for the water used 



The machine consists of a 

 five-ton motor-truck with a 

 pumping device which draws 

 the catch basin sediment up 

 and into the truck by suction 



SUBSTITUTING mechanical power for 

 hand labor, the ingenuity of a Spring- 

 field, Ohio, engineer has found a way 

 to clean sewer catchbasins by motor 

 power. Not only does the machine do the 

 work better than it was done by hand, but 

 it does it more cheaply. The apparatus will 

 clean from forty to fifty catchbasins a day, 

 an equivalent to the work done by four 

 gangs of four men each in the same time. 



The machine is a self-contained unit con- 

 sisting of a five-ton motor-truck equipped 

 with a pumping device. The latter is driven 

 by the vehicle motor and draws the catch- 

 basin sediment up and into the truck body 

 by means of suction. After the body is 

 full, the truck runs to the dump, deposits 

 its load through tilting the body by means 

 of a hydraulic hoist and is back on the job 

 in less than half the time it would take a 

 horse and wagon to make one-half the 

 round trip. 



The apparatus consists of a watertight 

 steel box body, an ordinary centrifugal 



the pump to suck up the sediment. This 

 division is made by means of a steel plate 

 parallel with one side and a perforated 

 cross plate at the rear, forming an L-shaped 

 tank for the water. The water is fed from 

 the bottom of the tank into the centrifugal 

 pump directly aft of the driver's seat. 



The pump forces the water down into the 

 catchbasin in a hose and up again through 

 the eductor pipe. As it passes the eductor 

 nozzle it sucks up with it the sediment in the 

 basin. The sediment and the water travel 

 through a bend in the top of the pipe and 

 drop into the front end of the truck-body. 

 The sediment falls to the bottom and the 

 water is made to pass through notches cut 

 in opposite sides of three hinged baffle- 

 plates. It passes to the rear and then 

 through the small perforations in the rear 

 cross-plate into the water tank. 



At this time the water is practically clear. 

 It is fed to the pump and used over and 

 over again until the truck-body is full of 

 the catchbasin silt. 



An overflow valve and hose are provided 

 to flush out the bottom of the basin after 

 all the sediment has been removed. 



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