812 TliAXSACTJOXS OF THE AMERICAN IXSTITUTE. 



control all departments. Then they would all work together, 

 eeononiieally and efficiently. The hydrants would be large enough 

 for the tire engines and for flushing the sewers ; now they are not. 

 The dock-cleaning and street-cleaning would be economically related. 

 And all would be done better under one head. Now, each little 

 chief thinks only of his own department, as if the city were made 

 f(U- no purpose but to be watered, sewered, gas-piped, or otherwise 

 expensively and confusedly disturbed. When we have a talented 

 ciiief engineer, we "may look for the system I have proposed. 



Tlie blowing apparatus alone will dry the streets after a rain. An 

 engine of this kind would blow dust from country roads and from 

 railways; and I intend to patent it for those uses, as well as for 

 streets. 



Dr. J. J. Edwards remarked that in London, when the sewers 

 were found to be defective, they adopted the system of flushing them 

 with water, and with marked success. There was no reason why the 

 dirt of the streets should not be carried off by the sewers. It would 

 not clog them up any more than it does after a heavy fall of rain. 

 This sj^stem might also be applied to getting rid of the snow in the 

 streets in winter. The snow^ cannot be well carried off, so this plan 

 would seem feasible. 



Mr. Fisher thought that it was pretty well agreed here that the 

 snow should be cleansed out of the street. Mr. Ebbitts, when super- 

 intendent of the Sixth Avenue Railroad, said it was much cheaper to 

 clean the streets of snow by the use of salt than any other mode, 

 lie, Mr. Fisher, had seen, in London, the mud scooped up in buckets 

 and carried off in \vater-tight carts. The plan of washing the snow 

 away was a good one and might be made effective. 



The Chairman inquired if Mr. Fisher intended to clean the streets 

 with water when tiae temperature of the air was at or below the freez- 

 ing point ? 



Mr. Fisher replied that he had not given that part of the matter 

 full consideration. One mode of cleaning the streets was to throw 

 the water up well with a fire engine and let it fall to the ground. As 

 the steam fire engines are at hand this plan could be tried without 

 hai-dly any expense. 



Prof. J. A. Whitne^y said there were quite a number of plans pro- 

 posed to remove the snow from the streets. One plan was to lay 

 jtipes through the streets to be kept full of hot water, which would 

 keep up a temperature above the freezing point. Another j^lan was 



