Proceedings of the P olytechnic Association. 813 



to throw a jet of steam down on the snow. This idea it is evident 

 would not work well, as the heat would be absorbed from the steam 

 by the atmosphere before it reached the ground. Another device, 

 and one which would seem to have some merit in it, was to have a 

 machine which would carry the snow to an elevation, and heat being 

 applied underneath the snow would be melted and run off. And still 

 another plan was to pump water up into a reservoir, sufficiently high 

 to give the requisite pressure, and using the water to wash the snow 

 away. A gentleman in Philadelphia proposed the use of salt water 

 for this purpose, but the salt water would not work well only on 

 water tight pavements. This whole matter of getting rid of snow in 

 the streets is merely one of expense. The question is, would the 

 benefit derived warrant the expense? 



Mr. C. E. Emery remarked that a large hose will wash the 

 streets very perfectly. If a stream of water could be made to run in 

 our gutters, it would do away with many of our gutter nuisances. 

 Any plan- to keep the streets free from snow, he thought, would not 

 be practical, as the amount of snow that falls during the winter is 

 much greater than we dream of. In Brooklyn, where they use salt 

 on the tracks after a snow storm, the cars are running some two weeks 

 before they are in this city where its use is prohibited. The salt 

 water, however, should not be allowed to remain in the streets, but 

 should be washed into the gutters and sewers ; if this wais done much 

 of the evil of salting would be removed. 



Dr. J. J. Edwards said that wherever salt water is used there most 

 certainly will begin a state of dampness, and in our crowded neigh- 

 borhoods we would do a great wrong if we obliged the people there 

 to breathe a damp atmosphere. 



Prof. Phin stated that a very heavy fall of snow rarely gives more 

 than half an inch of water. The amount of snow that falls in many 

 of our heavy storms is far lower than ten pounds to the square foot. 

 In regard to the use of salt, a singular fact occurred in France where 

 it was used to sprinkle .the streets to keep down the dust ; yet a great 

 objection to it arose from the oppressive dryness which it occasioned 

 in the atmosphere, the salt had to get moisture somewhere, so it 

 absorbed it from the atmosphere. 



Prof. Whitney thought there must be some error in this statement, 

 as whatever moisture might be abstracted from the air at the surface 

 of the earth, would be regained by the air absorbing the moisture 

 from the air above. 



