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PART III. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



Scraping and sweeping Roads. — We rejoice in every invention calculated 

 to lessen the number of human beings put to clean or mend roads, and 

 therefore have great pleasure in laying two inventions by Mr. Boase before 

 our readers, which will henceforth, wherever it may be thought fit to em- 

 ploy them, render sweeping unnecessary in towns, and scraping in the 

 country. The two operations of scraping and sweeping were originally 

 performed by one machine, the brooms and scrapers being attached to the 

 same frame : but it was found, on trial, that either operation rendered the 

 road sufficiently clean ; and Mr. Boase accordingly made distinct machines 

 for each purpose, of which the following is his description : — 



The Sci-aper (fig. 20.) consists of an oblong frame of iron, supported on 

 three wheels, two of which are common carriage-wheels, about 3 ft. in 

 diameter, working on an axle fixed to the frame : the third is a small cast- 



iron one, placed under the centre of the front bar of the frame. Below the 

 frame, and obliquely to it, is placed the flexible scraper, consisting of a 

 number of plates of sheet-iron, arranged in a line, and connected to each 

 other by small bolts. On the back of each plate is bolted a piece of iron, 

 in the shape of the letter T inverted : the stem of this iron is continued to 

 the upper end of the plate, and then bent forward in a horizontal direction 

 to a shaft (secured to the frame) parallel to the scraper, at the distance of 

 about 18 in. from it, to which it is joined. By this arrangement, when the 

 machine is moved forward, the shaft draws after it the series of plates form- 

 ing the scraper, which being attached to each other by joints, or bolts acting 

 as such, each plate has sufficient freedom of action to adapt itself to the 

 inequalities of the surface. Springs, equal in number to the plates, are 

 fixed to the shaft, by which any degree of pressure required can be given to 

 the scraper. As the machine proceeds, a portion of road, equal in width to 

 the quadrilateral figure of which the scraper forms the diagonal, is cleared ; 

 and the mud or dirt, as fast as it collects, is slid off by the oblique surface 

 of the scraper, and finally left in a line on the off-side of the machine. This 

 process is commenced near the centre of the road, and the machine, 

 having gone a convenient distance in a straight line, is turned and brought 



