The Autobiography of Benjamin FranklinFranklin, Benjamin
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The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Franklin, Benjamin
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790; Statesmen -- United States -- Biography
"For the more effectual cleaning and keeping clean the streets of
London and Westminster, it is proposed that the several watchmen be
contracted with to have the dust swept up in dry seasons, and the mud
rak'd up at other times, each in the several streets and lanes of his
round; that they be furnish'd with brooms and other proper instruments
for these purposes, to be kept at their respective stands, ready to
furnish the poor people they may employ in the service.
"That in the dry summer months the dust be all swept up into heaps at
proper distances, before the shops and windows of houses are usually
opened, when the scavengers, with close-covered carts, shall also carry
it all away.
"That the mud, when rak'd up, be not left in heaps to be spread abroad
again by the wheels of carriages and trampling of horses, but that the
scavengers be provided with bodies of carts, not plac'd high upon
wheels, but low upon sliders, with lattice bottoms, which, being
cover'd with straw, will retain the mud thrown into them, and permit
the water to drain from it, whereby it will become much lighter, water
making the greatest part of its weight; these bodies of carts to be
plac'd at convenient distances, and the mud brought to them in
wheel-barrows; they remaining where plac'd till the mud is drain'd, and
then horses brought to draw them away."
I have since had doubts of the practicability of the latter part of
this proposal, on account of the narrowness of some streets, and the
difficulty of placing the draining-sleds so as not to encumber too much
the passage; but I am still of opinion that the former, requiring the
dust to be swept up and carry'd away before the shops are open, is very
practicable in the summer, when the days are long; for, in walking
thro' the Strand and Fleet-street one morning at seven o'clock, I
observ'd there was not one shop open, tho' it had been daylight and the
sun up above three hours; the inhabitants of London chusing voluntarily
to live much by candle-light, and sleep by sunshine, and yet often
complain, a little absurdly, of the duty on candles and the high price
of tallow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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