The Municipal and Sanitary Engineer's HandbookBoulnois, H. Percy (Henry Percy)
Science
The Municipal and Sanitary Engineer's Handbook
Boulnois, H. Percy (Henry Percy)
Municipal engineering; Sanitary engineering
With a view to obviate these and other objections, several improved
carts and waggons have been introduced by different makers, who have
styled them by a variety of names. Amongst others they are called dust
carts, general purpose carts, sanitary carts, slush carts, tumbler
carts, mud waggons, tip waggons, slop waggons, &c. These are constructed
with iron bodies fixed upon wooden frames and wheels; they are of
various forms and designs, the principal objects aimed at being
lightness of construction combined with strength, so balanced as to bear
with a minimum of weight upon the horse; economy in their cost has not
been lost sight of, and they are usually provided with some special
means for emptying, either by being tipped by a chain and windlass, or
by some mechanical arrangement of the tailboard; they are built very low
upon their axles, so as to be easily filled, are either completely
covered over with a moveable lid, or are fitted with hinged side boards,
so as to prevent any splashing over of their contents, and as they are
nearly all constructed with iron; they are easily cleansed and
disinfected whenever it is thought necessary to do so.
With reference to the important question of the ultimate disposal of
house refuse, street sweepings &c., no rules can be laid down, as so
much depends upon the position of every town and the character of the
district in which it is situated, as the following replies to some
questions which I addressed to several English towns will show.
In many towns it is stated that the whole of the refuse is used by brick
makers, in others it is simply “tipped to waste.” In one case the answer
is, “Sold by auction twice a year,” but to whom it is sold, and for what
purpose, does not transpire. In some towns it appears to be mixed with
lime and used as manure upon the fields, and in others it is mixed with
the sludge of the sewage farms, and is then ploughed or dug into the
soil of the farm. This seems a better plan than that of another town,
where it is “given or thrown away,” although the difficulty of disposing
of the old iron, tins, &c., is not touched upon in any of the foregoing
answers. The next reply states that “it is riddled, and the cinders and
vegetable refuse are burnt to generate steam, the fine dust is used with
the manure manufactory (tub system), the old iron is sold, and the pots,
&c., used for the foundations of roads.” In one case the whole of the
refuse is taken out to sea in hopper barges, and sunk in deep
water.[161] In a great number of towns it is sold by tender for the
year, but what eventually becomes of it does not transpire. But the most
favoured methods, where it cannot be sold as manure to farmers, seem to
be either that of carting it away to some spot outside the town, and
there using it for the purpose of filling up hollows and depressions, or
that of giving or selling it to brick-makers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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