30 men (honourable trade), 16_s._ weekly £1248 yearly.
24 men (scurf-trade) doing same work, 16_s._ weekly 998 „
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Saving to capitalist and loss to labourer £250 „
It now but remains to sum up the capital, income, and expenditure of
the machine-scavaging trade.
The cost of a street-sweeping machine is 50_l._ to 60_l._, with an
additional 5_l._ 5_s._ for the set of brooms. The wear and tear of
these machines are very considerable. A man who had the care of one
told me that when there was a heavy stress on it he had known the iron
cogs of the inner wheels “go rattle, rattle, snap, snap,” until it
became difficult to proceed with the work. The brooms, too, in hard
work and “cloggy” weather, are apt to snap short, and in the regular
course of wear have to be renewed every four or five weeks. The sets
of brooms are of bass, worked strongly with copper wire. The whole
apparatus can be unscrewed and taken to pieces, to be cleaned or
repaired. The repairs, independently of the renewal of the brooms, have
been calculated at 7_l._ yearly each machine. The capital invested,
then, in twelve street-sweeping machines, in the horses, and what may
be considered the appurtenances of the trade, together with the yearly
expenditure, may be thus calculated:--