There appears at the present time a bent in the public mind for an
improved system of scavagery. Until the ravages of the cholera in
1832, and again in 1848, roused the attention of Government and of
the country, men seemed satisfied to dwell in dirty streets, and to
congratulate themselves that the public ways were dirtier in the days
of their fathers; a feeling or a spirit which has no doubt existed in
all cities, from the days of those original scavagers, the vultures
and hyenas of Africa and the East, the adjutants of Calcutta, and the
hawks--the common glades or kites of this country--and which, we are
told, in the days of Henry VIII. used to fly down among the passengers
to remove the offal of the butchers and poulterers’ stalls in the
metropolitan markets, and in consideration of which services it was
forbidden to kill them--down to the mechanical sweeping of the streets
of London, and even to Mr. Cochrane’s excellent street-orderlies.
Besides the plan suggested by Mr. Cochrane, whose orderlies cleanse
the streets without wetting, and consequently without dirtying, the
surface by the use of the watering-cart, there is the opposite method
proposed by Mr. Lee, of Sheffield, and other gentlemen, who recommend
street-cleansing by the hose and jet, that is to say, by flushing
the streets with water at a high pressure, as the sewers are now
flushed; and so, by _washing_ rather than _sweeping_ the dirt of the
streets into the sewers, through the momentum of the stream of water,
dispensing altogether with the scavager’s broom, shovel, and cart.
In order to complete this account of the scavaging of the streets
of London, I must, in conclusion, say a few words on this method,
advocated as it is by the Board of Health, and sanctioned by scientific
men. By the application of a hose, with a jet or water pipe attached
to a fire-plug, the water being at high pressure, a stream of fluid is
projected along the street’s surface with force enough to _wash_ away
all before it into the sewers, while by the same apparatus it can be
thrown over the fronts of the houses. This mode of street-cleansing
prevails in some American cities, especially in Philadelphia, where
the principal thoroughfares are said to be kept admirably clean by it;
while the fronts of the houses are as bright as those in the towns
of Holland, where they are washed, not by mechanical appliances, but
by water thrown over them out of scoops by hand labour--one of the
instances of the minute and indefatigable industry of the Dutch.
It is stated in one of the Reports of the Board of Health, that
“unless cleansing be general and simultaneous, much of the dirt of one
district is carried by traffic into another. By the subdivision of the
metropolis into small districts, the duty of cleansing the _public_
carriage-way is thrown upon a number of obscure and irresponsible
authorities; while the duty of cleansing the _public_ footways, which
are no less important, _are_ charged upon multitudes of private
individuals.” [The grammar is the Board of Health’s grammar.] “It is
a false pecuniary economy, in the case of the poorest inhabitants of
court or alley, who obtain their livelihood by any regular occupation,
to charge upon each family the duty of cleansing the footway before
their doors. The performance of this service daily, at a rate of 1_d._
_per week_ per house or per family, would be an economy in soap and
clothes to persons the average value of whose time is never less than
2_d._ per hour.” [This is at the rate of 2_s._ a day; did this most
innocent Board _never_ hear of work yielding 1_s._ 6_d._ a week? But
the sanitary authorities seem to be as fond as teetotallers of “going
to extremes.”]
In another part of the same Report the process and results are
described. It is also stated that for the success of this method of
street purification the pavement must be good; for “a powerful jet,
applied by the hose, would scoop out hollows in unpaved places, and
also loosen and remove the stones in those that are badly paved.”
As every public place ought to be well-paved, this necessity of new
and good pavement is no reasonable objection to the plan, though it
certainly admits of a question as to the durability of the roads--the
macadamized especially--under this continual soaking. Sir Henry
Parnell, the great road authority, speaks of wet as the main destroyer
of the highways.
It is stated in the Report, after the mention of experiments having
been made by Mr. Lovick, Mr. Hale, and Mr. Lee (Mr. Lee being one of
the engineering inspectors of the Board), that
“Mr. Lovick, at the instance of the Metropolitan Commissioners of
Sewers, conducted his experiments with such jets as could be obtained
from the water companies’ mains in eligible places; but the pressure
was low and insufficient. Nevertheless, it appeared that, taking the
extra quantity of water required at the actual expense of pumping,
the paved surfaces might be washed clean at one-half the price of the
scavagers’ manual labour in sweeping. Mr. Lee’s trials were made at
Sheffield, with the aid of a more powerful and suitable pressure, and
he found that with such pressure as he obtained the cleansing might be
effected in one-third the time, and at one-third the usual expense,
of the scavagers’ labour of sweeping the surface with the broom.”
[This expense varies, and the Board nowhere states at what rate it is
computed; the scavagers’ wages varying 100 per cent.]
“The effect of this mode of cleansing in close courts and streets,” it
is further stated, “was found to be peculiarly grateful in hot weather.
The water was first thrown up and diffused in a thin sheet, it was
then applied rapidly to cleansing the surface and the side walls, as
well as the pavements.” Mr. Lovick states that the immediate effect of
this operation was to lower the temperature, and to produce a sense of
freshness, similar to that experienced after a heavy thunder-shower
in hot weather. But there is nothing said as to the probable effect
of this state of things in winter--a hard frost for instance. The
same expedient was resorted to for cooling the yards and outer courts
of hospitals, and the shower thrown on the windows of the wards
afforded great relief. Mr. Lovick, in his Report on the trial works for
cleansing courts, states:--
“The importance of water as an agent in the improvement and
preservation of health being in proportion to the unhealthiness or
depressed condition of districts, its application to close courts and
densely-populated localities, in which a low sanitary condition must
obtain, is of primary importance. Having shown the practicability
of applying this system (cleansing by jets of water) to the general
cleansing of the streets, my further labours have been, and are now,
directed to this end.
“For the purpose of ascertaining the effect produced by operations
of this nature upon the atmosphere, two courts were selected:
Church-passage, New Compton-street, open at both ends, with
a carriage-way in the centre, and footway on each side; and
Lloyd’s-court, Crown-street, St. Giles’s, a close court, with, at one
entrance, a covered passage about 40 feet in length: both courts were
in a very filthy condition; in Church-passage there were dead decaying
cats and fish, with offal, straw, and refuse scattered over the
surface; at one end an entrance to a private yard was used as a urinal;
in every part there were most offensive smells.
“Lloyd’s-court was in a somewhat similar condition, the covered
entrance being used as a general urinal, presenting a disgusting
appearance; the whole atmosphere of the court was loaded with
highly-offensive effluvia; in the covered entrance this was more
particularly discernible.
“The property of water, as an absorbent, was rendered strikingly
apparent in the immediate and marked effects of its application, a
purity and freshness remarkably contrasted to the former close and
foul condition prevailing throughout. A test of this, striking and
unexpected, was the change at different periods in the relative
condition of atmosphere of the courts and of the contiguous streets. In
their ordinary condition, as might have been expected, the atmosphere
was purer in the streets than in the courts; it was to be inferred that
the cleansing would have more nearly assimilated these conditions. This
was not only the case, but it was found to have effected a complete
change; the atmosphere of the courts at the close of the operations
being far fresher and purer than the atmosphere of the streets. The
effect produced was in every respect satisfactory and complete; and was
the theme of conversation with the lookers-on, and with the men who
conducted the operations.
“The expense of these operations, including water, would be, for--
“Church-passage (time, five minutes), 1-1/2_d._
“Lloyd’s-court (time, ten minutes), 3-1/4_d._
“Mr. Hale, another officer, gave a similar statement.”