Note 157 — Chapter XIX · SCAVENGING.

A rural authority cannot apparently make any byelaw with regard to the prevention of such nuisances.

[158] A byelaw under this section “must be limited to imposing upon the occupier the duty of cleansing or removal at such intervals as the sanitary authority may think fit. The mode of cleansing or removal and the precautions to be observed in connection with the process are not matters within the range of such byelaws.” Vide ‘Memorandum to the Model Byelaws issued by the Local Government Board for the use of Sanitary Authorities, No. 1, Cleansing of Footways and Pavements, &c.,’ 1877.

[159] In Glenn’s ‘Law of Public Health and Local Government,’ 8th edition, in a footnote to section 44, p. 39, several instances are given of what is not refuse, such as ashes from furnaces, &c., and it is stated that “the intention of the Act was that only the rubbish arising from the domestic use of houses should be removed.”

[160] The Bromley Local Board issue a card on which is printed, amongst other information with reference to the contract for the removal of house refuse, the following suggestions:—“It is hoped that householders will as far as possible facilitate the systematic removal of refuse by providing suitable dust-bins, and directing their servants that ordinary house refuse only shall be deposited in such receptacles. The following are some of the items of refuse which the contractors are bound to remove, viz.:—cinder ashes, potatoe peelings, cabbage leaves, and kitchen refuse generally. But the contractors are not required to remove the refuse of any trade, manufacture, or business, or of any building materials or any garden cuttings or sweepings.”

[161] In New York about 800,000 tons of refuse are disposed of annually in this manner.

[162] For a description of the manner in which this is effected at Manchester, see my book on scavenging, to which I have before referred.

[163] The ashes are mixed with chaff, chopped straw, refuse hay, grass cuttings, dry street sweepings, wool and hair, shoddy, &c., and a small percentage of sulphate of iron or lime.

[164] Professor Tyndall, in his beautiful experiments, has proved that dusty air is alive with the germs of the bacteria of putrefaction, whilst the pure fresh air which he gathered on a mountain peak in the Alps is innocent of such germs, and is absolutely powerless to produce any organisms.

[165] Dry dust will absorb about ten times its bulk of water, thus swelling considerably and producing the greasy mud so often seen after rain.

[166] In Boston, U.S.A., the macadamised roads are not swept at all, as it is considered that by sweeping off the sand and detritus their durability is much lessened, but their gutters are cleansed as required, and rubbish picked up. (Vide ‘Minutes of Proceedings Institution of Civil Engineers,’ vol. lxiii. p. 368.)

[167] In Regent Street, London, in November 1881, I saw four loads of mud removed from about 1000 square yards of surface, it being then almost new wood pavement.

[168] See note under “Other Obstructions and Nuisances,” p. 155, 8th edition, Glen’s ‘Law of Public Health and Local Government.’

[169] Vide ‘Report to the Streets Committee of the Honourable the Commissioners of Sewers of the City of London on Melting Snow by Clarke’s Apparatus,’ by William Haywood, Engineer and Surveyor to the Commission, 1881, p. 9.

[170] With regard to the removal of snow from the footpaths, it is highly desirable that this should be effected by the occupiers of the premises adjacent to the street, as otherwise it adds immensely to the work of the local authority. The following interesting remarks by the superintendent of the scavenging department of Liverpool will be no doubt read with great interest:

“The only way to compass the removal of snow from the footwalks of the principal thoroughfares within a comparatively short time, is by sprinkling them with salt, such as is commonly used for agricultural purposes. It is certain that, unaided by the salt, a sufficient number of men cannot be procured for the emergency of clearing snow from the footways of the most important thoroughfares. It has been stated by medical authorities that the application of salt to snow is detrimental to the health of people who have to walk through the ‘slush’ produced by the mixture, and that the excessive cooling of the air surrounding the places where the application has been made is injurious to delicate persons. It therefore seems that the application of salt to snow should not be undertaken during the day time, but should be commenced not before 11 p.m., nor continued after 6 a.m., and that only such an area of footwalks should be so treated on any one night as the available staff of men can clear by an early hour the following morning.

“To sweep snow from the footwalks whilst the fall of snow continues, and especially during business hours, appears to be wasteful and futile, and to apply salt during the same periods may be held to be injurious to health.

“That the snow of an ordinary fall can be removed from the footwalks by an application of salt an hour or so before they are scraped is an ascertained fact, except at least when a moderately severe frost has preceded, accompanied, or followed the snow-fall, or when the snow has drifted into extensive accumulations. Were it not for the danger to health by excessive cooling of the air, and for the expense attending the operation, all the impervious pavements could be cleared of snow (unless the fall was a heavy one) in a comparatively short time by a liberal application of salt and the employment of the horse sweeping machines as soon as the snow had become sufficiently softened to admit of their use.”

[171] In the metropolis of London alone, the watering of the streets and roads employs, in addition to a staff of inspectors and foremen, about 1500 men, and an equal number of horses and carts; and in order to lay the dust effectually, about 30,000 tons of water must be spread upon the streets every dry day, the cost of this gigantic work being nearly 200,000l. per annum upon an average of 120 days when watering becomes necessary.

[172] In Rouen, where chloride of calcium is obtained from the manufactories of pyroligneous acid in the neighbourhood, it is mixed with the water for use on the roads, and it is stated that on a mile of road, 16 feet in width, 5630 gallons of water were necessary daily, but that the same result was attained with 1480 gallons of chloride solution, marking 30° Baumé, and costing about ¹⁄₂d. per gallon, the humectation remaining good for five or six days with the solution of chloride. With water only in 1093 yards, in four rounds daily, 3520 gallons were used, the cost being 48s.; with chloride of calcium the cost was 32s. per day.

[173] Amongst the questions which I addressed to the surveyors of the principal towns of England in 1879 was the following:—“Is the house refuse collected by the sanitary authority or by a contractor?” and out of the ninety towns from which I received replies, only thirty were found to employ contractors for this purpose, and of these the authorities of two of them proposed to dispense with the services of the contractor, and to administrate the work with their own staff, as they found the existing state of things was thoroughly unsatisfactory.