CLEANING THE STREETS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19235, 26 January 1926, Page 11

CLEANING THE STREETS.

motor-sweeper for CITY.

IN OPERATION YESTERDAY. WORK ON PAVED ROADS. A mechanically-operated pick-up street sweeper was put into operation yesterday by the Auckland City Council, replacing hors e-drawn sweepers which for many years have been used to keep Auckland's traffic streets clean. The new machine will make for added efficiency in the. cleaning of the streets, and as it picks up its own sweepings and is so constructed that it can tip its load without any additional labour its working should prove economical. The old type horse-sweepers merely swept the street, refuse to one side of 'the road, where it was lifted by hand shovels into a following dray.

The machine selected by the council is a 25 horse-power Karrier road sweeper, sprinkler and collector, and is intended for use on the paved streets of the city. It consists of a large hopper mounted on a motor chassis, and beneath the body is a /ft. revolving brush set at an angle so that the road is swept from the gutter outwards. From a tank at the rear of the \ ehicle a small semi-rotary pump supplies water to a spray fitted immediately below the radiator in front. This supply is controlled by the driver so that the spray can be regulated to suit the requirements of the road surface, preventing dust from rising as the machine works along. The steering-gear is placed on the nearside enabling the driver to see the gutter when he is sweeping. The Lilting Mechanism. A most interesting feature of the new machine is the lifting mechanism on the off-side, which catches the sweepings collected by the road-brush and deposits them in the hopper body. This consists of three rotating elevator brushes set one above the other and enclosed in a casing. The intermediate rotor revolves in the opposite direction to the other and the refuse is carried from each rotor in turn to the hopper above, the centrifugal motion imparted causing the refuse to shoot with considerable force to the extreme end of the body, thus preventing the discharge opening from becoming blocked. The body carries two yards of material. When the body is fully loaded the sweeping brush is raised clear of the roadway and the machine is driven off to the dump like an ordinary motor waggon. The body can be run sideways on a series of rollers and with the release of a small lever can be run' out on its runners until a point over the centre of gravity is reached, when it automatically tips. The machine is geared to three speeds. The first or working speed is three miles an hour, the second six miles, and the third ten miles. Use in Queen Street at Wight. It is anticipated the new machine will be adequate to do the sweeping of all the paved roads in the city. It will be used in Queen Street late at night, when traffic has almost ceased, as is now done with the horse-sweepers. There would be no objection to its use in Qusen Street during the day time, as it is speedy, clean and silent in its operation, but the large number of motor-cajs usually parked along the kerb renders this impracticable. Other traffic streets will be cleaned between midnight and 6 a.m., and at other times streets not so congested with vehicles will be given attention. The new machine is of British construction throughout, and is based on British'patents. Its unladen weight is approximately three tons.