Motor Propelled Street Cleaning Wagon.

One of the most recent instances in which the motor has been “put to work” is seen in the street cleaning wagon here shown, which is the product of the International Sanitary Street Cleaning Company, of 143 Liberty street, New York City.

This wagon is designed to complete in one operation the task of street cleaning, which it would seem to accomplish, for it sprinkles, sweeps and collects the dust at the same time. A row of sprinklers is arranged just forward of the rotary brush, which is located at the rear of the vehicle, and can be seen in the photograph resting on the road surface. This brush sweeps the dust onto a traveling conveyor, which deposits it in a compartment provided for the purpose within the body of the vehicle.

The motive power is supplied by a Trebert 2O-h. p., four cylinder vertical gasoline engine, set just forward of the front axle, and is delivered through a three speed gear box of the sliding gear type to a countershaft fitted with sprockets, and from these by chains to the rear wheels.

The driving wheels are forty inches in diameter, and are shod with steel ties four inches wide. Plain bearings are fitted throughout. Steering is effected by means of a “fifth wheel“-the front axle swinging on a king pin — which is operated by a large spur gear and pinion, controlled by a horizontal hand wheel of generous size beside the seat of the operator. The brush and dust collecting mechanism arc operated by chains, which run from a second set of sprockets on the rear hubs. The photograph shows very clearly the operating levers, brakes, the means of filling the water tank, and, at the side of the vehicle, the means of raising the brush from the street surface when not in use. The machine weighs about 5,000 pounds with tanks full, and is said to be capable of cleaning thirty miles of streets in ten hours.

– The Horseless Age; Volume XIV Number 18, New York, November 2, 1904