Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/856

 824 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

day in 1901. Attention is first turned to the sidewalks and street crossings, then to the principal streets and the streets through which street railways run. The snow is cleared from the middle of the street and collected along the sides, whence it is loaded into wagons to be carted away. The snow thus collected is usually dumped into the river. Several cities which have swiftly flowing trunk sewers have special shafts for dumping the snow into the sewers. Transportation is thus minimized, and the work of clearing away the snow is greatly facilitated. Halle and Wiesbaden exhibited photographs of such snow shafts.

The collection of garbage is still, in many cities, given over to private contractors, who are, however, bound to observe the police regulations. In Frankfurt this activity is municipalized. Ashes and garbage are collected in covered wagons three times a week, between 10 P. M. and 7 A. M. The collection of refuse from public and semi-public buildings, such as hospitals, hotels, restaurants, etc., is not included in the municipal service. The department does, however, undertake this work, as well as removal of rubbish and refuse of all sorts, at the rate of 1.85 marks per cubic meter. Full-sized models of various types of garbage wagons were exhibited. The effort to present a dust-proof wagon has produced many curiosities. Great, cum- brous, complicated, expensive machines, some of them are. Most of them were exhibited by industrial firms ; but exhibits were also made by Elberfeld, Frankfurt a. M., Kiel, and Coin. The Frankfurt wagon 1 is especially worthy of mention because of the many good points which it presents. Strength, simplicity, and ease of manipulation are its chief advantages. It is adapted to have patent garbage cans used in connection with it, but can also be used for the collection of street-sweepings. The wagon box can be kipped for dumping, can be raised from the wagon bed for loading into boats, or into the receiving-room of a crematory, or can be loaded onto a special street-railway truck in order to be transported to a distant dump or crematory.

1 The accompanying illustrations are from a descriptive pamphlet published by the Frankfurt department of public works.