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ELIMINATING THE HORS

-NICIPAL SALVAGE WORK. IT MAY SEEM a remarkable thing to say, but it is a fa-ct that the Birmingham Corporation fleet of 32 electric vehicles, employed in connection with the sanitary services of the city, collects in one day more than enough house refuse to provide the heat and, therefore. the steam for generating electricity for working the electric vehicles the following day. In many respects it is a unique service scientifically organized, efficiently administered, and managed so economically as to save the ratepayers several thousands of pounds a year. The City of Birmingham has its own way of doing things, and the system which has been organized by Mr. James Jackson, superintendent of the Salvage Department, and Mr. H Cook, organizing assistant, was described to alCommercial Motor representative with enthusiasm and a manifest pride.

At the outset, electric vehicles were :purchased by the Salvage Department to prevent an undue rise in the working costs of the department by the. reduction of the working hours from 54 to 47 per week, as it was recognized that many of the horses could not do the necessarily increased work in the reduced hours. It was felt that, if,a satisfactory service were to be given to the ratepayers, the w-hole system of refuse collection must be overhauled and a continuous system, which will be destribed subsequently, introduced. These two sets of conditions ruled 50 per cent. of the horses out of the question.

Take the Harborne district for instance : here there were four horses removing refuse from 3,501 houses, which were scattered and a considerable distance from the tip. A continuous system was organized, and in April of last year two electric vehicles were installed in place of the four horses. The net result was : The electries proved able to take on an additional 511 houses, making a total of 4,012, the refuse was moved regularly everyweek, and each house in the district received equal treatment, as against the irregular collection with horse removal.

The collection of the house refuse by electric vehicles is only the outward and visible form of what is known as the " -continuous" system—a piece of organization so pliable and elastic in conception, so reliable and efficient in its operations, and so correct in indicating the amount of work performed each day, as to be worthy, at least, of the consideration of all municipal anthurities. The continuous system, as the new method is called, may b.(!e briefly described as follows :—The city is divided into dis

tricts, the boundaries of which are governed by the position and capacity of the places of disposal (salvage works, destructors, or refuse tips). The districts are again divided into "rounds," each round being, as nearly as possible, a full week's work for one transport unit during the. summer months. All the premises from which refuse is to be collected in any one round are enumerated in a working fist or book, each house being set down strictly in the order in which it is to be visited. The unit of transport is either :Ha) Anh'electric vehicle with four men, or (b) a four-wheeled wagon with two men, according to local conditions. The vehicle commences its work on the Monday morning at the first house on the working list, usually at the point farthest from the depot, and proceeds from house -to house and -street to street in the order prescribed, in the working list until it is full.

The advantages of the continuous system served by electric vehicles are that it overcomes, without any interference. with the general service of collection, any exceptional or seasonal conditions affecting the quantity of house refuse. For instance, in

winter time there is an excess of as much as 40 per cent. over summer refuse, ana this naturally entails: (1) additional labour on the pact of the dustmen, (2) vehicles filled with heavier load,A, or (3) fewer calls. By the Birmingham method no ;arrears accumulate owing to the vehicles working on a continuous round.

A few words might be said on the perfect control which is made possible. When each collecting unit returns to its depot at the end of the day, the driver hands in his working list to the weigh clerk, and reports the last address from which refuse was removed. The clerk computes the number of houses visited and this number is expressed in graphical form by a line, varying, in length with the number of houses called at. Thus, before vehicles leave the garage in the morning, it is possible for the supervisor to compile a complete survey of the work done the previous day, and make comparisons and in

• .quiries as to the cause of any falling off. If, at the • end of the week, any portion of the round is un attended to, a chart shows which portion it is. ' Nearly 30 per cent, of the houses of Birmingham (actually 29.42 per cent.), totalling 57,363, are served by the continuous system, the completion of which will probably occupy another couple of years.

The rolling stock of the Birmingham Corporation Salvage Department consists of 31 Edison 21 ton tipping wagons, 1 Orwell ai ton tipping lorry, and

180 horse—vi-agons. Each electric vehicle has displaced from two to two and a half horse wagons. It is the policy of the Salvage Committee, provided the results obtained from the use of electrics continue to be favourable, greatly to increase the number of vehicles and decrease the number of horse wagons.

At one time, not mannmonths ago, the Salvage Department was without electrics, but had a great number of horse wagons. When the foundations of the electric fleet were laid, therefore, the first problem was the provision of a number of drivers able to handle this type of vehicle. Whilst the simplicity of driving was clearly recognized, the fact was not overlooked that, as with all machinery, a. certain amount of care is necessary if the best results are to be obtained. Hence, a scheme was evolved for the training of suitable horse drivers, not only in the handling of electrics on the road, but also in the functioning of each part of the vehicle.

Classes are therefore held at the Montague Street depot on two evenings each week, over a course lasting five weeks. Tea is provided for those that attend the lectures, which are given by Mr. T. Dart, the foreman electrician of the salvage vehicle department, and tram fares are paid to the centre. At the end of the course an examination is held and, so far, very few failures have been recorded. Fifty drivers have already been trained, and on the part of many men there has been manifested' a keen desire to qualify for better positions.

We now come to the actual use and operation of the electrics, and, as a preliminary, we shall confine ourselves to the carefully ascertained facts and experiences of the departments, the vehicular services of which have evolved and are evolving into a bigger area of usefulness. Although at first sight it may appear that there has been a studied attempt at standardization in Edison two and a half .tonners, we can state quite definitely that, in the opinion of the principals of the department, the time is not opportune to standardize any one type. Emphasis should be laid on one important keynote, that is, the relation of the continuous system to the operation of electric vehicles.

The first fact is this: Each electric vehicle calls at 120 houses to make up one load, in the collection of which it might have to travel from one-half to one

mile. In a day refuse from 360 houses is cleared. Statistically we get the following result. The cost per house per visit is:— Horse wagons, continuos system, inner (1} mile) area, 8.224. per house per week.

Electric vehiele, continuous system, outer area, 2•94d, per house per week.

Saving in favour of electric, *284., or a saving of £125 per annum,

The saving is actually greater than this, because, if the horse had to travel to the areas now served by electric vehicles, they would not visit nearly as many houses as they do in the inner area. Mr. Jackson estimates that the saving effected by transferring two horses from the long distance work into the inner areas or short distance work effects a saving of at least £125 per annum, •so that each electric directly and indirectly results in a reduction of the working costs of no less a sum thanz£250 per annum.

In the Montague Street,a.rea oPthe city there is a combined system of working electric vehicles and horse. wa,gons, and in a, report, which was prepared last month by Mr. Jackson, of operations during the last six months of 1920 the following interesting comparisons are made :

Item Electric Horse Wagons. Vehicles. Number of rounds (each represented by one transport unit)... ...

Average interval between each visit (working 6-49

Average number of houses visited per week—

One electric and four men .. 9,116 By One horse wagon and two men ... ... —

By two horse wagons and four men to com

pare with electric vehicle labour ... 1,692 Electric vehicles visited more houses than horse wagons per week per man employed 25-06% Average weight of refuse removed per house per visit (ewts.) •03626 '04982 846

It is clear from this that each electric working in the outer portion of the Montague Street area, and travelling double the mileage of the horse wagons per day, visits as many houses per week as approximately 0 horse wagons in their restricted area in the vicinity of the depot.

The above statistics prove conclusively that in the area served by horse wagons comprising mainly a poor class of property, nearly 30 per cent. more refuse (by weight) is produced per house than in the better class area, served by electric vehicles. The opinion is. expressed that there are distinct spheres of operations for both the horse and the electric and that a reduction of costa can best be obtained by utilizing both methods of transport. For the electric to compete with the horse in the kind of district indicated on the three-load-per-day basis it would be necessary to have a 3A ton vehicle with a body capacity of nine cubic yards, and Mr. Jackson is not hopeful that it will ever be practicable for electric vehicles to collect more than three loads per normal day, because the extra loads would involve additional travelling time, and therefore reduce the loading time. We shall deal with the question of capacity in a, moment. The following is an approximate daily timetable of an electric engaged in house-to-house refuse collecting :—

Hours

Loading time, three loads, two hours each 6 Travelling time to and from depots, about al miles each Here is a table of service data, the running costs and standing charges, together with the loaders' wages, for the 26 weeks ending December 29th, affecting the 26 Edison vehicles. The figure for repairs and renewals is low because most of the vehicles were within the makers' twelve months' guarantee daring the period :—

During the period under review the Orwell vehicle was employed in a district where the refuse was of a heavy nature, the average weight collected being 2 tons 4 'mt. 3 qrs. as against 2 tons, 2 cwt. 3 qrs.. collected by the Edison vehicle, thus making use of the additional-strength of the Orwell chassis. This accounts for the cost per ton being lower, while the cost per day was higher than the Edison vehicles. Our representative raised the question as to why the load weights did not bear a closer proximation to the chassis capacity. The view of the Birmingham people ie that the present capacity of seven cubic yards should, if possible, be increased and that a

stronger chassis is necessary to allow the wagon being filled on all occasions, as it had been demonstrated that a considerable number of loads ex. ceeded the present guarantee of 50 cwt. With regard to the Orwell, it has a 3 ton chassis, but the cubic capacity is slightly less than the Edison.

" What then is the difficulty?" we queried. The answer is that the only objection in the makers' minds is that a greater cubic capacity means, in addition to a departure from standard types, a heightening of the loading line, and that is a factor which has to be avoided. In slum districts there is a big quantity of refuse, but Birmingham has in mind the purchase of a vehicle of eight cubic yards capacity to operate in these quarters. Provision has been made in the estimates for such a vehicle with a 31 ton chassis.

The cost of electrical energy for charging the vehicles has been as follows:—Edison, is. 0.28d. per

ton ; Orwell, 11.05d. per ton. These costs are based on a price of qd. per unit. The unit cost has since been reduced to lid., and it is estimated will mean a saving of about £1,000 per year.

The following table shows the percentage of possible working days lost. by both makes of vehicles during the whole of last year :— The batteries of both makes of vehicles have given practically no trouble. The time lost by the Edison vehicles has been mainly due to temporary difficulties in the supply of certain parts, hut Edisons have tali.en such . steps as . will, it is. hoped, avoid further trouble.

Last year—and even now—most of the vehicles were under the makers' twelve months' guarantee, therefore maintenance did not make any heavy demands upon the department's resources. The organization of a maintenance department is at this moment receiving attention, but as yet one is not permitted to anticipate the details of the system which will he presented to the responsible committee. There is: a staff of mechanics, in charge of an electrical vehicle specialist, to give attention to the vehicles, and of the fleet of 32, about four are kept in reserve, to undergo overhauling and examination, whilst the others are on the road. Replacements have been the cause of many of the lost days of the Edison vehicles, and the fitting of new controllers has been a very successful improvement, as results and the fewness of breakdowns have shown. As Mr. IL Cook, the .organizing assistant of the department pointed out, "We have not yet got to the heart of the maintenance question and our experience is immature, but we shall endeavour, amongst other things, to maintain as far as possible a sufficient stock of spares to be able to replace a broken part without any undue loss of time. Then we shall endeavour to develop along the lines of giving constant attention to the vehicles, with a view to anticipating breakdowns. caused through worn or defective parts, thus ensuring the best return from the vehicles.

"Our ideal . is standardization, and when we have amassed a sufficiently wide experience it will be time enough then. for us to state in which direction we intend to standardize. At the present time s. d. is the deciding factor. We first of all want to get hold of the best type of vehicle to suit our particular needs with due regard to questions of cost and general efficiency."

Another interesting point which is being investigated is the use of electric trucks to facilitate the collection of dustbins. and to convey them to the larger vehicle. Every district of the city of Birmingham where the continuous system has been adopted has been a new experience owing to the peculiar local conditions, and when the whole of the city has been so covered, the department will have accumulated a mass of data which will be invaluable to every municipal authority.

"Does each vehicle collect enough refuse to provide the heat for generating electricity for its needs tke following day?" we asked.

"That is the first time such a question has been put to-me," said Mr. Cook, who, after a little hesitation, declared, and was supported by Mr. Jackson in the view, that the heat potentialities of refuse were more than -sufficient to provide the steam power necessary to generate the electricity consumed by the vehicles in any one day.

" So that there is actually a surplus of current made from the waste material collected by the electric vehicles?"

" Yes."

This point should interest municipal authorities..

" The great results achieved in installing one of the best collection systems in the country, which in many districts would not have been-practicable with horse haulage, combined with the considerable reduc, tion in working costs, will, I hope and trust," says Mr. J. Jackson, superintendent of the department. " permit of a great increase in the Use of electrics when the financial position of the Corporation is easier."