menu_book Chapter 46

section forty six of london labour and the london poor volume two by henry mayhew this librivox recording is in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox dot org recording by gillian henry of the street sweeping machine and the street sweepers employed with it until the introduction of the machines now seen in london i believe that no mechanical contrivances for sweeping the streets had been attempted all such work being executed by manual labour, and employing throughout the United Kingdom a great number of the poor. The street-sweeping machine therefore assumes an importance

as another instance of the displacement, or attempted displacement, of the labour of man by the mechanism of an engine. The street-sweeping machines were introduced into London about five years ago, after having been previously used under the management of a company in Manchester, the inventor and maker being Mr Whitworth of that place.

The novelty and ingenuity of the apparatus soon attracted public attention, and for the first week or two, the vehicular street sweeper was accompanied in its progress by a crowd of admiring and inquisitive pedestrians, so easily attracted together in the metropolis. In the first instance, the machines were driven through the streets

merely to display their mode and power of work, and the drivers and attendants not unfrequently came into contact with the regular scavengers when a brisk interchange of street wit took place, the populace often enough encouraging both sides. At present, the street-sweeping machine proceeds on its line of operation as little noticed,

except by visitors, and foreigners especially, as any other vehicle. The body of the sweeping machine, although the sizes may not all be uniform, is about five feet in length and two feet eight inches or three feet in width. The height is about five feet six inches or six feet, and the form that of a covered cart with a rounded top.

The sides of the exterior are of cast iron, the top being of wood. At the hinder part of the cart is fixed the sweeping machine itself, covered by sloping boards which descend from the top of the cart, projecting slightly behind the vehicle to the ground. Under the sloping boards is an endless chain of brushes as wide as the cart,

16 in number, placed at equal distances, and so arranged that when made to revolve, each brush in turn passes over the ground, sweeping the mud along with it to the bottom sloping board, and so carrying it up to the interior of the cart.

The chain of brushes is set in motion over the surface of the pavement by the agency of three cogwheels of cast iron. These are worked by the rotation of the wheels of the cart, the cogs acting upon the spindles to which the brooms are attached. The spindles, brushes and the sloped boards can be raised or lowered by the winding of an instrument called the broom winder, or the hole can be locked. The brooms are raised when any acclivity is to be swept and lowered at a declivity.

The vehicle must be watertight in order to contain the slop. When full, the machine holds about half a cartload, or half a tonne of dirt. This is emptied by letting down the back in the manner of a trapdoor. If the contents be solid, they have to be forked out. If more sloppy, they are shot out, as from a cart,

the interior generally being roughly scraped to complete the emptying. The districts which have as yet been cleansed by the machines are what may be considered a government domain, being the public thoroughfares under the control of the commissioners of the woods and forests, running from Westminster Abbey to the Regent Circus in Piccadilly,

and including spring gardens, carlton gardens, and a portion of the West Strand, where they were first employed in London. They have been used also in parts of the city, and are at present employed by the parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. The company by whom the mechanical street-sweeping business is carried on

employ 12 machines, 4 water carts, 19 horses and 24 men. They have also the use, but not the sole use, of two wharfs and barges at Whitefriars and Millbank. The machines altogether collect about 30 cartloads of street dirt a day, which is equivalent to four or five barge loads in a week,

if all were boated. Two barges per week are usually sent to Rochester, the others up the river to Fulham and so on. The average price is £5.10 to £6 per barge load, but when the freight has been chiefly dung, as much as £8 has been paid for it by a farmer.

The street-sweeping machine seems to have commanded the approbation of the General Board of Health, although the board's expression of approval is not without qualification. Even that efficient and economical implement, says one of the reports, the street-sweeping machine, leaves much filth between the interstices of the stones and some on the surface. One might have imagined, however, that an efficient and economical implement would

not have left this much filth in its course, but the board, I presume, spoke comparatively. The reason of the circumscribed adoption of the machine, I say it with some reluctance, but from concurrent testimony, appears to be that it does not sweep sufficiently clean. It sweeps the surface, but only the surface, not cleansing what the scavengers call the nicks and holes, and the board of health, the interstices, in the pavement.

One man is obliged to go along with each machine, to sweep the ridge of dirt invariably left at the edge of the track of the vehicle into the line of the next machine, so that it may be licked up. In fine weather this work is often light enough. It is also the occupation of the accompanying scavenger to sweep the dirt from the sloping edges of the public ways into the direct course of the machine, for the brushes are of no service along such slopes. He must also sweep out the contents of any hole or hollow there may be in the streets, as is frequently the case, when the pavement has been disturbed in the relaying or repairing of the gas or water pipes.

But for this arrangement, I was told, the brushes would pass clean over such places, or only disturb without clearing away the dirt. Indeed, irregularities of any kind in the pavement are great obstructions to the efficiency of the street-sweeping machine. There are some places, moreover, wholly unsweepable by the machine. In many parts of St. Martin's Parish, for instance, there are localities where the machine cannot be introduced.

such are St. Martin's Court, the flagged ways about the National Gallery, and the approach alongside the church to the Lother Arcade, the pavement surrounding the fountains which adorn the noblest site in Europe, and a variety of alleys, passages, yards, and minor streets, which must be cleansed by manual labour. In fair weather, again, water carts are indispensable before machine sweeping, for if the ground be merely dry and dusty, the set of brooms will not bite.

We now come to estimate the relative values of the mechanical and manual labour applied to the scavenging of the streets. The average progress of the street-sweeping machine in the execution of the scavenger's work is about 2 miles an hour. It must not be supposed, however, that two streets each a mile in length

could be swept in one hour, for to do this, the vehicle would have to travel up and down those streets as many times as the streets are wider than the machine. The machines, sometimes two, sometimes three or four, follow alongside each other's tracks in sweeping a street, so as to leave no part unswept. Thus, supposing a street half a mile long and nine yards wide,

and that each machine swept a breadth of a yard, then three such machines, driven once up and once again down, and once more up such a street, would cleanse it in three quarters of an hour. To do this by manual labour in the same or nearly the same time would require the exertions of five men. Each machine has been computed to have mechanical power equal to the industry of five street sweepers,

and such from the above computation would appear to be the fact. I do not include the drivers in this enumeration, as, of course, the horse in the scavenger's cart and in the machine require alike the care of a man, and there is to each vehicle, whether mechanical or not, one hand, besides the carman, to sweep after the ordinary work. Hence every two men with the machine do the work of seven men by

hand. Having then ascertained the relative values of the two forces employed in cleansing the streets, let me now proceed to set forth what is the economy of labour, resulting from the use of the sweeping machine. In the following table are given the number of men at present engaged by the machine company in the cleansing of those districts where the machine is in operation, as well as the annual amount of wages paid to the machine labourers. These facts are then collocated with the number

of manual labourers that would be required to do the same work under the ordinary contract system, assuming every two labourers with the machine to do the work of seven labourers by hand, as well as the amount of wages that would be paid to such manual labourers. And finally, the number of men and amount of wages under the one system of street cleansing is subtracted from the other in order to arrive at the number of street sweepers

at present displaced by machine labour, and the annual loss in wages to the men so displaced. or to speak economically, the last column represents the amount by which the wage fund of the street sweepers is diminished by the employment of the machine. Table showing the difference between the number of men at present engaged in street sweeping by machines and the number that would be required to sweep the same districts by hand,

together with the annual amount of wages accruing to each. Reader's note. This table gives the districts the number of men employed to attend machines and annual wages received by machine men, calculated at 16 shillings a week, the number of men that would be required to sweep the streets by manual labour and the annual wages that would be received by manual labourers at 15 shillings a week, and then the number of men displaced by machine work and annual loss in wages to manual labourers by machine work.

End reader's note. See table, page 214. Machine labour, number of men, 12. Annual wages received, £499, 4 shillings. Manual labour, number of men, 42.

Annual wages, £1,638. Difference, number of men displaced, 30. Annual loss in wages, £1,138, 16 shillings. Other places connected with woods and forests Machine labour, number of men, 4

Annual wages received, £166.08 Manual labour, number of men, 14 Annual wages, £546 Difference, number of men displaced, 10 Annual loss in wages, £379.12

Total, machine labour, number of men, 24, annual wages received, £998.00. Manual labour, number of men, 84, annual wages, £3,276.00. Total difference, number of men displaced, 60, annual loss in wages, £2,277.00. 12 shillings. Hence we perceive that no less than 60 street sweepers are deprived of work by the street-sweeping machine, and that the gross wage fund of the men is diminished by the employment

of mechanical labour no less than £2,277 per annum. But let us suppose the street-sweeping machine to come into general use, and all the men who are at present employed by the contractors, both large and small, to sweep the street by hand, to be superseded by it, what would be the result? How much money would the manual labourers be deprived of per annum, and how many self-supporting labourers would be pauperised thereby? The following table will show us. In the first

compartment given below, we have the number of manual labourers employed throughout London by the large and small contractors, and the amount of wages annually received by them. Note, I have estimated the whole at 15 shillings a week the year through, gangers, honourable men, regular hands, and all, so as to allow for the diminished receipts of the casual hands. End note. In the second compartment is given the number of men that would be required to sweep the

same districts by the machine, and the amount of wages that would be received by them at the present rate, and the third and last compartment shows the gross number of hands that would be displaced, and the annual loss that would accrue to the operatives by the substitution of mechanical for manual labour in the sweeping of the streets. Table showing the difference between the number of contractors' men at present employed to sweep the streets by hand, and the number that would

be required to sweep the same districts by machine work, together with the amount of wages accruing to each. The districts at present swept by large contractors. See table page 214. Manual labour, number of men at present employed by contractors to sweep the streets, 262. Annual wages received by contractors men for sweeping the streets at 15 shillings a week, £10,218. Machine labour, Number of machine men that would be required to attend the street-sweeping machines, 75.

Annual wages that would be received by machine men at 16 shillings a week, £3,120. Difference Number of men that would be displaced by machine work, 187. Annual loss that would accrue to manual labourers by machine work, £7,098. Districts swept by small contractors

Manual labour, number of men at present employed, 13 Annual wages received, £507 Machine labour, number of machine men that would be required, 4 Annual wages that would be received, £166.08 Difference, number of men that would be displaced, 9

Annual loss that would accrue £340.12 For manual labour, total number of men 275 Total annual wages received £10,725 For machine labour, total number of machine men that would be required 79 Total annual wages that would be received £3,286.08

shillings. Total number of men that would be displaced, 196. Total annual loss that would accrue, £7,438, 12 shillings. Here we find that nearly 200 men would be pauperised, losing upwards of £7,000 per annum, if the street-sweeping machine came into general use throughout London. But before the introduction of machines, the thoroughfares of St Martin's Parish were swept only once a week in dry weather, and three times a week in sloppy weather, and since the introduction

of the machines, they have been swept daily, allowing therefore the extra cleansing to have arisen from the extra cheapness of the machine work, though it seems to have been the result of improved sanitary regulations, for in parts where the machine has not been used, the same alteration has taken place. Making such allowance, however, it may perhaps be fair to say that the same increase of cleansing would take place throughout London. That is to say that the streets would be

swept by the machines, where they generally used, twice as often as they are at present by hand. At this rate, 158 machine men, instead of 79 as above calculated, would be required for the work. So that, reckoning with the increased employment, which might arise from the increased cheapness of the work, we see that, where the street-sweeping machines used throughout the metropolis, nearly 120 of the 275 manual labourers now employed at scavenging by the large and small contractors

would be thrown out of work and deprived of no less a sum than £4,680 per annum. This amount, of course, the parachutes would pocket, minus the sum that it would cost them to keep the displaced scavengers as paupers, so that in this instance, at least, we perceive that, however great a benefit cheapness may be to the wealthy classes, to the poorer classes it is far from being of the same advantageous character. For just as much as the ratepayers are the gainers

in the matter of street cleansing, must the labourers be the losers. The economy of labour in a trade where there are too many labourers already, and where the quantity of work does not admit of indefinite increase, meaning simply the increase of pauperism. Note, the usual argument in favour of machinery, namely that, by reducing prices, it extends the market, and so causing a greater demand for the commodities, induces a greater quantity

of employment, would also be an argument in favour of overpopulation, since this, by cheapening, labour must have the same effect as machinery on prices, and consequently, according to the above logic, induce a greater quantity of employment. But granting that machinery really does benefit the labourer, in cases where the market, and therefore the quantity of work, is largely extensible, surely it cannot be but an injury in those callings where the quantity of

work is fixed. Such is the fact with the sawing of wood, the reaping of corn, the threshing of corn, the sweeping of the streets, and so on, and hence the evil of mechanical labour applied to such trades. End note. The labour question, as connected with the sweeping machine work, requires but a brief detail, as it presents no new features. The majority of the machine men may be described as having been general unskilled labourers before they embarked in their present

pursuits. Labourers for builders, brickmakers, rubbish carters, the docks, and so on. Among them there is but one who was brought up as a mechanic. The others have all been labourers, brickmakers, and what I heard called barrow workers on railways, the latter being the most numerous. Employment is obtained by application at the wharfs. There is nothing of the character of a trade society among the machine men, nothing in the way of benefit or sick clubs, unless the men

choose to enrol themselves in a general benefit society, of which I did not hear one instance. The payment is by the weak, and without drawback in the guise or disguise of fines or similar inflictions for the use of tools and so on. The payment, moreover, is always in money. The only perquisite is in the case of anything being found in the streets, but the rule as to perquisites seems to be altogether an understanding among the men.

The disposal of what may be picked up in the streets appears, moreover, to be very much in the discretion of the picker-up. If anything be found in the contents of the vehicle when emptied, it is the perquisite of the driver, who is also the unloader. He, however, is expected to treat the men on the same beat,

out of any such treasure trove, when the said treasure is considerable enough to justify such bounty. Odd sixpences, shillings, or copper coin, I was informed, were found almost every week, but I could ascertain no general average. One man some time ago found a purse inside the vehicle, containing twenty shillings, and spent it out and out all on his self, in a carouse of three days. He lost his situation in consequence.

The number of men employed by the company in this trade is twenty-four, and these perform all the work required in the driving and attendance upon the machines in the street, in loading the barges, grooming the horses, and so on. There is indeed a twenty-fifth man, but he is a blacksmith, and his wages of thirty-five shillings weekly are included in the estimate as to wear and tear given below,

for he shoes the horses and repairs the machines. the rate of wages paid by the machine company is sixteen shillings a week so that the full amount of wages is paid to the men but though the company cannot be ranked among the grinders of the scavenging trade they must be placed among the drivers I am assured by those who are familiar with such labour that the 24 men employed by the machine masters do the work of upwards of 30 in the honourable trade, with a corresponding saving to their employers from an adherence to the main point of the scurf system, the overworking of the

men without extra payment. It has been before stated that in dry weather the roads require to be watered before being swept, so that the brushes may bite. In summer, the machine men sometimes commence this part of their business at three in the morning, and at the other periods of the year sometimes at early morning when moonlight. In summer, the hours of labour in the streets are from three, four, five or six in the morning, to half-past four in the afternoon. In winter,

from light to light. And after street there may be yard and barge work. The saving by this scurf system then is 30 men honourable trade, 16 shillings weekly, £1,248 yearly. 24 men scurf trade, doing same work, 16 shillings weekly, £998 yearly. Saving to capitalist and loss to labourer, £250 yearly. It now but remains to sum up the capital, income and expenditure of the machine scavenging trade. The cost of a street-sweeping machine is £50 to £60, with an additional £5.05

for the set of brooms. The wear and tear of these machines are very considerable. A man who had the care of one told me that when there was a heavy stress on it, he had known the iron cogs of the inner wheels go rattle, rattle, snap, snap, until it became difficult to proceed with the work. The brooms, too, in hard work and cloggy weather, are apt to snap short, and in the regular course of wear, have to be renewed every four or five weeks. The sets of brooms are of bass, worked

strongly with copper wire. The whole apparatus can be unscrewed and taken to pieces, to be cleaned or repaired. The repairs, independently of the renewal of the brooms, have been calculated at £7 yearly each machine. The capital invested then in 12 street-sweeping machines in the horses and what may be considered the appurtenances of the trade, together with the yearly expenditure, may be thus calculated. Capital of street-sweeping machine trade. 12 machines, £60 each, £720.

12 sets of brooms, £5.05 each set, £63. 19 horses, £25 each, £475. 4 water carts, £20 each, £80. 19 sets of harness, new, £7 each set, £133 4 barges, £50 each, £200 Total, £1,671 Yearly expenditure

24 men, 16 shillings weekly, £998 120 sets of brooms for 12 machines, £4 per set £480. Wear and tear and so on, 15%, £255. Keep of 19 horses, 10 shillings each weekly, £494. Rent, say, £150. Clark, say, £100. Interest on capital at 10%, £170. Total £2,674

Reader's Note Mayhew has incorrectly added this total. The total should read £2,647. End Reader's Note In this calculation I have included wear and tear of the whole of the implements of the stock in trade, and so on, taking that of the brooms on the most moderate estimate.

According to the scale of payment by the parish of St. Martin, which is now £1,000 per annum, the probable receipts of a single year will be Yearly receipts For hire of 12 machines £2,500

200 barge loads of manure £5.15 per barge £1,150.10 Total £3,650.10 Yearly expenditure £2,674, profit £976.10.

Reader's note. With the corrected yearly expenditure of £2,647, the profit will be £1,003.10. End reader's note. End of section 46.