The unthinking ratepayer frequently exclaims, "Why cannot the authorities order this abominable snow to be immediately carted away?" when the footpath and roadway in front of his domicile lie hidden under a thick coating of snow crystals.
Signor E. Bignami Sormani, assisted by Professor Clericetti, have made several most interesting investigations and observations upon the density of fresh fallen snow in Milan by means of a simple balance and compressing box. The range of weight of the snow was found to vary as much as eleven times the minimum. A cubic yard from one snowstorm, weighing as much as 814 pounds, while an equal bulk from another fall only weighed 71 pounds. The weight consequently of a cubic foot of the densest snow is 30.14 pounds, whilst a cubic foot of water weighs 62.5 pounds, or only about double the weight of this dense snow, but which was in all probability little different from ice.
For my purposes, however, I will take a mean[62] between these extreme weights, and assume that the weight of a cubic foot of snow is 16.38 pounds, and that a fall of three inches of snow during the night has caused the ejaculation with which I commenced this chapter to proceed from the aforesaid ratepayer.
The ordinary width of an English street may be taken at thirty-six feet, including the footpaths, so that on every one hundred yards in length of every street of that width 2,700 cubic feet of snow have fallen, the total weight of which amounts to 44,226 pounds, or very nearly 20 tons, which in actual bulk would represent 100 cubic yards. But as the snow would soon become compressed after falling, I assume that this bulk would be diminished by one-half, and that consequently (without reckoning the snow which has fallen upon roofs and into courts, passages, and alleys, and which has been quickly shovelled therefrom to the street by the occupiers) about 40 ordinary cartloads, weighing half a ton each, would have to be removed from this length of street. Assuming that there are 30 miles of street in a town from which the snow must be immediately removed, 21,144 loads must be carted somewhere, at a cost of at least ￡1,500, assuming that each cart could make ten trips a day, and even then it would take 352 carts a whole week to effect it.
[63]
It may be contended that I have taken an extreme case, and that, of course, the snow does not lie for very long upon the ground in the condition in which it fell, and that hourly it is reducing in bulk and weight by being ground up by the traffic, and finding its way in the form of water into the sewers, but I have simply advanced the few facts which I have stated in order to give some idea of the labour and cost of snow clearing in a city or town, and I think I cannot do better than at once describe how this important work is carried out in the city of Milan, where the organization and arrangements by which it is accomplished with marvellous despatch, and efficiency, could with advantage be copied by the authorities of any of our towns which are occasionally visited by excessive falls of snow.
In Milan the snow carts are emptied into the navigable canals and numerous watercourses by which the city is intersected; and latterly also into the new sewers in the central portion of the city, which are promptly flushed whenever it snows. During the winter of 1879-80 the cost of clearing the 1,656,200 square yards total area of squares, streets, and lanes within the city walls, averaged ￡200 per inch depth of snow fallen, and for the 502,800 square yards outside the walls the average cost was ￡62[64] per inch depth, equivalent in each case to about 1.05d. per cubic yard. Ordinarily the clearing of the more frequented streets is completed within eight or ten hours after it has stopped snowing; and of the rest within 24 hours, not reckoning night. The city is parcelled out into small districts, numbering 112 for last winter, of varying extent according to the importance of the work in each. An average rate of pay per inch depth of snow fallen is settled for the whole area of each separate district, according to its extent and the particular conditions affecting the several streets and squares comprised within it. Each district is allotted to a contractor, who usually associates with himself six to ten partners, besides the labourers whom he employs. He has to find carts, horses, and carters; the necessary implements—spades, shovels, brooms, scrapers, mattocks, barrows, &c.—are furnished by the city, under suitable stipulations for ensuring proper care in their use. The contracts are made annually, and the same persons almost always apply for them again year after year. The contractors come principally from the trades that are interrupted by winter, viz.:—Paviors, bricklayers and masons, and gravel quarrymen. For the direction and supervision of the work the whole city is divided into four sections, over each[65] of which is appointed an engineer, with an assistant, who are aided in the general arrangements by the police surveillance. Payment is made only for work effectually done. In each snowstorm the depth of snow falling, which is the basis of pay, is ascertained by means of a number of stone posts, fixed in suitable open spaces, clear of shelter from buildings, and each capped with a flat horizontal slab of stone. As soon as it stops snowing, or two or three times during a storm of several hours, the depth of snow caught on the slabs is measured by the engineer in the presence of two of the contractors in his section. The number of men ordinarily engaged in snow clearing on a winter's day is not less than two thousand, and has sometimes risen to three thousand. The stock of implements found by the city, representing a capital of about ￡1,600, is housed in two stores in opposite quarters of the city. In the winter of 1874-75 the total fall of snow amounted to 40? inches, and the whole expenditure for clearing it within the city walls exceeded ￡8,400; while in 1877-78 the fall was only 5? inches, involving an expenditure of less than ￡1,040 for a slightly larger area.
The small cost at which this work is carried out in Milan is accounted for by the low rate of wages and cart hire, and the perfect organization of the system.
[66]
When a fall of snow occurs in Paris, attention is first directed to clearing the footpaths and crossings, so as to ensure uninterrupted foot passenger traffic. The town scavengers sand the roads whenever it is necessary for the carriage traffic, at the same time numerous auxiliaries are organised to remove the snow from the principal thoroughfares in the order of their relative importance. To assist in removing the snow the General Omnibus Company are bound by their concession to furnish 50 waggons, and carts are specially arranged for with the providers of sand and gravel at the beginning of winter, the contractors for maintaining the public roads being also bound to hold their carts at the disposition of the sectional engineers. In certain cases the half-melted snow is swept into the sewers, especially into those carrying warm water. Melting by steam has been tried, when a continuous jet was turned on to a mass of banked snow, but it melted very slowly at first, and the melting ceased after the cavity had increased to a certain size. Two descriptions of snow ploughs are kept in store, one for manual, the other for horse power, but they have never been used, as the coating of snow seldom attains sufficient thickness, and it is too quickly compressed and hard............