All experts advocate the sweeping of streets by hand, commonly called the patrol system. The implements used in patrol cleaning are broom, pan scraper, squeegees, can carrier and cans. The broom is usually one which has a 4 × 18 inch block, filled with split bamboo, rattan, hickory, steel wire or black African bass. The block is usually fitted with a steel scraper. The pan scraper is constructed like a dust pan, turned up sides and back. It is about 36 inches wide by 15 inches deep. The squeegee is a board about 36 inches wide fitted with a rubber strip which extends below the lower edge of the board. Brooms, pan scrapers and squeegees have handles about 66 inches long. The cans are made to hold about three cubic feet of dirt and taper 19 inches in diameter at the top to 17 inches at the bottom. The can carrier has two large wheels and two small, and a platform upon which the can or cans rest.
A new carrier has been devised which carries two cans and is so balanced that the two cans are more easily manipulated than the one. Some cities are now substituting canvas bags for cans.
Whinery says that when street surfaces are of such character as to admit it, hand sweeping is the most effective method.
J. W. Paxton says that hand cleaning work is capable of better distribution than any other method, because more attention can be given to dirtier areas by increasing the number of men who only clean the portions of the street which are dirty and work on those portions until they are clean. There is a fine scum which is not apparent when the pavements are dry but rises up in a thin sheet of mud when moist, making the pavements very slippery. This and fine dust cannot be removed by hand cleaners, but by washing about twice a week in addition to hand cleaning, these troubles can be eliminated.
Very believes that this method of cleaning is fairly effective but is a dust raiser and the ability of the man to cover areas is very limited, especially since the automobile has come into such general use, as it interferes with the sweeper and his work. He says that there are hand machine brooms built on the principle of the carpet sweeper which are not dust raisers and which as a matter of fact do much more effective work. The pan scraper is only valuable to remove manure and mud and coarse litter, and its use should be limited to the time necessary for such work, and the broom used for dust removal.