DIGGING OUT
For a lot of folks in the Northeast and other parts of the country, this week has been our first serious snow of the winter. And we’ve spent days fighting it. Sweeping it, blowing it, scraping it, plowing it…and of course, like me, shoveling it.
In the 19th century, though, snow removal was a lot more basic.
Early snowplows were patented in the 1840s, and they were in wide use (with horse-drawn wagons) by the 1860s. The problem was, the snow still had to go somewhere once the plow pushed it off the road. Residents and merchants on side streets were much less than thrilled to discover that they were snowed under while the main drag was clear.
So they called in the shovel brigade. And that’s exactly what it was: crews of men who shoveled the drifts into carts or wagons, which were then dumped in whatever river or bay was available. Sometimes, in big cities, the shovel brigade followed the plows, cleaning up whatever was left as they went. It was brutal work, and not much different from the way people had been moving snow since the first humans realized they couldn’t just stay in the cave for the winter.
Worse, it didn’t make much sense in a city like New York, which was trying to move into the modern age, with all of the modern accoutrements, like – say – electricity and trains. The Blizzard of 1888 knocked out everything for days and convinced city leaders to make some major changes.
So how do you get around snow on the ground? You go under it – or over it.
New Yorkers did both.
They buried a lot of their power lines. It doesn’t prevent all outages, of course, but it’s a lot easier than going wire by wire through Manhattan. And it worked; many large cities have underground power lines to this day.
More, in parts of the City, you can still look up and see another relic from the 1888 storm: elevated train lines. Steam trains often had their own plows, but the blizzard was too much for them, leading the city to look for other ideas. Elevated lines were one.
Another would become an iconic fixture of the City: underground trains. The subway was still most of 20 years away, but 1888 was a good hard shove in that direction. Underground trains definitely worked: the one thing everyone knows in New York is that the subways ALWAYS run.
Then, as now, though, that did not mean everything was easy, normal or comfortable. The snow wagons and shovel brigades survived long into the 20th century. Even now, there’s not much to do with all of that snow but cart it away and leave it to melt somewhere. Dumping it in the water often isn’t an option any more because of the road salt and other chemicals.
So yes, people across the Northern Hemisphere have been fighting a wretched daily battle with snow this week. But it could be a lot worse.
At least I’ll keep telling myself that as I grab another pain patch for the sore muscles!
Got a Throwback Thursday idea? Drop it in the comments!
In the 19th century, though, snow removal was a lot more basic.
Early snowplows were patented in the 1840s, and they were in wide use (with horse-drawn wagons) by the 1860s. The problem was, the snow still had to go somewhere once the plow pushed it off the road. Residents and merchants on side streets were much less than thrilled to discover that they were snowed under while the main drag was clear.
So they called in the shovel brigade. And that’s exactly what it was: crews of men who shoveled the drifts into carts or wagons, which were then dumped in whatever river or bay was available. Sometimes, in big cities, the shovel brigade followed the plows, cleaning up whatever was left as they went. It was brutal work, and not much different from the way people had been moving snow since the first humans realized they couldn’t just stay in the cave for the winter.
Worse, it didn’t make much sense in a city like New York, which was trying to move into the modern age, with all of the modern accoutrements, like – say – electricity and trains. The Blizzard of 1888 knocked out everything for days and convinced city leaders to make some major changes.
So how do you get around snow on the ground? You go under it – or over it.
New Yorkers did both.
They buried a lot of their power lines. It doesn’t prevent all outages, of course, but it’s a lot easier than going wire by wire through Manhattan. And it worked; many large cities have underground power lines to this day.
More, in parts of the City, you can still look up and see another relic from the 1888 storm: elevated train lines. Steam trains often had their own plows, but the blizzard was too much for them, leading the city to look for other ideas. Elevated lines were one.
Another would become an iconic fixture of the City: underground trains. The subway was still most of 20 years away, but 1888 was a good hard shove in that direction. Underground trains definitely worked: the one thing everyone knows in New York is that the subways ALWAYS run.
Then, as now, though, that did not mean everything was easy, normal or comfortable. The snow wagons and shovel brigades survived long into the 20th century. Even now, there’s not much to do with all of that snow but cart it away and leave it to melt somewhere. Dumping it in the water often isn’t an option any more because of the road salt and other chemicals.
So yes, people across the Northern Hemisphere have been fighting a wretched daily battle with snow this week. But it could be a lot worse.
At least I’ll keep telling myself that as I grab another pain patch for the sore muscles!
Got a Throwback Thursday idea? Drop it in the comments!
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Perhaps you should invest in a snowblower.
It should come as little surprise to anyone who has experienced a winter north of the border that the first few models of snowblowers were invented by Canadians. The first documented ‘snow’ machine was patented in 1869 by J.W. Elliot from Toronto but was never produced.
In 1884, Orange Jull from Orangeville, Ont., hired the Leslie brothers to build his self-powered snow machine, which was pushed by a locomotive and used two fans to break up snow and fire it out a chute. However, there were some clogging issues, so it was trimmed down to a single fan model with impeller blades to throw the snow, much like today’s dual-stage person-propelled snowblowers. Jull continued to refine his machines, with the next one using a screw auger, but unfortunately, they weren’t too effective, and only eleven were made.
Arthur Sicard, a Canadian inventor inspired by a grain thresher in 1894 began working on his first snowblower soon after. His motivation was to help farmers who needed an easy way to clear snow off their fields so their cows could feed. Surprisingly, it took him 31 years to get the design right. In 1925 he unveiled his machine in Montreal, and started taking orders on his aptly named “Sicard Snow Remover Snowblower”.
The first mobile snowblower was a truck with a scooper and a snow thrower chute, with a separate motor to propel the snow. The truck was used to throw snow 90 feet away, or the snow could be put in the back of the truck and taken away. The mobility of using a truck instead of a train made the snow removers popular; however, they were much too expensive for all but large cities.
The first human-powered snowblower (or snowthrower) was built by a company named Toro in 1952. Not surprisingly, Toro is also a Canadian company, and they are still making quality snowblowers. In the 1960s more companies started introducing their models, and the age of the modernized snowblower began. As time passed snowblowers became more powerful and easier to handle.
In the 1970’s the first personal two-stroke snowblowers emerged, which were a boon to home and business owners living in areas that received significant snowfalls. The first models were developed by Gibsons and were called “Snow-Cannons”. The largest engines in the ’70s produced 8 horsepower and grew to 11 horsepower in the ’80s. Today 13 horsepower is common.
Today snowblowers come with many accessories: heated handles, motors to rotate the chute, battery-operated ignitions, and even headlights. Electric models are now available so consumers don’t have to feel like they are sacrificing the environment for the sake of a clear driveway. Although they don’t have as much muscle as gas-powered models they are becoming more efficient every year.
From the first giant locomotive-powered blower to today’s super-compact one-man models, snowblowers have come a long way over their 100-year history. Who knows what the future holds? Although this is a slowly evolving industry, tomorrow’s snowblowers are sure to be faster, more powerful, and more affordable. They’ll probably have lots of cool options too!