Street Sweeper Improvements c.1902



 This 110 year old postcard is of a house in Morton Boro. Looking for some help with an address

 

 

 

Street Sweeper inventor from Morton



Note: I know very little about Zenas Whittemore, a Morton resident whose patent 'improved' the street sweeper in 1902. He did know how to get attention, free street cleaning!!!

    Be it known that I, ZENAS WHITTEMORE, of Morton, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, have invented an Improvement in Street-Sweepers, of which the following is a specification. My invention relates to street -sweepers, and it consists of certain improvements which are fully set forth in the following specification and are shown in the accompanying drawings.

CHESTER TIMES – February 28, 1912

            MORTON INVENTOR’S GENEROUS OFFER – Proposition to Sweep the Streets of the City for More Than a Month for the Sum of Five Dollars

            Chester has an opportunity to get the streets cleaned for the insignificant sum of $5, the balance in the appropriation of the Street Department announced a short time ago.  The generous offer is made by Zenas Whittemore, a prominent resident and inventor of Morton, this county.  Mr. Whittemore is the inventor of a street sweeping machine that was given a trial on the streets of this city several weeks ago and demonstrated its efficiency as a cleaner of streets.  In The Times of February 15, Mr. Whittemore announced that he would clean the streets of the city once a week for the following prices:  Brick and Belgium block, 35 cents per thousand square yards; asphalt, 40 cents per thousand square yards; wood block, 50 cents per thousand square yards.

            Mr. Whittemore’s latest proposition is to sweep all the streets of the city with the exception of Market and Third Streets, during the month of March and until the 8^th of April for $5.  All he asks is authority from the city officials to go ahead and he will do the rest.  He requests all citizens who favor this plan of getting the streets cleaned for $5 to sign and send to his address the coupon that appears in the advertising columns of the daily papers and he is satisfied that if a majority of the people want it, that the officials of the city will readily agree to the plan.