The Street Sweeper Truck

The humble Street Cleaner

"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry.

He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well."

So said.........Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mr. King may have been thinking of Mr. Charles Brooks of Newark, New Jersey when he spoke those lines.  Who was Mr. Brooks?  An young black inventor who is credited with inventing and getting a patent for a street sweeper truck in 1896.  Mr. Brooks’ street sweeper truck featured revolving brushes that were attached to the front fender of the  truck. The brushes were interchangeable with scrapers that could be used for winter snow removal.  

Other early pioneers of the Street Sweeper Truck included Mr. John M. Murphy who introduced his idea of a street sweeper machine to the owners of  American Tower and Tank Company of Elgin, Illinois in 1911. After two years of development the first Elgin Street Sweeper Truck was sold to the City of Boise, Idaho.

Thus the beginnings of what today is known worldwide as The Elgin Sweeper Company.  

Today the Elgin Sweeper Company enjoys the reputation of being the leading manufacturers of street sweeping equipment for municipal, contractor, airport, and industrial sweeping concerns.  Almost one hundred years later their wide selection of street sweeping trucks can be spotted all over the globe. The humble street cleaning truck has certainly come a long way!