Portable Sanitation Association International

PSAI Association Insight, August 4, 2021 I 5 While tank trucks and pumps were becoming well-established in the 1940s, another innovation, the "portable outhouse" was being used and developed in the Naval Shipyards in Long Beach California. It was only a matter of time. Vacuum Pumps and PTOs With the development of trucks and tanks, the only component missing from the service vehicles of today was a vacuum pump and a power source to run that pump. In 1901, Hubert Cecil Booth, an English civil engineer, received a patent for a "vacuum cleaner." His invention was a large device that featured a horse-drawn combustion engine that relied upon air drawn by a piston pump through a cloth filter. All the cleaning was done by suction through long tubes with nozzles on both ends. This machine was nicknamed "Puffing Billy" according to Pumps and Systems magazine. H.C. Booth formed a company named Goblin and sold his cleaning services rather than his new machine. Pump Trucks for Portable Sanitation As early portable restroom companies came on the scene in the mid to late 1950s, pump trucks started earning the nickname "workhorses of the industry." Through the 1960s and 1970s, the vacuum pumps on trucks were controlled by the manifold of the truck engine and then later by the truck's crank shaft. Both methods, while accomplishing the job, were inefficient and problematic. An early innovator in these pre-PTO systems was Al Hilde with Satellite Industries. Profiled in detail as one of portable sanitation's pioneers, Al worked with (continued on page 6) Later Booth turned his focus to the industrial marketplace and built larger models of his pump. His company, British Vacuum Company, now known as BVC, still exists today. Since vacuum pumps require power from a power source, "power take off," more commonly referred to as PTO, is necessary. As early as 1878 farmers and inventors experimented with power take off ideas. Research continued until 1918 when the International Harvester Company became the first to offer a PTO on a tractor. Then in 1945, Cockshutt Farm Equipment in Ontario, Canada produced the first "live PTO" which would ultimately make our pump trucks feasible. A "live PTO" allows control of the PTO independently of the vehicle. This allows the service truck to remain stationary while the PTO-driven vacuum pump is working. Once again important technology the portable sanitation industry will come to rely upon was developed and perfected. Here's an interesting aside from Pumps and Systems magazine. In Ohio in 1907, a janitor named James Murray Spangler created the first 'full-fledged portable vacuum' featuring an electric fan, bag, and rotating brush. Spangler, not having a strong business acumen, sold the patent to William Henry Hoover in 1908 and Hoover vacuums were born. That's another household name affiliated in some way with our industry! Prior to PTOs, flat belts attached to stationary engines were used to power machinery in America's early factories. Agricultural work was improved by using rotary power from the tractor's engine or taking power from one of the wheels. (continued on page 6) Pump Trucks: The Workhorses of Our Industry (continued from page 3)

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