BLOG NUMBER 12.67
Many people find themselves buried under heavy snow this time of year. When they need to go out for work, shopping, or other errands, they feel relieved when snow plows arrive and clear the roads. Before motorized vehicles came into use, people used horses to pull snow plows and clear roads for other horse-drawn vehicles. But horse-drawn plows had a major drawback—while horses could pull well, they couldn’t push equipment effectively.
They also had to walk through the snow before they could start clearing it. In 1913, an inventor received the first patent for a motorized snow plow, and as the industrial age advanced, manufacturers started using stronger, more durable materials to build them.
In 1923, some inventors in Norway began building plows to mount on the front of automobiles, intending for each driver to plow their own snow. As you can imagine this resulted in everyone just pushing snow out of the way but into the path of other automobiles and it was a chaotic situation. Luckily, municipalities saw the need for large-scale plowing and they started clearing roads on a large scale. When the interstate highway system was constructed in the United States, massive plows were built for clearing huge amounts of snow more efficiently.
In places where temperatures are very cold and massive snowfall occurs like Canada and northern Russia, jet engines have been used to melt and blow snow off roadways and train tracks.
If you’re clearing your own driveway and sidewalks you’re probably happy if you have a modern snow blower, because the first snow blower built in 1925 was apparently not very effective and difficult to start in cold weather.
People often take modern conveniences for granted, but many of us feel especially grateful for the modern snow plow. Today’s plows have not changed significantly over the past few decades except for some technical advances like GPS and sophisticated sensors.
Snow Removal Equipment
Some snow removal equipment uses infrared cameras to detect anything hidden beneath the snow ahead, such as a living human or animal.
Another tool in the arsenal for snow removal professionals is a pretty basic substance: salt. Someone somewhere figured out that snow melts ice but the more scientific reason is that salt lowers the freezing temperature of water.
According to the Salt Institute, deicing roads with salt reduces accidents by 88 percent and injuries by 85 percent, and saves state economies an estimated $700 million per day.
Today’s snow removal professionals use a combination of weather monitoring, well maintained and properly operated plows, and chemicals to keep roads and parking lots clear, safe, and open for traffic and commerce.
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