Beginnings: The Dempster Dumpster

Summary

Beginnings: The Dempster Dumpster &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp George Roby Dempster* was born in 1887 to Scottish & Irish immigrants. By age sixteen he had a job running a locomotive (while not in school), having previously worked various railroad jobs in Virgina. As a young adult, Dempster later worked as an equipment operator on the Panama Canal project, and in the early 1930's he formed a construction company with his brothers back home in Knoxville. It was during this time that Dempster developed a novel device for the lifting and transporting of portable storage containers which would be of great significance not only to the refuse collection industry, but to the betterment of sanitation practices in general. &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp The first Dempster Dumpster lifts were employed by the family company on their construction sites, and consisted of a hydraulic hoist mounted to motor truck whereby open top buckets could be engaged, lifted and transported. The device also allowed for emptying of the shallow buckets by simply tipping them as they were held in the raised position by the hoist. First patented in February 1935, the device began to attract the attention of rival operators and before long Dempster Brothers Incorporated was in the truck equipment business. Model 200 LF showing hookup, lift, carry and dump sequence &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Though Dempster probably didn't originally envision his invention as refuse collector, it turned out to be a perfectly timed solution to what was becoming a critical sanitation problem in many cities. On the collection front, refuse packer trucks were first beginning to gain favor by the late 1930's, but refuse storage methods left much to be desired. Particularly troublesome were businesses and apartments, which generated large concentrations of waste in densely populated areas. This was further exacerbated by a trend toward disposable packaging used by all manner of consumer products, which greatly increased the volume of refuse. Rows of overflowin...