JOHN KELLY
Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
THE KELLY LOADER: AMERICA'S FIRST REFUSE TRUCK?
Patent filed by one John Kelly of Massachusetts in 1909. Kelly's patent was for a chain conveyor loader, designed to be mounted on a motor truck, to load dirt or refuse. If this machine was actually built (and not just patented), it would be perhaps the very first mechanized refuse collection body in the US, and maybe the world! This rear-loading conveyor was the inspiration for the Automatic Loader (1930), DSNY Conveyor (1937) and Heil Conveyor (1938), and is cited in several of those patents.
As of this writing, there is no positive proof that Kelly's conveyor was anything more than an idea. The motor truck itself was in its infancy, and trade journals of that time were practically nonexistent. Tracing the life of John Kelly is not easy; he lived in Jamaica Plain, a suburb of Boston, a stronghold of Irish immigration. His family name is among the most common in that part of the country. However, if Kelly did indeed build his loader (and I believe that he must have), there is a strong possibility that it was at least tried by Boston sanitary authorities.
Because of the significance of John Kelly's loader, it appears here, with the provision that it is only known to be a patent at this time. Hopefully, conclusive proof of its existence will surface in the future.
7/2/16
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