NASA Technology Helps Inventor Clean Up

Cecil Thornburg of Millerville, Ala., operated the Mr. Clean Janitorial Service in nearby Sylacauga. One of his customers was a Winn-Dixie supermarket with a large parking lot. The lot needed to be swept and have trash picked up. Thornburg felt there should be a way to sweep the lot and collect the trash at the same time.

Working to develop this idea, Thornburg devised a vacuum-sweeper combination that worked, but needed improvement. The amateur inventor got the professional assistance he needed free-of-charge through the NASA center’s Technology Transfer Office (TTO).

Working from a technology assistance request submitted by Thornburg, the TTO’s representative for Alabama, Benita Hayes, enlisted the help of mechanical engineers Matt Marsh, Neill Myers and John R. “Rusty” Cowan. All work in the Propulsion Laboratory’s Component Development Division.

After a visit to Thornburg’s business to see and discuss the inventor’s idea and design, the engineers used their expertise to suggest improvements. These included changing the shape of the vacuum unit’s fan blades, introducing weight-saving and weight-redistribution refinements, and devising a way of guiding heavier items of trash, such as cans and bottles, to a point under the vacuum where suction was the greatest, thereby ensuring its collection.

“We’re picking up nearly 100 per cent of the litter we roll over,” Thornburg said recently.

The new “Vac-n-Bag” design is pulled by a tractor and operates off of the tractor’s engine. It has proven itself to be an efficient, cost-effective way of cleaning athletic fields, golf courses, parks and other grassy areas in addition to parking lots. The vacuum unit pulls the trash into the unit where it is shredded and bagged for disposal. Vac-n-Bag simultaneously mows the grass and collects the clippings, to boot.

The “Vac-n-Bag” is now being manufactured by the dozen new employees of Thornburg’s new firm, the Burg Corp., in Sylacauga. It has been demonstrated for a number of municipal sanitation officials and for the Alabama Department of Transportation. Six “Vac-n-Bags” already have been sold and -- at $9,995 per unit -- the new firm is cleaning up in more ways than one.