Roto Rooter San Antonio
The term roto rooter has been made popular by the company Roto-Rooter. Most people know this term and this company as familiarly as Kleenex and Q-tips. Roto Rooting is the process of removing tree roots, hair, or any other debris that is blocking the sewer pipe from draining properly. The process involves a steel cable, "snake", and it is inserted into an access point of the sewer line, then the end of the "snake" usually has some sort of blade system on the end that "cuts" through the blockage, resorting normal flow. The machine was first invented by a father and son team, Samuel and Milton Blanc in Iowa in the late 1920s. The first machine was made out of a washing machine motor and roller skate wheels along with a 3/8" steel cable.
By the mid-30s Blanc was selling his machine to Depression affected people looking for a way to make money by providing the service to residents in the Upper USA. It was an ideal and popular solution to drainage issues because it eliminated the need to dig up the pipes, cut it open to remove the blockage and then replace that section of the pipe.