Recently, an automatic street sweeper invented by Chinese sanitation workers incited fierce online debate between Chinese and British netizens.

The sweeper consists of a motor-driven rotary plate attached to 16 brooms. By dragging the machine behind a tractor, sanitation workers have been able to dramatically improve their work efficiency.

The machine was designed and customized by workers. It is able to clean up to 20 kilometers per day, 20 times the daily workload of an ordinary sanitation worker.

However, the legitimacy of this new invention was questioned by British netizens after a Daily Mail report described the machine.

Some British commenters pointed out that, instead of cleaning the street, the machine was actually moving trash from one place to another. Some were also skeptical of the safety of the machine, saying it could blind pedestrians by splashing gravel into their eyes.

Faced with such aggressive doubts, Chinese netizens began to defend the invention.

They denied that the machine was designed to sweep trash to locations where workers would collect it later. In terms of safety issues, they responded that the machine moves at a very low speed, so it is unlikely to dislodge gravel.

Above all, they argued, such innovation should be encouraged, so that more and better inventions are created in the future.