Snow melter

Guys and Gals, I have an idea for removing snow from your driveway or sidewalks. It's relatively simple. I would take an old mower sans engine. Possibly remove the wheels and replace with skiis, not sure though- if this works, then you will need the wheels! Anyway, I digress; basically, I want to melt the snow instead of shovelling it. I would weld the scoop part of a snow shivel to the front of the lawnmower, snow plow style. In the center of the old mower, where the engine was, I would place a storage cell, heavily insulated (R40 or higher). This would contain liquified saltpeter or some other salt. It would be liquified via either a blow torch or an electric heater or some other source of heat. There would be copper tubes running from the storage cell to the back of the snow shovel blade. I envision these as being welded to the back of the shovel blade and the rear of the blade being heavily insulated also. A temperature operated switch would return the fluid for re-heating when the fluid behind the blade gets below a certain level (say, 250F or so) I want the snow to literally steam off of the blade! I also would have some copper tubing exposed below the mower/melter to melt any snow/ice that gets in from the sides. I want to make it as simple as possible, hence no electric usage, but a small battery and fan could speed up the melting process somewhat I suppose. Comments?