Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-01
Appalling Estimates Upon the Cost
of Rock Thoroughfares,
THE IDEAS OF AN ENGINEER.
The United States Considered as Builder
of Stone Pixies.
AN IRON TRACK HIGHWAY ADVOCATED
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH.


remain unprorided for.
If good, durable stone pixies are to b
constructed, it may be in order to observe
that some entire States are practically
stoneless, at least SO far as having limestone
is concerned. In general way. taking the
most favored State, 100 miles of road pei
county could not be put in order at less
than $4,000 per mile. At this figure, which
is away inside, as to the whole country, the
$500 counties, with 100 miles of stone pike
each, would cost the sum of 81 500, 900, ,000
But if, as a whole, the cost should be
$4,000 per mile, then the outlay would
reach the appalling aggregate of s., 800, 900,
900, or nearly $40 for each man, woman and
child in the entire country. Consequently,
ageneral system of piking the roads of the
United States would involve at least an
outlay of s., 500, O0O, 600, or Sl20 per capita
Miles of Railroad to Haul the Stone.
To do this would require the construction
of tens of thousands of miles of railroads to
haul the stone, and il is fact that all the
visible road stone in the United States-that
is, the visible stone that can be got at
would not suffice for 10 per cent of the roads.
There are advocates of stone pixies who tell
us what the Romans did, and what the
English and the French have done. Certain
ly, the vast resources of the Roman Empire
could be thrown into some hundreds of
miles of roads and so could England and
France, which are powerful nations, make
the roads stone over a small area, but both
could almost play hide and seek in Texas
and not 60 much beyond the boundaries. 1t
1t is pertinent TO an understanding of the
situation to ascertain how many miles or
how large an area with reference to how
large population and in what time those
roads were made.
Then, climate has also to be considered
also the important fact that sandstone is
absolutely useless as good material. The
limestone would nearly all have to quarred
and most of it be hauled more than a
thousand miles.
The Government of the United States was
once in the national pike making business,
and threw up the job in disgust. When it
came to wagoning limestone 40 miles, when
the wear and tear on the road, in hauling a
load of stone to its destination, was ac-
tuallv more than the load of stone could
make good, the Federal Government saw
that "a condition and not a theory con-
fronted it. 1t washed its hands, brushed
the dust from its shoes and has not men-
toned the word "pike" in SO years.
Stone Win Not Make the Future Road.
That there will be an improved road in
the near future there can be no doubt, but
it will never be, and it should not be,
roadway made of stone Such a road. aside
from the vast expenditure of money in
volved in its construction, does not in anv
manner accord with the spirit of the age; it
is gross, crude, barbaric, cumbersome and
out of all alignment with modern progress
But why?
Simply for the reason that loads that are
transported on wheels rest their voirdupois
on the segments of circles. Such loads bear
on their foundations, and the pressure bear |
ing on these segments compels them to cut, |
and the stone roadway, being formed of tens |
of thousands Of pieces between which there |
can never be complete homogeneity. unless |
secured with the very best cement, yields to !
this cutting action of these short segments; /
increased resistance has to be encountered, |
and the roadway is soon cut and plowed to |
destruction. This is especially the case |
when frost leaves the ground.
1t is not the tramping Of the quadruped |
that hurts the road, but the wheels of the |
vehicle that cut into and through it.
The tramping action of the hoof is en-
tirely dissimilar to the continuous cutting |
action OF the wheel. Each requires its own |
special provision, and the paramount thing |
10 consider and to provide is a proper and |
absolutely unyielding surface for the |
wheels
Metallic Tracks for the Wheels.
II seems lncreQlDle Wnen one looks at the /
methods of transportation throughout the |
world, where speed and great weight are |
considered, and sees one general principle |
underlying all railways, street car ways and |
tramroads, that these things do not convey /
at least a hint of what must come
A metallic track for the wheels is first,
foremost and in every case the prime factor; |
who, under the sun, would for one minute
advocate stone wheelway for such service?
rha eto Ia L.
cudgeled their brains a century or two
longer the fact may begin to dawn on their
mental vision that track for the wheels is
the foremost and prime requirement in a
road, and the mere provision for the hoof |
is then an easy and simple matter.
Even if there were nothing done for the
horse, as regards his:hoofway, a vast service
would be done the animal in putting his
load on unyielding iron, which could resist
all segmentary action. and which would tax
his strength from go to 20 per cent less than
mud. Then, with solId wheelway, the
transportation of suitable material for |
merely collateral purposes becomes SO SIM
pie as to take it away from all comparison
with the hauling of thousands of tons of
stone per mile involved in pike and over
the worst Of all surfaces to haul on during
construction.
One-third of SIC, 900 per mile will build
United States, a far better road, road that
can be made in 20 per cent of the time re-
quired for good macadamized road, road
involving less repair, road that is possible
and one that is in keeping with the spirit of
modern progress.
Far Superior to All Kinds of Gravel
For fine, rapid, smooth, noiseless and
dustless driving, for speeding horses, for
bicycle riding, for pedestrianism, for hard
propelling machines, the iron track plan of
road, with its SIX or eight inch wide, slightly
concave bars, is far superior to ANYTHING on
the Telford, McAdam, dirt or gravel
method. This system, which is bound to
come will relieve the iron industry of its
congested condition, as a new field will be
opened calling for many millions of tons of
that great utilitarian metal, and every
dollar of the outlay will be guaranteed
good return in the enhanced value of the
realty of the country and in the greater
steadier and easier earning capacity which
substantial and permanent roads would
assure.
The loss to the country in unperformed
labor by reason of bad roads is well-nigh
incalculable
The writer can assure those who are in
terested in better roads that this is no ILL
conceived chimerical dream, but simple.
practical, economical method which readily
falls within the lines of demonstration.
But he does not believe that the time is vet
ripe for an improved road, nor that it will |
be much before the commencement of the
twentieth century. But once inaugurated, |
the iron road, with the interests it can en-