The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-10-19
PAPER ON GOOD ROADS
Read by J. F. Brainard Before the
 Meriden Board of Trade

Read by J. D. Brainard Before the
 Meriden Board of Trade
 Meriden, Oct. 1s.-The Board of Trade succeeded in getting together. quorum last evening. and, as a result, paper on Good Roads" by J. E. Brainard, president of the Connecticut Fedora tion of Cyclists, was listened to. Presi- dent c. l.. Upham presided over the meeting.
 MT. Brainard's paper was most ex- haustive. An abstract is as follows: Good roads, brought to public notice by the persevering efforts of the few, eclipse in importance presidential booms. Wheelmen, at first a mere handful, have increased toward the million mark and are now making common cause with every man, woman and child, who has any occasion to de- rive benefit from a piece of road, street or path. Good roads are direct tax, while bad roads are an Indirect tax.
 Good roads are to be accomplished by sub drainage, which is the scientific and common sense principle of road making. Tn order to maintain good road in an economic manner certain regulations regarding the load and the width of tire must be enforced. Bids for the construction of roads should not necessarily be awarded to the lowest bidder but to the one whose reputation is good and who is willing to give a bona fide bond for the fulfillment of the guarantee.
 Probably not one in ten of our road architects could explain intelligently the difference between telford and macadam, vitrified brick or asphalt blocks, sheet asphalt, concrete tar, Bel gian, cobble. mountain stone, or the one hundred and one different kinds of pavement now so learnedly discussed by everybody who don't know anything about it. The scientific part of road making demands thorough knoWl- edge of the best materials to be used under the existing conditions of ground, climate and traffic.
 Road building has long since passed the period of brick and corduroy roads. A dry road is never impossible, a mud dy road is always more or less, some times completely so Proper drainage is the fundamental principle of road making. In government experiments it has been ascertained that a cubic foot of ordinary sand will hold about thirty pounds of water, common clay forty-one pounds, stiff clay forty-four pounds and ordinary loam fifty pounds, so that it is easily seen that an ordina- ry dirt road without drainage will vir- tually have a mud foundation, which owing to slow evaporation will remain from one rain to the next Either in city, suburban or country, drainage is of paramount importance This is done preferably by exoavating where necessary and making a. hard bottom slightly convex with a sub-drain on each side, or in the center. The widths directly affect the friction between road and vehicle. On the basis of wide tires more than one third of the exer- tion of horse is saved"
 Figures from a report of Professor H. J. Waters, dean of the State Agricul- tural college were quoted to show the benefits of wide tires in hauling loads Lessened expense in hauling stone and other materials by the use of wide tires was demonstrated by quotations from a statement of F. H. Power, superin- tendent of works and a member of the board of county supervisors. The cost of hauling stone has been reduced from eighty to sixty cents per ton, and a team can easily earn from five and half to six dollars per day hauling wall stone and making two round trips of nine miles each, at a total of eighteen miles. Concerted effort should be made to compel farmers to adopt a tire ade- quate to the load to be carried.
 For city paving asphalt is the bet ter Buffalo, with thousands of tons of carriage, has over two hundred miles of asphalt and is putting down large amounts every year, having found in it's variable and fickle climate the best results were given. by the pavement in competition with every other kind Stone pavement of any kind is noisy, destructive to wagons and horses, dir ty at it's best, vile, unhealthy, breeding death and disease at it's worst. It is not durable. There are more horses foundered on cobbles. ten times over, than on any other kind of road.
 By observing trucking in New York and noticing how upon every opportu- nifty the teamsters drive on the flat rails of the tracks the conclusion is reached that the ideal street or road way hould be built of asphalt with a steel tramway, or troughs six inches wide and one-fourth to one-half inches deep, the edges slightly beveled, to fa- cilitate heavily loaded wagons turning in and out, the widths between troughs or rails to be a standard gauge" The speaker suggested as a remedy to pre- sent existing things, the bonding of the town, rather than a yearly appropria- tion.
 A lengthy discussion arose between President Upham. Gary Bloomfield and John Ives on the condition of the town roads. Attorney Harry King threw bomb into this peaceful camp of Philis- tines by saying that the Board of Trade should stop talking about sheep raising and become a factor rather than a mo-