Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1898-02-10
MacHd8m And tiIs Methods.

the rame means and where it came
from are not SO generally understood
In his essay on Road Making and
Maintenance, Jas. b. Olcott tells
something about the man and MS
methods He SAYS:
John London MacAdam, after
spending some part Of his youth in
the United Estates, returned to the
place Of his nativity in Scotland and
turning his attention to ma King good
roads, shortly became famous in his
own country, and afterward all over
the world. 1t is said that of the 30
900 miles Of roads in Great Britain.
iiye-sixths Of them were reorganized
in his name during his life. He saw
the opportunity Of his time British
roads had been stuffed for years, by
local authority, with all sorts Of stone
dumped in roughly and often unbrok-
en-, till travelling with comfort was no
longer possible at any season. He de-
clined to be called an engineer. He
was a road-maker, developed in time
of great need. Instead Of three
fonrths team work, as had been, his
bills showed three-fourths labor. We
can guess what a row that change
would raise.
But he reYolutionized the whole
business of road-making by showing
anybody-eyen women and children,
who could pick the rough stones out
Of the road break them and lay the
fine fragments back again nicely
how to make the best OF wheeling.
sometimes with half the old material.
We, by the force Of false profits and
so-called civil engineers with prize
essays and much obsolete stereotvpfng
in patent insldes and outsides. are
actually copying the old oad-bottoms
MaeAdam Compelled by the penuri-
BUSINESS and iealousies Of his time)
left behind him. We are Xix the too
literal Chinese tailor, who reproduced
every patch en- the commodore sam
pie trousers in three dozen pairs Of
new breaches. MacAdam's methods,
or what were said to be his, spread
like wildfire, however. and doubtless
much was done-not as he would have
it-then as now. Hear him and
weigh his strange words well. After
insisting upon draining the road-bed
wherever it is necessary, he says:
= The broken stone IS only 10 pre-
serre Me uiader road from moisture,
and not 1t all to support the vehicles,
the weight OF which must be really
borne by the native soil, which, while
preserved iry, will carry any weight
and does. in fact, carry the stone road
itself as well as the vehicles upon it.
Again, The stone is employed to
form a secure, smooth tUatcr-ttght
flooring, over which vehicles may pass
with safety and expedition at all seas
ons Of the year. And again, Its
thickness should be regulated only by
the quantity Of material necessary to
form such flooring, and not at all by
any consideration as to its own indie
pendent power Of bearing weight
The offices OF the stone are 10 an
a,tre friction and she'd water And
still again, The erroneous idea that
the evils ot an uaderdrained, wet.
clayey soil can be remedied by large
quantity Of materials has caused a
large part Of the costly and unSacceSS-
III expenditures in making broken
stone roads. Evidently there were
parties before MaeAdam's time who
found their account in furnishing
large quantities OF stone to dump on
the highway. Can we doubt, if he
We're among Us today, that he would
order up much d our work to be
broken over and relaid, solid and
clean, on a dry foundations
This MacAdam was essentially a
teacher lie In, purified his language
by conversation with supplemented
people whose words must be few and
well chosen He s., hundreds and
thousands Of needy laborers at work
entire families II cottagers, right At
their doors. No doubt he learned
much Of them How could he be eN-
pected to teach an old laborer that
hammered stone, At ten pence per
ton, would furnish the sharpest kind
Of gravel, fit 10 rust and cling into
rock when once every particle is well
set and bedded solid in road? Brit
/ 4sb }ah,v ~ that linn X,.oc horn =