The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-06-25
DUE TO POOR ROADS.
Chief Reason Why Automobiles Can't
Travel As Fast Here As in France.

The proposed automobile race be-
tween an American and a French ma
chine has brought to the attention of
the riding public the condition of Amer
ical roads.
The French automobile has shown an
average speed of 80 miles an hour for
long distance. while the best the
American machine has been capable of
is a little over 16 miles. The difference
is ascribed solely to the bad roads over
which the American machine was COM
PEELED to travel. Referring to this,
Chairman Otto Dorner, of Ne L. A. w.
highway improvement committee,
speaks of one'of the causes for the mis-
cradle highways. He says:
Next to water, the greatest enemy Of
good roads-yes, of all roads-is the
narrow-tired wagon. Narrow tires and
water, acting together, have given our
country roads a third dimension. They
are not only so many miles long and so
many rods wide, but they are deep-so
deep, alas at times that travel over, or
rather, through them, is next to impos-
sible.
"A heavy loaded wagon always leaves
it's tracks on the highways, and the
material Of which the road is built, the
weight of the load and the width Of the
tires The rut formed by the passing
wagon forms a trough for the rain,
which, instead Of running off to the
side, as it should do, remains to sink
into the roadway and soften 1t. The
next wagon, finding the ground softer,
digs it's wheels deeper into the surface,
and so the work of decentralization and
destruction continues.
"A wide tire, on the other hand, in
stead of forming q rut, will roll and
arden the road surface. By the use OF
wide tires, every loaded wagon can be
turned into an effective road roller and
made to improve the roadway instead
of helping to destroy 1t. All that is
necessary to make the best road in the
world is to make it solid and to give II
hard, smooth surface. Nothing so
much tends to accomplish this as the
frequent use of road rollers. Wide
tires are road rollers, and therefore road
makers. Narrow tires are road Destroy
ers. If wide tires could be adopted for
general use, every loaded wagon, which
today helps to cut up and destroy eoun-
try roads, would become an active fac
tor in their improvement.
Experience has repeatedly proven
that hauling on wide tires requires less
tractive force than is needed for the
narrow tired wagon under the same
conditions Director Waters, of the
Missouri Agricultural experiment sta
ton, who has made very extensive
tests on the subject, characterized es-
pecially by their scientific accuracy, de-
clares that six inches is the best width
of tire for a combination farm and road
wagon, and that a large number Of
tests show, without a single exception
a difference in draft in favor of the
broad tires ranging all the way from
II to 100 per cent.
"The principle of wide tire is so gen.
orally acknowledged in Europe that
laws have been passed in each country
prescribing their use. Austria requires
tires of at least 4 1-3 inches width, in
creasing as the load to be carried eX-
ceeds 31a tons. In France all freight
ing and market wagons are turned into
road rollers by being required to have
tires from to 10 inches wide. Germany
requires 4-ineh tires for all wagons used
for heavy loads, and Switzerland re-
ouires that they shall be provided with
tires of six inches. These regulations
have been adopted for the protection
of the high-class European roads, built
during the present century.
Now that the adoption of state aid
has solved the financial problem con-
nected with road improvement in the
United States, care should be taken
that the roads we build are not destroy
ed by narrow tires. Country dis
tricts receiving financial aid for
road purposes out of the state
to encourage the use Of wide tires. This
has been accomplished in some places
by exempting all wide-tired vehicles
from taxation"