Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1899-05-05

oil was still farther spread about four rods
by the feet of passing horses and the
runners of sleighs,
The road at this place was Of clay bot
tom, with mud from 10 to 20 inches deep
on it in wet times, and in dry weather
having from TO inches of dust. But
the particular stretch which had been wet
bv the oil seemed to have changed lis
character-it remained hard and firm in
spite Of rain, anG kept free from dust dur
lng dry periods. Fer three seasons these
conditions haze remained. Mr.. j. b
WInger, who noticed and described these
phenomena, aud who states that he has
devoted his life, since the discovery of oil
to its development. says of il;
"Oil and earth have all affinity for each
other, and. when united in proper pro-
portions on road bed, are for long
time nseparable. The oil on "A road bed
prevents the earth from rising in dust and
excludes water, and hence the lmpossi-
bllty Of mud. 1t looks reasonable that
an oil-treated road. properly shaped, Will
remain mudiess; when snow falls, even in
small quantities, 1t will give good sleigh
ing, and when the snow goes In the spring
it will he ready for comfort. pleasure and
business. In the employment of crude
oil for good roads no change need be
made In the mode of construction now 10
general use The road bed should be
properly shaped with machinery. and inn
mediately after working and forming, and
while the earth is loose and best adopted
for the absorption of oil, the oil should be
applied, after the manner Of sprinkling
streets The quantity of oil TO the rod Of
road can only be determined by eXpCrmi-
ments and actual tests The writer's
opinion, based on observation, is that one
barrel of oil TO each three rods of road will
suffice This, if the writer has not erred
In figures, will be oil to the depth of one.
third Of an inch.
The publication of these observations
subject, in order further to test the practi-
cabillty of using oil in this way and at
the recent good-roads convention, held in
St Louis, Maj Meigs of Keokuk, Iowa,
detailed some of his experiments. He had
secured a quantity of crude oil, and used
it on VIGOROUSLY muddy road with very
satisfactory results; it formed sort Of
waterproof crust on the surface, keeping
the road bed dry beneath il. and and al
fording hard and smooth surface for
travel. A barrel Of oil was nearly suffl-
cient for stretch about 100 feet long and
10 feet wide. Up to the present this stretch
has done well, but longer time and the
spring thaws are necessary IN order to
complete the test.
About 200 feet OF road was well
sprinkled and 300 feet more lightly, eight
barrels of oil being used FOR the purpose.
The day after the sprinkling heavy rain
fell, and an examination of the road
showed marked difference between the
oiled and unoiled portions. The earth
under the oiled portions was dry, and no
ruts had been cut in it, while the unciled
part was full of ruts. Then came hard
freeze, with the mercury below zero.
The OILED section was still good, and gave
a muffled sound when driven over, indi-
eating that the earth below was dry and
unfrozen, while the unoiled part was in
very bad shape.
From the experiments thus lar made
Maj or Meigs con cludes that before oil is
applied to road 1t should be smoothly
graded and well rounded, so as readily TO
shed water, that the oil should be applied
when the road is dry; otherwise II will
penetrate the earth imperfectly. and much
will be carried off by the wheels Of vehi-
Giles that the surface should be rolled
after being oiled, in order to distribute the
oil evenly, as it has tendency to collect
in ruts and hollows. Crude oil costs go TO
90 cents a barrel at the wells. Its odor is
disagreeable, and oil from which the nsph-
tina and kergsene have been extracted
would be preferable to apply In warm
weather. When cold, the heavy ell be-
comes too stiff to be applied without
heating.
If further experiments and longer tests
demonstrate the correctness OF present in
dicstions, improved roads can be secured
at wonderfully low cost The oil for a
road l2 feet wide could be had for probab-
ly less than $50 mile; it would not need
to be repeated very often, and the labor
required would not be expensive.
l.. Ii. p.