Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1899-11-18
ON OILED ROADS
Satisfactory Results OF the Experiments in
Southern California.


discharged, and poured upon hot sur
face, SO that the work of the oil
sprinkling is confined to the heat of the
day. The oil cannot be poured on in
discriminatory but must be drilled in
to the dust as wheat is drilled into
land prepared to receive 1t. II 1t Is not
so applied, the oil will not saturate
evenly the dust area, but will lie in
splotches, run together. and 80 make
very imperfect success, either as a
job of sprinkling or as an oiled sur
face.
In order to meet the requirements, a
machine has been devised which, while
it does not by any means limit the field
for inventions Of this sort, neverthe-
less supplies want in this direction.
A big tank, mounted on four wheels.
drags sort Of tender-box supported by
two wheels, into which is run from a
tank supplies Of oil. This box has
furnace beneath II which heats the oil.
and attached to 1t is a drag, looking
something like hay rake. A number
of curved rods or fingers go out from
the bottom, and these are drawn
through the dust and along the road.
They mark little burrows in the dust
and into these burrows, through a Sc
ries of pipes, is discharged the oil. A
second finger-or sort of thumb ar
rangement-fixed farther back, turns
the dust over the oiled furrow, and the
surface is then left to absorb, process
which requires about an hour to effect.
A roller is then drawn over the oiled
width and the first treatment is COM
pleted.
Contracts for the three treatments
are taken at from $2O5 to 1910 per mile,
according to the price of oil and the
character of the surface to be worked.
But even at this rate the cost is not
over 6 cents per running foot of the
eighteen-feet width, and Of this sum.
under the general regulations, the
county pays one-third and the property
owners on the road on each side pay
each one-third. Under this arrange
ment 1t would cost an owner 80 to put
in condition the road in front of 100
feet of land, and this is about what II
now costs him to have the road sprink-
led with water throughout the dry sea-
son.
One saturation will keep the road in
repair during years succeeding the
first three treatments, and this applica-
ton requires but twenty barrels to the
mile. Its cost to the adjacent owners
of land is but 40 cents per 100 feet of
road, and there is maintained a most
excellent driveway.
One immediate result of the discoy-
cry has been to raise the price of oil.
Happily vast oil district is immedi-
ately in the middle of the region in
which the oiled roads are being spread,
and oil therein is the most accessible
or commodities. Nevertheless, the
haste of many counties to make con-
tracts for the future delivery of oil,
has driven up the price of the mater
ial 10, and even 20 cents per barrel.
This has increased the cost of the work
laid out by the town of Redlands to
from $2O4.75 per mile to 1857 per mile.
and this Notwithstanding the town has
purchased its own sprinkling plant,
and is doing the work itself.
The idea of oiling roads is said to
have originated in the oil regions of
Pennsylvania, and to have been due to
the accidental saturation of a piece
of roadway with the fluid If this is
true, it is in California that the idea
has received its most extensive appli-
cation.-New York Evening Post.