Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1902-01-02
ROADS IN PHILIPPINES.
How Government Red Tape Ha1
Hantpered the Usefulness Of q
Stone-Crushing Machine.

capable of doing.
In the olden days, when the
naughty Spaniard or untaught Fill
pino desired to repair that portion
of the street which lay Immediately
in front of some grandee's door, if
any broken stone was used, the ma
terial was obtained in the usual way.
After erecting a mat to screen him.
self from the sun, the Filipino
squatted beside a little rock pile and
possibly pounded out a cubic meter
of broken stone in a day. But this
slow and laborious process of OBJ
tanning road material did not entierly
commend itself to the American au-
thorities. They resolved to erect a
large rock crushing machine, and
there was no reason why the pro-
jected rock crusher could not be oper-
ated very successfully. After dis
cussing the merits of various locali-
ties a point near Binangonan, on the
Laguna de Bay, was the site selected.
After studying the situation, a COM
petent engineer carefully drew up the
plans for the proposed rock crushing
plant and sent in all the estimates
required. These plans were pigeon
holed in Manila, and, certain pur-
chases having been made, it was or
dered by she who must be obeyed'
that the rock crushing plant should
be erected. The plans of the engi-
neer, the estimates and acquisitions
of a practical man who knew exactly
what was wanted were ignored. But
a ioblot of machinery was assembled
and over it was erected a tlimsy SUI
p~erstructure which may or may not
fall to pieces at any time.
The engine which operates the
crushing machinery originally came
from England. In design it is GER
tainly unique. And its actions are &C.
centric. Attached to this master
piece are two boilers, which at the
outset were said to be r~idiculously
inadequate. If carefully nursed these
boilers will safely carry so pounds OF
steam and supply power enough tc
run at slow speed one of the two
rock crushing machines.
Although not of the latest modern
or of the most approved form of con
struction, the two rock crushers are
of American make and capable of do
ing good work.
The genius who constructed the
crushing plant hit upon the happy
plan of having the stone u dow
hill to a platform considerably below
the hopper of the rock crusher ant
from there shoveled UP again. Th'
placing of the rock crushers als'
evokes attention. If the ingeniou
builder aimed at securing a maxi
mum of inconvenience and a mini
mum of economy he is to be congrat
: ulated upon having accomplished hi
purpose. Both machines are place
: askew, almost at right angles wit.
their proper positions, and matter
{ are further complicated by havin
3 several things turned upside down i
e the arrangements for transmittin
the power. Neither can the pullie
nor betting escape observation
! Wooden pullies are used-lopsided al
. fairs that writhe and squirm-and
stretching and destroying belts the
J are found to be quite effective. 5
t great is the loss of power that, a
though in the theory the two boiler
should furnish ample steam to ru
the two machines, one of the roc
crushers from necessity is Away
\ idle.
The miniature railroad track, owe
which are wheeled the tiny cars {
= crushed rock, is not laid as it shoul
be, and the arrangement for loadln
crushed stone into cascoes involve
double the amount of work thu
would be required were things a
=, ranged Alright.
- Launches may tie up under tt
shadow of the crushing plant, and
obtain water from the lake shou
. be no trouble at all. But for want
A I suitable piece of pipe with whit
to make connections, whereby wat
I might be pumped by the engines in
n the boilers from the lake, four ho1
:, bres were formerly employed
one peso each per day to carry W
h ter for the engine. The presel
n foreman of the plant arranged
n dispense with the services of thr
"a water carriers, but the government
" still ~expending a peso a day becau
4 of somebody's disinclination to b.
" tor the plant an inexpensive piece
le pipe.
,e Once upon a time the foreman
the crushing plant made requisite
k through the usual channels for
~ draw shave, a medium sized cold CHI
Ell and an ordinary barrel. ut W
it set forth in the requisition that a
I'd old barrel capable of holding wat
e, would ~serve.)
But instead of the things asked f
s. the foreman eventually received
h communication from Capt. bod
in stating that samples Of all articl
n requisitioned for must be forward
to the purchasing agent before a
purchases could be made. AS t
foreman had neither a draw SHAY
70 n chisel nor a barrel to send to Cal
= Dodge he is still unsupplied wi
-. these articles.
a. And so it goes at Binangonan. o
a. ing to defective construction and
70 effective machinery, the output
crushed rock is less than half VIII
70 1t ought to be under proper con
ne tions.-Manila Up. ~ American.
~ MIX Absorbs had Od0rs.
We You cannot feed moldy hay, b
~ silage, musty corn fodder that b