Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1905-06-30
ABOUT OILED ROADS.
What The President Of The National
Good Roads Association Has to. Say.

In an interview recently with w,
H Moore, president of the National
Good Roads Association, he said that
oiled roads were almost as good as
macadamized roads. He said:
SIT is mystery to me that people
of this or any other country in the oil
belt should have been SO long content
to see the roads going to ruin.
Wherever oil hiss been tried on a
street it has been successful. The
oil road is very simple in construction.
The earth is piled on the road-bed.
1t is then rolled and after that har-
row is run ligh fly over it. The oil is
then put on by sprinkling wagons ex-
actly as the streets are sprinkled.
Effective results have been received
from oil at a temperature of 295 de-
grees F., and this can be always OBJ
tanned by putting a gasoline burner
or a series of burners under a wagon.
CATER the oil is on the road should
be again rolled and two or three days
elapse before teams are PERMITTED to
use it. By that time the oil will have
seeped through and the surface of
the road will be almost as smooth and
hard as an asphalt road. AS time
goes on the road becomes better.
Then it forms kind of cement which
YIELDS the fine particles of sand into a
solid mass and keeps it firm In the
alkali soil of the southwest. and the
Pacific coast oil is particularly effec-
tive for road material because the
lime furnishes a necessary ingredient
of the cement.
"For the first sprinkling $50 bar
rels of oil to the mile are required.
"The quality of the oil is not impor-
tant, except that it has been the ex-
perience of road builders that heavy
oil or fuel oil is more desirable than
light or high grade oil. There is
more asphaltum and coal tar in the
the heavy oil and these are very
desirable, A new road ought to be
sprinkled twice the first year, once in
the spring when it is built and again
in the fall before the rainy season.
"The second sprinkling need not be
more than eight barrels to the mile.
After that once year is often enough
to oil the roads and from eighty to
ninety barrels a mile is enough to
keep the road in perfect condition.
1t will be seen that the cost of the oil
road is very much less than the cost
of the macadam road. Oil can be
had here, 1 understand, for less than
SO cents a barrel, Of course the
earth costs nothing. The rest is a
question of teams, a roller, a harrow
and sprinkling wagon. A mile of
road costs from $500
TO $1,000. A mile of oil road should
be built for $500 or $1,000 at the
most.
can oil road sheds water like
ducks back. One hour after hard
rain it is dry. 1t is as impervious as
a waterproof coat and therefore the
damage from washouts in case of
floods is minimized. Besides there is
an entire absence of dust. The road
with very little care can be kept as
clean as the parlor floor at home.
One economy in the handling of oil
is that one man can look after several
miles of it. They stand the heaviest
traffic with little wear and tear.
Whenever there is a rut all you have
to do is to put in some earth. run
roller over, sprinkle it with the oil and
you have smooth surface again."
Our ElIinwood Friends.