Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1905-08-23
THE COMPARATIVE TEST.


Practical tests were made near At
lanta some months ago, and the illus
tration shows the result of same.
The bill prepared by Mr.. Eeiskell is
as follows:
"A bill to regulate the width of tires
on traffic vehicles. !
"Section l. Be it enacted by the
general assembly of the state of Ten
nessee, that all traffic vehicles, without
rubber tires. shall be required to have
wheels of one-inch average width for
each 250-pound load capacity per wheel.
That is to say, four-wheeleG vehicle
of 1000 pounds capacity shall have 111h-
inch tires; of 1000 pounds capacity
shall have tires of 2A inches wide; of
4,0OO-pound load capacity, AZ inches
wide; OF 5,000-pound load capacity,
81 inches wide; 6,000-pound load ca
pacity, six inches wide; of 7,000-pound
load capacity, 61s inches wide; 5000
pound load capacity, seven inches
wide. All two-wheeled venlcles of one
half the carrying capacity Of the above
four-wheeled vehicles are to have
wheels with widths of the tires above,
respectively.
''Sec. 2 Be it further provided, that
anyone violating the provisions of this
act by the use of tires of width less
than herein required shall, upon con-
viction, he fined not less than s. and
not more than SIS for each offense.
Sec. 8. Be it further enacted, that
this act take effect six months after
| passage Of the same' -.
In an Interview. Mr.. Heiskell says:
"A very important point is that the
table of test results of the Missouri
experiment station, relied on by I. o.
! Baker professor of civil engineering
University Of Illinois, and others is
| wrong in so far as it seems to support
an idea that wide wheels pull harder
+! Out of "a conditions tested only three
have any appearance of confirming
, such erroneous notion. One of these
| three shows IS per cent disadvantage
of good macadsm road over bad earth
road, and 65 per cent. disadvantage
of good earth road over bad earth
roads.
In discussing his measure Mr.. Heis.
| kell said that good roads are not pos
sible with narrow tires. He said that
his idea was that such a bill should
| be passed as would not become dead
| letter by reason of the fact that it was
| obnoxious to the people. The cost of
! roads and streets is divided into three
parts: The cost of making them bad;
the cost of bring them back to their
! original condition-these should be cut
out-aad the cost of improvement upon
the original condition. This cost could
be cut down about half. Wide tires
leave the roads in better condition
than before passing over. Narrow tires
have just the opposite effect. Mr..
Heiskel' quotes many authorities on
road building in support of this posi-
ton.
In the other two cases the show
Ing of any disadvantage from wide.
six-inch wheels, is due solely to mud
made by the narrow 1k-inch tires.
Besides, and very much so at that.
tests Nos. 2, 8, 4, on bad gravel roads
show % per cent. greater pull for the
11@-inch tires; and show 60 per
cent. more pull on bad earth roads:
II, II and IL show 80 per cent. more
pull on bad earth roads, and II and "a
show Al per cent. more pull on farms,
tor the 1H-inch tire than for the six-
zach tire, all other conditions being
EQUAL. ~s>
atlanta test (if not the New York
three years experience as well. plain
" shows that after abatement OF the
l1z-inch tires, which fixed conditions
Of tests, the six-inch tires would have
pull in tests / to Is, about ITO pounds
per ton of load, whereas the narrow
wheels did pull about 440 pounds per
ton" IL" =: lss%-< + rs pa =:==az y #