The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1908-10-09
Macadam Highways Not Likely
To Built Much Longer. a~
CHANGE is DUE TO AUTOS
Elastic Bed Needed 10 Wlthsta nd the
Extra Wear and Tear on the
Machines.

New York, October, There is a
growing sentiment in favor Of the be.
lief that the present building of coun.
try roads with ymacadam will sooner
or later be done away with. One of
the principal speakers at the Atlantic
City Good Roads Convention, Engineer
James E. Owen, former county engi-
neer of Essex, N. j., asserted, that in
his opinion, the road of the. future
would not be constructed of stone,
but of dirt with some added binder.
The speaker said that an elastic sur
face was needed to Withstand the
combined action of automobile and
wagon traffic, and he was convinced
that the macadam road bed was
doomed.
1t is well known that the macadam
road is possibly the most dusty in
dry weather of any type of road.
and the wearing of the surface of the
more or less imperfect stone provid-
ed the dust, which is blown away by
the wind, leaving very ragged surface
when the top dressing has been re-
moved.
A New Jersey firm recently
offered to build certain numbers Of
miles of road for county, using
other material than macadam and
agreed to keep the road in perfect
condition for a term of three years,
which showed their faith in the new
material, whatever it is, but which
seems to be secret at the present
time. ~
1t has been said that a material
known as Stag, produced from blast
furnaces and other iron producing
plants, would make good road, pro-
yided binder was used that would
prevent any ragged edges of the Stag
cutting tires and injuring the hoofs
of horses.
Experiments in Massachusetts,.
In Massachusetts,, the town of New
ton is experimenting with an entire
new idea, and building half mile of
road the foundation of which is to
be macadam, but the surface is
combination of pulverized stone and
thick refuse of sugar refineries, sort
of molasses resembling tar as much as
anything. In a preliminary expert.
ment this molasses was found to be
as good binder for road surface
as coal tar, and has been used in
many different ways for the same pur-
pose but the sweet stuff is not destruc.
tive on tires or clothes.
This new road has been called the
candy road. Florida is discussing it,
and the people there believe it may be
possible that the old Spanish sugar
mills that utilized so much sugar
cane may again be started up, and in
that case the refuse could be mixed
with the plentiful sort of limestone
found in Dade County, and other
parts of Florida, and q perfect sys-
tenn of roads result.
Of course, Cuba and other sugar.
producing countries will be right in it,
as the Cuban refineries have used the
refuse in the past as fertilizer, and
of late have been making cheap al
cohol from it. A short time ago it
was thought that the automobile en-
CINE would eventually be driven by al.
cohol, and that low-priced fuel would
be had in consequence, but up to now
not much has been done in that
direction.
California has experimental a good
deal with a natural oil of low spe.
cifc gravity, which the oil wells OF
Lower California provide in plenty.
One thing is certain, the future
road will be built of something other
than macadam, as it is too expensive
to maintain in good condition, and it
will be up to the engineers and road
builders to develop a new material.
In countries like Holland brick roads
have been in vogue for many years,
and are seemingly success. In other
countries the plan of having shade
trees on either side of the road seems
to have protected the road, and pre-
vented undue flooding of the road BY
storms, and at the same time the
trees help to retain the moisture. All
tourists in Europe know this to be
a fact.
One of the moat important subjects
of interests to the automobiles at
the present time is the question OF
good roads, and how to maintain them
at minimum EXPENSE.