The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-18
ROAD MAKERS WORK
 ON LATEST PUZZLE
Automobiles Play Havoc With
 Many Roads
MANY SEEKING SOLUTION
Will Finally Prove Blessing Because It Means. That Dust Must Be Prevented On All the
 Highways.

1 Washington. April Speeial)-The office of public roads of the United States
 department of agriculture has recently
 been conducting a series of very interest ing experiments to learn the amount of damage done to the rock surface thor l oughfares by automobiles. The results prove that the modern, fast-movng mo-
 tor car is the greatest menace to mac
 adam roads that has ever made it's ap- pearanee.
 On some stretches of thoroughfares. es- i pecially in New England where many broad and smooth roads have been con 1 structed. the retrogression is not less than 40 per cent and it has been forced upon the director of the office of public roads and upon many highway engineers that if some plan is not speedily de- vised for overcoming the bad effects of
 mans latest and most sensational mode of land transportation, the monetary loss
 will be stupendous and the good work 1 of many years will go for paught. 1 It is not only in America that this
 condition prevails. The men of England, l France Germany, Holland Belgium and
 other countries of the old world where hard surfaced highways are appreciated i have also learned that the big soft sub 1 ber tires of the automobile are doing an
 almost incredible amount of harm. France l has officially taken cognizance of the condition and has called an international congress to meet at Paris on October Il to discuss plans for saving the roads, while in no way interfering with the de- velopment of the automobile, for no sci entists will condemn one worthy civilzng influence because it temporarily conflicts with another. He will merely admit that a new condition has arisen and then set on foot an investigation with the idea of mastering it.
 To many it may seem beyond belief that a pneumatic rubber tire can work any injury to a road composed of bits or crushed flint rock, but 1t becomes plain when the theory of such roads is eX- plained. The macadam road, named after John Louden Macadam of Ayr, Scotland, who was for years highway surveyor Of Bristol was first laid down by the emil nent French road engineer Tresauget of Limoges, who wisely figured that slowly moving iron tired wagons would crush dust particles from the stones of the roads surface that those particles would be constantly sifted between the inter- stices of the large stones that every passing wagon would crush them firmer into all ruts and inequalities; that rain would aid and the ultimate result would be a smooth surface, water shedding highway.
 Tresauget planned wisely; MacAdam came two decades later and made a slight chance in the laying of the road founda- ton and gave 10 such thoroughfares his name For a century and d quarter the 1 wisdom of the road engineers of Limoges 1 and Ayr was justified. Then arose 1 condition they had never figured on; 1 fast moving vehicle running on broad,
 soft tires. The roads began to suffer at once for the following reasons: The rub 1 Der tire, being soft, creates no rock dust l itself as does the iron tire of wagon and the very life of these roads demands a | constant supply of that material It is the surface binder that keeps the road | smooth; cracks filled in; that maintains the evenness and binds the rubble stones into one impervious mass. Every iron tired wheel does it's own small quota of good by acting as a rock dust maker and a miniature road roller. The auto whir- ring along at dizzy speed simply fiattened its tires against the ground as it sped and the tractive force so exerted hurled the precious rock dust into the air and from ] there it was swept into the adjacent farms and lawns in blinding clouds.A So pro- nounced as the mere dust nuisance ere ated in many portions of the country thlt 1 real estate decreased in value to an ap- l preciahle extent and farmers complained l that the ever-increasing dust on their 1 fields, vines and trees made it impossible l for them to sell their harvests at as good 1 prices as formerly.
 l When these conditions had been estsb- l lished by scientifically gathered data the 1 director of the office or public roa1s set 1 on foot numerous investigations and or
 dered many experiments; the results of
 which it is believed will ultimately prove 1 the automobile to be great benefactor, l for in the struggle to overcome the condi- 1 tions created highway engineers must do 1 one of two things; find a road surfacing l material which makes no dust and needs l no dust to maintain it's integrity or dis l cover a method of controlling the dust on 1 the roads already laid. When that is l done one of the greatest problems of the l centuries will have been solved and hu- , manity will have gained one of the great | est blessings imaginable. Absolutely dust l proof thoroughfares would add immeasur- | ably to the comforts of the human race;
 multiply the beauty of vast stretches of | country; add countless millions of wealth | to suburban and country property and
 do much to retard disease, for dirt means
 
 in the United States make not less than | 90 per cent of the dust which a long
 suffering people take into their lungs each
 year.
 To the time of present writing no dust
 proof road surface material cheap enough
 for use in country districts has beer
 found, and the experiments now proceed
 ing are, therefore along the second line
 the controlling of the dust by various
 mel hods of spraying and by the use oi
 binder materials. In some sections, es
 pecially through th- great fruit belts ol
 California, splendid success in dust sup
 pression has pcen a,ta'hed by spraying l.the dirt reads with oils possessing as
 iphaltc bases. In other oItons of tns
 country the wise ad'n'nisterins of coal ta'
 preparations has aIdsa 10 a great extent
 and drenching with calcnan chloride has l shown that the dust can be kept at ,
 minnnuni. nose methods. However, er.
 not perfect solutions of the vast problem
 Of road maintenace and dust suppression
 They are merely palliatives, and while | they are being advocated in such sections
 of the country as will be immediately
 benefited, the bigger problem of discover
 ing an absolute antidote for the actior
 of the automobile is occupying the at
 tention of scientists on both sides of the
 Atlantic The solution of that problem
 may be given at the big congress at Paris
 in the fall, or it may be discovered before
 possibly on this side of the western ocean
 possibly in the lands where good roads
 were known when America was in it.
 swadding clothes.