The Democratic advocate., 1908-11-06
ROAD CONSTRUCTION
FURNACE Stag and "CANDY" ROADS
The LATEST NOVELTIES
U. S. Department OF Agriculture
Makes Unique Experiments

Uniquely interesting are number
of the experiments now being conduct
ed by the Office of Public Roads of the
United States Department of Agricul-
ture, one being the effort to build a
dust-proof road by combining the here
tofore little used blast furnace Stag,
with asphalt or tar.
This endeavor is of the utmost econ
omic Importance, because if the hoped
for success is attained, unsightly
mountains of Stag will soon disappear
from the vicinity of cities, and ready
market will have been established for
vast quantities OF this material
For several years the scientists in
the Office of Public Roads, as well as
in many of themore progressive States,
have been working to achieve two
great objects, viz, the utilization OF
by-products in road building and the
development of dustless roads. Expert
ments already conducted indicate that
crushed rock combined with tar or
asphalt preparations bid fair to solve
in a measure the dustless road prob
lem Exhaustive laboratory tests have
indicated that Stag in combination with
preparations of tar or asphalt may be
crushed rock. Sections of experiment
tai road are now being constructed
which will subject the materials to
actual test. If the results are as salts
factory as the preliminary conditions
indicate, the slag-asphalt or slag-tar
roads will realize the hope of the sci
entists for both the utilization of by
products and the attainment of a dust
| loc n,,o Of riT Mt a
stretches of road is now in course of
construction at Chicago, under the
supervision of Chief Engineer Vernon
NJ Pierce, of the Federal Bureau, and
one at Birmingham, Alabama, under
the direction of Mr.. B. F. Heidel, First
Assistant Engineer.
The road at Chicago will be of Stag
and asphalt, that at Binghampton of
Stag and tar. The greatest skill and
care will be used in putting down these
short stretches, and they will then be
carefully observed during the trying
months of winter. If in the spring it
has been established that this class of
road remains firm, does not rut, sheds
water and makes but title dust, vast
step forward will have been taken in
road building, and never-failing
blast furnace waste.
Besides this activity in Stag expert
ments, the Public Roads Office is also
busy at Newton, Massachusetts, with
special asphalt preparation, never
before tried, which the director and
his lieutenants hope may prove effica-
cious as dust binding surface ma
teria1.
More unique than this, however, the
office is preparing at the same place
to lay a stretch of what facetiouS
writer's are almost certain to label a
Candy Road" In all flights of fancy
| it is probable that nobody except a
scientist would go SO far afield in re-
search as to adopt molasses as a road
building material, but that is exactly
what has been done here, and Assistant
Chemist Provost Hubbard, of Director
Pages scientific corps, is leveling a
half mile stretch of road near Newton,
and in few days will be in active
supervision of the laying of the first
molasses road of history. This molaS-
ses is the almost useless by-product
of the great cane sugar refineries of
! the South, and the beat sugar refiner-
less of the West and Southwest. 1t
| is sickishly sweet, nearly as black and
as thick as tar, and almost as powerful
as a binder Having always been a
waste product, it can be bought at a
| lower price than coal tar and in greater
quantities.
| When the quantity and the sticky
consistency of this material was called
i to the attention of Director Page, a
number of months ago, he conceived
the idea that it might aid in solving
the always difficult problem of dusty
roads He sent for supply for labo-
ratory experiments and detailed Mr..
Hubbard to conduct them. The mo-
| lasses was blended with oils and lime
water; was mixed with rock dust with
earth and with SAND and tried out
under heat and under water. 1t be-
haved SO well and held out such prom
ises for ideal roads that the practical
test of real road was recently decided
upon.
Stag as the useless by-product of
| the blast furnaces, and molasses as