The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1908-05-15
AUTOMOBILES VS.. MACADAMlZ-
ING


Our state and county highway Off
Gals have authorized the construction
of many miles of improved highways
largely of the macadam style, and at
a cost of from $4,000 to $4,000 per
mile. Among the most enthusiastic
and persistent promoters of this work
are the users of the automobiles.
The office of public roads of the
United States Department of Agricul-
ture has recently been conducting a
series of experiments to learn the
amount of damage done to the rock
surface thoroughfares by automobiles.
The results prove that the modern
fast-moving motor car is the greatest
menace to macadam roads that has
ever made it's appearance.
The macadam road, named after
John Louden Macadam, of Ayr, Scot
land, who was for years highway sur
veyor of Bristol, was first laid down
by the eminent French road engineer
Tresauget, of Limoges, who wisely
thought that slowly moving iron-tired
wagons would crush dust particles
from the stones of the roads surface;
that those particles would be con-
of the large stones; that every pass
ing wagon would crush them f1rmer
into all ruts and inequalities; that
rains would aid and the ultimate re-
suit would be a smooth surface, a
water shedding highway. Macadam
came two decades later and made a
slight change in laying the road foun-
dation and gave to such thoroughfares
his name.
For a century and quarter the wis
dom of the road engineers of Limoges
and Ayr was justified. Then arose a
condition they had never figured on
= fast moving vehicle running on
bread soft tires. To many 1t may
seem beyond belief that a pneumatic
rubber tire can work any injury to a
road composed of bits of crushed flint
rock, but it becomes plain when the
theory of such roads is explained.
The roads begin to suffer for the fol-
lowing reasons: The rubber tire, be-
ing soft, creates no rock dust itself
as does the iron tire of a wagon, and
the very life of these roads demands
a constant supply of that material. 1t
is the surface and the cracks filled in;
that maintains the evenness and binds
the rubble stones into one imperv1ous
mass. Every iron-tired wheel does It's
own small quota Of good by acting
as a rock dust maker and miniature
road roller The auto whirring 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 to
the adjacent farms and lawns in
binding clouds. So pronounced was
the mere dust nuisance created in
many portions of the country that real
estate decreased in value to an appre-
ciable extent, and farmers complained
that the ever-increasing dust on their
fields, vines and trees made it impos-
sible for them to sell their harvests
at as good prices as formerly.
1t is not only in America that this
condition prevails. The men Of Eng
land, France, Germany, Holland, Bel
GUM and other countries of the old
world where hard surface high
ways are appreciated have also learned
that the big soft rubber tires OF the
automobile are doing an almost in
credible amount of harm. France has
officially taken cognizance OF the con-
dition and has called an international
congress to meet at Paris on October
II to discuss plans for saving the
roads. Highway engineers must do
one of two things, find road-surfac-
ing material which makes no dust and
needs no dust to maintain Its integ-
rity, or discovery a practical method
Of controlling the dsst en- the roads
ALREADY laid.