Arizona republican., 1908-05-07
DESTRUCTIVE
 Of GOOD HIGHWAYS
Soft Rubber Tires Strip Hard Surface Highways CT Rock Dust Binder.


 ture has recently been conducting a
 series of very interesting experiments
 to learn the amount of damage done l by the rock surface thoroughfares by automobiles. The results prove that
 the modern fast moving motor ear is
 the greatest menace to macadam roads 1 that has ever made it's appearnce. On some stretches of thoroughfare { especially in New England. where many broad and smooth roads have been constructed, the retrogression is not less than 40 per cent ana il has | been forced upon the director of the office of public roads and upon many ! highway engineers that if some plan | is not speedily devised for overcoming | the bad effects of mems latest and | most sensational mode of land trans i portation, the monetary loss will be stupendous and the good work of many years will go for naught.
 ] It is not only in America that this condition prevails. The men of Eng ! land. France, Germany. Holland. Bel gium and other countries of the old world where hard surfaced highways
 are appreciated have also learned that the big soft rubber tires of the auto
 mobile are doing an almost incred- table amount of harm. France has , officially taken cognizauce of the con- ' dition and has called an international congress to meet at Paris on October II to discuss plans for saving the roads. while in no way interfering with the development of sthe automobile 1, for no scientist will condemn one wor- thy civilizing influence because it tenn porarily conflicts with another. He will merely admit that a new condition has arisen and then set on foot an investi- gation with the idea of mastering it. To many it may seem beyond belief that d pneumatic rubber tire can work any injury to q road composed of bits
 of crushed flint rock. but it becomes plain when the theory of such roads :, is explained The macadam road named after John Louden AIacadam of Ayr. Scotland who was for years high way surveyor of Bristol Was first laid down by the eminent French road en- gineeF Tresauget of Limoges. who wisely figured that slowly moving iron tired wagons would crush dust parti- cles from the stones of the roads sur ! face: that those particles would be constantly sifted between the inter stices of the large stones: that every passing wagon would crush them firm
 er into all ruts and inequalities: that rains would aid and the ultimate re-
 suit would be a smooth surface. Wa r-shedding highway
 Tresauget planned wisely. Macadam came two decades later and made q , slight change in the laying of the road
 foundation and gave to such thorough ! fares his name. For a century and a quarter the wisdom of the road -ngi-
 neers of Limoges and Ayr was iusti- ~fled. Then arose a condition they had { never figured on: a fast moving ye-
 hlcle running on broad soft tires. The roads began to suffer at once for the following reasons: The rubber tire being soft, creates no rock dust itself
 as does the iron tire of wagon and i 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
 immature
 road roller The auto whirring along at dizzy speed simply flattened it's
 tires against the ground as it sped and
 the tractive force so exerted hurled
 the precious rock dust into the air and from where it was swept to the ad-
 jacent farms and lawns in blinding clouds. So pronounced was the mere dust nuisance created in many portions 1 or the country that real estate de- creased in value to an appreciable ex- tent and farmers complained that the
 ever-inereasing dust on their fields. vines and trees made it impossible for them to sell their harvests at as good prices as formerly.
 When these conditions had been es- tablished by scientifically gathered data the director of the office of public roads set on foot numerous investiga- tions and ordered many experiments: the results of which it is believed will ultimately prove the automobile to be a great benefactor. for in the struggle
 10 overcome the conditions created lhghway engineers must do one of two things. find a road surfacing material | which makes no dust and needs no dust to maintain it's integrity. or dis cover method of controlling the dust
 on the roads already laid. When that
 Is done one of the greatest problems
 or the centuries will have been solved and humanity will have gained one of
 the greatest blessings imaginable. Alp
 solutely dust-prOof thoroughfares
 would add immeasurably' to the com