The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-09-14
Slag And WoIaSses Used
 To BuiId DnSfIeSs Roads
One Experiment Under Way In Birmingham To Combine Slag and Tar In Such Way AS To Do Away
 With the Dust Evil

sugar refineries of the west and south west. It 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 consis- tency of this material were called 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 a supply for laboratory experiments and de- tailed MT. Hubbard to conduct them. The molasses 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. It behaved so we'll and held out such promises for ideal roads that the practical test of real road was recently decided upon.
 Slag as the useless by-product of the blast furnaces and ''molasses" as the use less by-product of the sugar refneries, may in a few years revolutionize coun- try road building create demand for more extended roads in the states where those products are most easily to be had, and add millions to the wealth of the country by putting a cash value on hith erto waste material.
 While experts are laboring with these unique material experiments in the east, south and middle west, another scientist, also from the office Of public roads is
 
 ing to devise a method of constructing oiled roads analogous to the methods which have produced the famous oiled roads of southern California. He is mix ing heavy oils, possessing pronounced as- phaltic bases, with natural soil and sand and competing the preparation formed with a tamping roller. One stretch of this peculiar class of highway will be under construction within a few days. The oiled roads of California have saved millions of dollars to the farmers and fruit-growers of that fertile state in the last few years by suppressing the dust that formerly arose in blingng clouds with the passing of every vehicle. Those dust clouds. floating to adjacent fields and orchards, depreciated the price of farm produce and lowered the values of real estate to a startling degree. The sprinkling of oil was tried and the dust was held in check. Then some of the roads were plowed and the oil mixed with the earth and the mass firmly rolled to a properly crowned surface. Splendid re- suits followed In most instances.
 Kansas has long been dust-ridden and the oiled roads now to be built there will, it is hoped, prove as beneficial to the peo- pie of that commonwealth as the Cali fornia roads have to that state.
 There Is now in course of preparation comprehensive treatise on dust prevention which will fall from the presses of the government printing office in few days. Following it in a few weeks will be < symposium embodying the experience and the experiments of all state highway com missioners, park boards and city engineers who have done any work along these lines. Their views and findings will be supplemented by the reports of a federal public road expert who has carefully eX- amined the methods now in use in France and England.