Omaha daily bee., 1909-03-14
MOTOR ROAD IS IN VOGUE
Wagon Roads Are Giving Way to
Highways for Automobiles.
AUTOS HARD ON WAGON ROADS
a Hard Tire on n smooth Road IL
the Ideal and soft Tires VIII
Give way a. the Roads
Improve.

AndlNE &c the tIItCA VI " tAA1 vi AOo'Nf
This paper treats the subject from a poiat
Of view Of the automobilist, but with the
idea that while agitating for better roads
they should themselves remedy certain de-
fects in automobiles which tend to injure
road surfaces. The author begins by stating
that the ideal contact would be that OF an
unyielding wheel on an unyielding surface.
the nearest approach to which Is found in
a railway car and track. II this is true,
soft tires should give place 10 hard ones,
and. as the roads are made smoother and
harder, pneumatic tires should give way to
solid cnes. Any variation from the ideal
contact means loss Of energy and injury to
both road and tire
II have never had the pleasure of meeting
Mr.S Douglass Mckenzie or of having any
Communication with him. But as a man
who has studied the motor road for many
years 7 want TO subscribe to the fidelity
With witch he has defined It." said f. j..
Nasa. This. however. will not help the
general public in building it. To get at a
clear comprehension of that we will want
to go over i'm detail the horse road with
which We all have now for many years
Eoen fsmiliar) and let that. help US to un-
dcrstand the motor road, which is simply
an evolution OF the horse road, the place
of which, in highway transportation, IL is
now about TO take. We will at
tire dirt road which lies in the march Of
human progress bang up against the trail
IN the forest. The farmers gave the ground
through which the road was to pass and
then either hired help or else turned out 50
many days each year and dug the bitches
on either side of the road and heaped up
Tic dirt in tho middle. which made all the
road tlsic wus made,
-.-.a.,t. ...- E,col,, uA., I,,v,nNI
onto the soil any kind OF crushed stone
which has slight cementive properties, but
scii. enough to pack down into a compare
lively smooth road by being travelled over.
So much OF this road has been made ever
since. and his name is so generally known
in connection with this form of road that
we fail to realize that the great thing that
Macadam really did was not this. The
thing that Macadam saw and used his
linking powers upon most was his discov-
cry that the, highway must have an elias
tic base, and as he did not have one to pre-
sent he went over and made the great error
OF saying that the highway did not need
any base at all.
I'm some evidence before a Parliamentary
commission upon the subject of roads,
Macsdam said that he would prefer a soft
foundation to a hard one, going so far as
TO say that he would prefer a bog IL 1t
we're sufficiently hard to allow a man to
walk over it," said c.. c. Tillison, chief
engineer of highways. Manhattan, New
York City. He worked on very differ
ent principles from Telford, in that he not
only did not require the foundation course,
but stated that he considered it positively
injurious. He put his road surface directly
on the ground which. when it was wet,
came poking up through the surface Gas
II the tie of the railroad should poke up
through the rail and break it, and when
It was dry, was not elastic. Macadam dis
covered the correct principle; but having
failed to provide any correct mechanical
application of that principle, the engineers
commenced 1disputing him and finally
laid dow a rigid foundation, not
only for the macadam road, but for every
other form OF horse road ever since. The
Telford foundation, consisting of heavy
stones Uhey are laying them in Cuba now,
ten inches thick) was the first form Of the
rigid foundation. Then came the asphalt,
wooden block, brick block and any other
kind OF block all with a rigid foundation
viz. concrete. The concrete was uneven at
the top. so they put some sand on II, which
transmitted this unevenness to the surface.
and racked it out of one-half of it's life.
This sand either was or got dry, the con-
crete being impervious, and not letting the
sround water up to Il. The wooden block
was condemned and utterly thrown out
from this cause twenty-five years ago in
this country, but has since partly regained
its reputation in the heaviest Travelled over
spots i'm London and Paris by smoothing
off the top of the concrete with neat ce-
ment mortar doubling the former life of
the creasote treated wood paving block
from eight years, up TO sixteen or seven
teen years. This was possible because
while the base remained rigid the block it.
self was resilient.
we are today able to carry out Naca-
dams ideal of having an elastic restine
place for the surface of the road, and yet
have the strongest kind Of a foundation.
Instead Of as he had, having none at all.
II can be lone in this way:
BY furnishing a die (after the right to
do so has been acquired, by any brick
yard making devitrified paving brick, or
block. without any other change in their
yard, VI can make a block twelve inches
square, varying from four inches up in
depth. In this block at, regular intervals
are run holes, say one and a quarter
inches in diameter. These blocks after
draining, and thoroughly compacting the
subgrade, and thus making it just as hard
as we possibly can. are laid upon this sub
grade. coal tar pitch is poured into the
spaces between the blocks. then the holes
are filled with wet, sharp sand, and enough
more sand is put upon the blocks TO make
an inch of sand evenly laid over them.
Upon this Is laid the devltrined block as a
surface: the spaces between these surface
blocks are filled with grout. with the usual
expansion joint OF asphalt or any similar
substance.
The moisture in the sand gives elasticity
to the surface, just as Mscadam said We,
ground would do.
Were Macadam with us today, this form
OF road construction would have his full
and hearty endorsement. II furnished the
missing link in his conception. This il the
evolution Of the motor from the horse
road.
Our engineers are going to Europe IA
see how their horse roads compare with
our horse roads. and their engineers are
coming here to see how our horse roads
compare with the horse roads Of Europe.