The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-04-29
OILED ROADS a SUCCESS.

Ote60 nOSAOS ~ 0ONSG00.
Official tests just made at Washing
ten show results of great interest and
value to ell users of public highways.
The tests were part of series being
conducted by the department of agri-
culture as to the effects of vehicles
of various kinds on macadam and pc
troleum covered drives Automobiles
We're sent over a guarded road at a
speed of a mile minute, and the re-
suit on the road was recorded by
cameras and instantaneous picture
machines. Similar tests -ere made on
macadam and an oiled road, to de-
termine how far the use of asphalt or
of crude petroleum or some other
lubricant by laying the dust puts an
end to the most destructive effect of
automobiles on macadam roads.
So far as the results have been fig
ured out they tend to show that the
/ better grade of macadamized roads
ed in similar manner will be cut
| to pieces by fast moving motor cars
4 in comparatively short time If eft
dry, while the surface will be pre-
served almost indefinitely If good
| system of oiling Is used and kept in
operation. Some of the most import
ant findings are thus summarized by
Raymond Patterson in a dispatch TO
the Chicago Tribune:
ut has been demonstrated thus far
that big high powered machine on
a first class macadamized road not
treated with oil does but little harm
while rolling along at maximum
speed of ten or a dozen miles an hour.
Beyond that rate results multiply.
BY the time the car is running a mile
a minute there is but little left of the
surface stone dust which would make
cement form with the next rain. 1t
is swept up into the air in clouds and
If there is any kind of a wind blowing
it settles back, not on the road where
; it belongs but upon the fields and
forests at its side.
This process of destruction does not
go on with anything like the same
81 eed where the road is oiled or sim
ilarly treated. OF course, it does MOI
go on rapidly where the road is thor
: oughiy sprinkled, but then the higI
speed is dangerous In itself on &C
count of the skidding.
g There is still to be determined jus
e how much the motor car shaves dow
l. road by a series of rapid curve
IS which are made necessary If thu ca
r. is to be kept in the correct genera
direction There are more of thes
y curves in the case of a motor car tina
" in the case of horse propelled "
le hicle. SO that while the wagon cut
e. a road into ruts the automobile has
" tendency to wear of the crown an
20 break 1t down along the edges
q 1t is claimed that on a good dill
road a heavy farm wagon does il
finitely more harm than motor ca
inasmuch as It's tires have a mario
tread and are made of iron, which cut
into the soft dirt and produces u
- slightly and almost impossible rut
~ "On fairly hardened dirt road
~ automobile will pass, even at hie
sneed, with much less damage to II
W highway than the slowly moyin
IN heavily laden farm wagon or eve
on lighter vehicle drawn by horses, Il
IN shoes of the horses and the iron tir'
10 being so designed as to cut IN Il
an roads inevitably, while the soft pne
matte tires Of the motor cars. In spi
ra- of their high transmission speed,
-n a. not really cut the road at all, althoul
~. they do damage 1t in other ways
.,t It is noted as a curious fact that {
ire automobile Injuries macadam ro
ces which is high class highway. mo
ind than 1t does a cheap dirt road, VIII
ids Just the contrary is true Of the fai
re- wagons The principle of the macs
I'M am road is that the surface Of dress
is stone will gradually be ground do'
'ne bv the tires of the wagons and t
:. iron hoofs of the horses. The powc
ground off from the surface sto
:. sinks into the interstices and eve
= time there is a good rain 1t is pack
le t ere in the form of light GENE
'liu- so that the surface ultimately becoH
me pliable and yet extremely durable
properly taken care OF. 1t was. fou
therefore. that the macadamized re
was built for the iron-tired wac
.ues and the iron-shod horse.