The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-06-07
USE OF MOLASSES IN BUILDING ROADS Government Finds It Makes
 Excellent Binder CANNOT STAND MUCH RAIN Director Page Sends Out Results of Experiments Made In Unique
 Road Building at New
 ton, Mass.
CANNOT STAND MUCH RAIN

The use of molasses in the construe- ton of roads would seem amusing to some; wasteful to the small boy, and a jolly good thing to the hungry fly, but, in fact, it is being tried with marked success by the government in it's ef- forts to find the best durable road for various sections of the country.
 An experiment just completed under the direction of the government at Newton, Mass, in which @ mixture of molasses, oil and lime was used, gives quite an n- teresting study of the new use to which Hong sweetening' may be used. Here is the government report which has just been sent out by Director Page:
 For this experiment 8 section of Sum- init street running north from Bellevue street and varying from 4.8 to an 8 per cent grade, was selected. While sub ject to less traffic than Cabot street. it was badly in need of resurfacing and the same general method of preparing the base was therefore followed. The binding material for the upper course was composed of mixture of molasses, oil and lime.
 "In certain sections of the country con- siderable quantities of waste molasses or blackstrap are produced in the manu- facture of sugar. This material has but few uses and is therefore sold at low figure in the neishborhood of the sugar refineries where 1t Is produced It Is of an exceedingly sticky nature and when combined with quicklime produces calcium sucrate. which upon standing sets Into a iolrx fo somewhat soluble In water and for this reason cannot in it's natural state be used In localities subjected to frequent rains An attempt was therefore made to waterproof 1t by the addition of a semi-asphaltic oil with which it would be emulsified for the time being. From lab oratory experiments a combination of these materials was devised which gave indications of suitability as road bind CT. As the policy of the office has al- ways been to further the of local products in the construction and treat ment of local roads whenever possible, 1t was thought worth while to construct a short experimental section of road. using this materialf as binder in order to de- termine it's practical value. In the neigh
 
 Is sold at very much higher figure than in localities near where 1t is produced, so that the cost of construction of this section of road was much greater than in would be in those localities. '"The binder was prepared in a large mortar box by first slaking 320 pounds of uuiclSlime with 10S gallons of water. AS soon as the lime was completely slaked, 92 gallons of molasses was added and thoroughly mixed with it, after which 50 gallons of the semi-asphaltic oil was stirred in. While the preparation was still hot it was mixed with the graded stone in the same manner as has been described for the bituminous mixtures, ex- cept that in this case the stone was not first heated. Eighteen gallons was ap- piled to every 1910 pounds of stone, and the concrete thus produced was hauled to the road and laid as soon after mixing as possible. When rolled It produced a firm and resilient surface upon which heavily loaded teams produced no wheel marks one-half hour after 1t had been laid. Under the action of the roller small portion of the oil came to the sur face, so that light application of stone chips was required to put the surface in good condition.
 The section treated was 351 feet in length, 1S8 feet of which was 171a feet wide and 165 feet B feet wide. The total area covered was 800 square yards and o. 92 gallon of molasses, 0.5 gallon of oil. and 3.2 pounds of lime per square yard was used. The labor item was exceed la; Ir the inexperience of the workmen in pre- pairing and handling the material. The cost of molasses was figured at Il cents per gallon and of lime at 50 cents per 100 pounds.
 Besides the experiments already de- scribed, one other was made on Cabot street, in which sand was used and cov- cred with a very weak preparation of lime and molasses as a top dressing This experiment proved a failure, and Its de- scription and cost are therefore not in- cluded in this report
 After three months wear all of the sections which have been described are in good condition, so that 1t Is impossible to compare them satisfactorily. If any comparison were made. however, those sections covered with tarred sand seem to be best, and that constructed with oil as binder not quite so satisfactory as the others. After a winter S wear the de- fects in the least satisfactory sections should become apparent but among those which are in good condition at the be- ginning of spring it Is possible that much longer time will be required be- fore a choice can be made. In regard to this, as well as all other work of an ex- perimental character, it may be said that the cost was greater than that which would be involved in the construction of long stretches of road where the work could be arranged and carried out more systematically
 RAHE nN