The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-10
Birmingham Men Are Carried Over Fulton County'S High
 ways on InSpet ton Trip
SOME OF PATHFiNDERS
 RETURNED YESTERDAY
Tourists Enthusiastic Over Result of Trip-lmproved Highway Would Place Birmingham and Atlanta
 Less Than 10 Hours Apart
BY JAMES B. KEELING.

Atlanta October 9.-( Special. In noculated by the enthusiasm gener- ated by the running of the Age-Herald
 pathhnding tour three members of
 Jefferson county's Board of Revenue
 arrived In Atlanta late last night for the purpose of inspecting the roads around Atlanta and machinery being
 used in the construction of these roads
 They were President Job Going, c. B. Rogers and J. B. Haigler. The path finders had made preparations to start on the return trip home early this afternoon but when the presence of the county commissioners was learned all plans were held up and the time spent in showing the commissioners around in an auto. It was too good an opportunity to miss. Fulton coun. ty has a few bad roads but the ma; jority are in magnificent condition and a monument to the road builders art, and the pathfnders were anxious to see them.
 Taken Out Over Roads.
 While the trip was originally in the main to examine some of the road ma.
 chinery, G. T. Brazelton, secretary of the Birmingham Motor club; A. D.
 Woods, and others managed to some extent to make the subject of good roads the principal thing which they took up.
 First they were taken out on the Peachtree road beyond Bucl1head and shown several strips of oiled and tar capped road experiments. These are being made by Fulton county with the assistance of the national government One of these experiments is called "bituminus asphaltum." Like the re- cent experiments of Street Commis. sioner John McCartin of Birmingham, it has the pure petroleum asphaltum. for it's base, but instead of using the oil the tar from coke ovens is used. This is applied to a base of rock of about three inches thickness and is covered with a thin coat of screen. ings.
 ! It is believed that it will present ! a pavement equal to asphalt This however, does not present the dust less features of the experiments made by MT. McCartin which, in addition tc the freedom from dust, makes a. road way, when applied with the proper | percentage of asphalt and vehicle oil
 that does not wash away or wear to
 any extent under fairly heavy traffic Shown Oil Experiments. They were shown an experiment of tha latter kind on the road to the Speedway Atlantas new automobile race course 1 This Is on a strip of cherted roadway with a number of steep hills, and over ! which a thousand automobiles pass a. 1 terrific speed during the day. On this | stretch 1t is allowable to forget the speed limit and the pathfinders joined in the fun, walking over the steep hills at 4 | miles per hour clip.
 This road is great and Birmingham and Jefferson county, with MT McCartin' , superior knowledge of this particular road
 material, should work wonders in beauti- flying the Birmingham district with 1t. , The three county commissioners were delighted with the roads and 1t could plainly be seen that they had become en- thusastic in the determination to have Jefferson coun6 surpass any district IT the United Stafes so far as good roads are concerned. They were also showr some of the fine macadamized roads here They also made a close inspection oi some of the machinery being used and ex- pressed themselves as being highly pleased with 1t. They are returning tc Birmingham tonight.
 Brazelton Starts Today. Tomorrow morning MT. Brazelton in the official Age-Herald car with A. D. Woods