The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1919-02-26
HOW MUCH
TEAM PULLS
County Engineer Fishel Discusses
Question and Presents Figures to
Back Up Argument
TEAM PULLS TENTH OF WEIGHT

| question and Presents Figures TO
Back Up Argument
TEAM PULLS TENTH OF WEIGHT
Table Showing Total Tractive Resis.
lance in Pounds for Loads Of
1000 Pounds Gross
It is common knowledge that cheap
makeshift patchwork road building
and maintenance are expensive. The
public conscience is awakening to
the economic value of the good road.
But insofar as relates to the waste of
power and the waste Of money Incl
dent thereto, which result from haul
ling heavily loaded wagons or trucks
day after day or year after year, over
bad roads, no report is available which
attempts to picture the economics in
the modern hard surface highway as
opposed to mud or ruts.
| A governor of one of our states
|once said that a good earth road was
easier to haul over than any other
type of road. Results of numerous
tests prove conclusively that about
three and one-half times as much ef:
fort is required on dirt road in Or
dinarily good condition as is needed
for the same load on concrete or brick
surface, and that ten to fifteen times
as much effort is required when deep
mud is encountered.
| The difference in pull between a
brick road and mud road is wasted
energy, wasted as absolutely as
though itnever had existed. This en-
ergy so wasted day after day and
month after month all over the United
States is what is meant by Brad
streets agency when it reports the
bank clearings in New York, Chicago
or San Francisco decreasing as the
result of seasonal conditions.
The usual seasonal condition is
mud. Mud makes business bad in the
country store because the farmers can
not get to town either to buy or to
sell. Bad business in the country
store makes bad business in the coun-
try bank, and poor business in the
country bank finds immediate reflec-
tion in the financial centers, where
bank clearings fall off and the city
merchant finds his business dull be-
cause the country merchant, perhaps
three or four hundred miles away, has
found his business dull on account Of
tbad~ roads. 1-v' # -
| Where a farmer is forced to go to
town in winter or early spring through
the usual seasonal mud" he can haul
only one.eighth or one-tenth Of the
load that he could on brick or con-
crete surfaced road. Marketing costs
are increased eight to ten times, and
this increased cost is passed along to
the average ultimate consumer,
whose good wife, engaged in stretch
ing his salary to limits that no rubber
bands could stand, ponders on the high
cost of living, tries to make one dol
lar do the work Of two, performing
miracles in finance, and never once
realizing that she is affected even in
the least by the usual seasonal con-
dition," mud, which commercial, agen-
cies speak of as affecting bank clear
ings.
Yet she is Supply the farmer with
a modern road that he can travel over
every day in the year, with mini
mum of effort, instead of when weather
permits, that he can haul over with
absolute economy instead of never
ending loss, and the resulting de-
crease in hauling costs, estimated by
the United States office of public roads
as more than 200 million dollars each
year which we pay in tribute to bad
roods would enable the American
wife and mother to take little addi-
tional comfort for herself, to give her
children a better education, and to
make wages go farther with some
thing left over for savings account.
1t is also common knowledge that
more effort is required to haul loads
over muddy roads than is required for
the same loads over dirt roads in good
condition. 1t is equally as true that
less effort is required to haul loads
over brick or concrete surface than
is required on earth roads when they
are smooth, dry and hard.
The writer's purpose, in the follow
ing paragraphs, is to attempt to illus
trate, in way that will not be very
technical in nature, the difference in
effort required to pull loads of one
ton $4,000 pounds) gross, over various
kinds of road surfaces.
In the preparation Of this article and
/ in the compiling of the tables includ-
ed herewith much credit is due to
many associations, commissions and
Investigators for their combined ef-
forts in the interests of road improve
ment.
The total effort required to pull a
load on a level road must be suffi-
cient to overcome all of the following
resistances Axle friction, wind re-
sistance and rolling friction.
| Axle friction is small, amounting to
but three or four pounds per ton of
load for the average American wagon
If creased.
Wind resistance is also small,
omounting to but about one pound per
ton at Is miles per hour for wind or
vehicle, and about ten pounds per ton
of load at so miles per hour. (Wind
resistance varies as the square of the
velocity)
Rolling friction, or the contact be.
tween the wheel tire and the road sur
face, varies with the different types
of surfaces. and for each surface de.
pends upon the diameter of the wheel,
the width of tire, the rate Of travel,
tho nracance or ahsanca Of SnrinpS on