The star-progress. (Opelousas, La.) 1917-1921, 1921-03-02
MAKING ROAD BEDS
OF WORN OUT TIRES

OF WORN OUT ltHES
New York City, Feb. 4.-Utilizing
down-atthe+heel and WORKOUT auto
mobile tires as an aid to good road
building is a new contribution to this
vital subject in a statement given
forth by John Kearns, one OF the
deans Of the tire industry, chairman
of the tire division of the Rubber AS
sociation Of America and vice presi-
dent of the Lee Tire & Rubber Co.
"In the world of manufacture,
scrap heaps have become taboo" says
Mr.. Kearns. Nothing is wasted. Gold
filings are salvaged from gold work
ers' clothes by suction. The modern
factory guards its waste as a miser
treasures his pennies. New uses are
discovered hourly for the residue Of
manufacture We know that the rag
man thrives at his trade and that the
unclean individual who collects en-
trails from the butcher often sports
diamonds. Every by-product is tri.
butte to the men who waste not.
81 have been handling rubber,
moulding rubber and fabricating 1t
for a good many years but have new
er yet had any one tell me just what
becomes of the one-million-and-a-half
tons Of old vulcanized rubber scrap,
the yearly remains of deceased auto
mobile tires. Nobody has ever found
any real use for it. This eVer-increas-
ing surplus of dead rubber will con-
tinue to pile up as long as people con-
tinue to wear out tires.
cat meeting of the tire divisien of
the ruber association it was re-
commended that the tire manufactur-
ers discontinue their present practice
of selling to rebuilders scrap castings
which have been returned to the fac
tory for adjustment and that they so
mutiIate and destroy them as to make
them unavailable for use as so called
rebuilt tires
81 am of the opinion that old scrap
rubber could be profitably used in the
making of sub grades for highways.
Roughly ground old rubber, say 10
about the size of a cubic inch, laid
down to a thickness of four or five
inches, believe could be used as an
excellent base for highway building.
The surfacing could be of either maca-
dam or concrete. Recent investiga-
ton of road sub-gradas indicate that
70 per cent of road failures are due
to faulty foundation and not to the
wearing surface.
"a subgrade of rubber scrap would
not be expensive. 1t would, believe
afford great cushioning power to the
road to absorb the heaviest blows,
and would not resist the expansion of
the road surfacing due to frost. 1t is
the resistance of the roadbed, as at
present constructed, to surface ex-
pansion which is responsible for
cracks. A rubber subgrade would
give the necessary play when frost is
distending the road.
Rubber slabs have been used for
many years in road making abroad.
Anyone who has ever visited Berlin,
Germany, will remember stretches of
such roads in that city. When l was
with the Dunlop company in Mel
bourne, Australia, l remember expert
menting with success with this form
of road construction. But this is an
expensive job, an almost prohibitive
one, and would never answer for high
way building.
THE failure of zip tires to give
service to the purchaser should relic
gate such worn out castings to a timely
grave. Bury them under a highway
for good tires to roll over"