IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ROADWAYS
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 24th May 1881. A communication
from abroad by Peter Kiss, of Budapest, Hungary.
"
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
ROADWAYS." [A communication from abroad by Peter Kiss, of Budapest,
Hungary.]
The present Invention relates to improvements in the construction of roadways
or roads by means of which improvements roadways are made cheaper, more
durable, and less fatiguing for draught-animals than those hitherto known.
The said Invention consists essentially in providing roadways or roads with
special tracks of cement, concrete, or asphalt, on which the wheels of vehicles arc.
intended to run, whilst the remaining parts of the road are made comparatively
rough.
The objections to the constructions used hitherto are the following, viz. :-
Roads which are maçadamised or asphalted or paved with stones, bricks, or
wood have the disadvantage that they are built of the same strength and materials
throughout their entire width.
Other roads exist having wheel-tracks or tramways made of broad long slabs of
stone or of narrow strips of macadam or of iron rails, but no roads are yet known
which are provided with tracks of cement, concrete, or asphalt forming the chief
novel feature of the present Invention.
Against all the modes of construction hitherto known there are particular
objections, that is to say, stones, wooden blocks, and bricks, do not form one
continuous coherent mass without joints, and consequently the wheels of the.
vehicles passing over such roads jump from one stone block or brick to the other,
suffering a fresh shock at every separate joint, which causes a continual vibration,
injuring the road as well as the vehicles and the animals.
The jarring of the vehicles resulting from these innumerable shocks causes the '
stones and bricks to be gradually crumbled to pieces and soon worn out, and
creates a dust highly injurious to the lungs.
In the course of the wearing down of the paving stones, blocks of wood, or
bricks, irregular depressions are formed, which by causing still more violent shocks
to the vehicles increase the damage done to the road, to the vehicles, and to the

page_text: animals, and cause a very unpleasant noise. Holes in the road are also caused by
the circumstance that the stones, wooden blocks, or bricks are not equally hard,
and the softer parts are worn out sooner by the wheels than the harder ones.
A depression of single stones also takes place which is caused by the fact that
for the uniform bedding of the stones the ground has to be broken up and loosened,
in which operation large quantities of air enter the loose ground and are after-
wards covered by the pavement, which air during heavy rains is finally expelled by
the entrance of the water, whereupon during the evaporation of this water the
stones sink irregularly into their bedding.
Stone slabs are too expensive and cannot be bedded without loosening the
ground, so that they are easily broken, and as they are also of unequal hardness
they comprise all the above mentioned disadvantages.
In roads built with strips of macadam the latter are very soon destroyed by
heavy traffic.
Iron tramways are useless for the traffic of ordinary vehicles, and even for the
traffic of tram cars the frequent rail joints prove a great inconvenience.
In roads the entire surface of which consists of asphalt, shocks and noise are
avoided and the maintaining of the road is also easy, but in the present mode of
constructing such roads the following objections exist:-(1) The whole width of
the road is built of the same material, and is therefore far more expensive than
necessary. (2) In consequence of the smoothness of the road the draught-animals
often fall and are injured, and frequent interruptions of the traffic are caused. The
animals cannot exert their full power on account of the smoothness and slipperiness
of the road, for which reason part of their power is lost, and this disadvantage is
felt specially in starting.
According to the present Invention the construction of the roadway is as
follows:-
:-
In building the carriage way of ordinary roads and streets the ground is not
broken up or loosened by digging during levelling, as has been done hitherto for
the sake of the uniform bedding of the paving stones or slabs, but the convex part
of the ground is scraped off with boes so that the firmness of the remaining earth
does not suffer any injury, and the material used for filling up the concave
depressions or hollow parts is compressed by rollers or by ramming.
After levelling and compressing the ground, the air which is contained in a
great part of the upper stratum is expelled by the aid of water in the following
manner, that is to say,-
Where there is an ample water-supply the levelled ground is placed under
water, or if that is objectionable the ground is completely saturated by ample
irrigation. The water having a greater weight than the air forces its way into the
porous loose parts of the ground, and thus expels the air. When the water has
disappeared so far that the ground permits of a further treatment, the earth is
compressed by very heavy iron rollers, and by ramming whereveer the rolling has
not sufficed.
The carriage-way is not constructed of costly material throughout its entire
width, as has been the case hitherto, but for the wheels of heavy wagons two
strong pairs of wheel-tracks are made of cement, asphalt, or concrete, the surface
of which is continuous and very smooth.
For the safety and to ensure the full developement of power of the animals, a
rough lightly-made track-section is inserted into the middle of the pairs of
wheel-tracks. This track for the animals may be of quarried stone, broken stone,
gravel, pebbles, or "macadam," and the base of the same may be built of clay so
as to keep out rain-water.
For light vehicles I provide a third portion of a light and not smooth con-
struction of quarried stone, broken stone, gravel, pebbles, or "macadam."
The draught-cattle of heavy wagons using the portions of the road provided for
them cannot walk in pairs side by side as the smooth tracks prevent this, but
would have to be yoked in front of each other. The wagons should have forked

page_text: shafts with devices enabling the same to be attached to either end of the wagon, as
is the case with ordinary tram cars, so as to obviate the necessity of turning the
wagon round when it is to be driven in the contrary direction.
The rough section of road situated between the pair of wheel-tracks necessary
for the use of the draught-cattle is about twenty inches wide without border-stones,
and its depth is about seven inches.
The wheel-tracks are built of one part of Portland cement, two. parts pure gravel,
and two parts of broken stones, which are mixed in a dry state, and are finally
moistened before used. These concrete-tracks need three months to become hard
enough to be put into use. The surface of the tracks when their smoothness has
become imperfect by use may receive a coating of compressed asphalt. The
layers of concrete forming these trucks are about from 7 to 16 inches in depth
according to the traffic and the loads to be sustained; where very heavy loads are
to be transported a brick foundation ought to be laid under the layer of concrete,
and in such case care has to be taken that the concrete should contain as little
sulphuric acid as possible. The width of the single tracks should amount to
about 28 inches without borderstones.
Along the whole length of the road the tracks are bordered at both sides with
hard cubes of granite. These border stones may be bedded in on the edge of the
concrete, and may be provided with a groove on their lower surface to insure their
firmer hold on the bedding.
In towns it would be desirable to place the underground channels, water and
gas pipes, if possible, under the road-section provided for light vehicles, so that in
cases of repairs of channels or pipes the tracks might remain undisturbed.
In cities where besides the regular carriage-road, water-gutters, and side-walks
are necessary, these are constructed of concrete of Portland cement, about four to
six inches thick, and when worn down by use they may receive a coating of
ordinary asphalt.
On short roads, and in general where the traffic is small, a single pair of wheel-
tracks with a switch-road or crossing track will be sufficient.