BUREAU OF PUBLIC ROADS. 425 



Born in Richmond in 1870, he received the foundation of liis scien- 

 tific training in the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and the Lawrence 

 Scientific School of Harvard University, and began his real work, 

 whicli made" him one of the pioneers of scientific road building in 

 the United States when, in 1893, Nathaniel S. Shaler, then pro- 

 fessor of geology at Harvard and chairman of the Massachusetts 

 State Highway Commission, made him geologist and testing en- 

 gineer of the commission. In this office he made the first extensive 

 scientific investigation of road-building materials conducted in this 

 country. He improves! the French machines for testing the hard- 

 ness of rocks and their resistance to wear, and evolved the Page 

 machine for testing their resistance to impact. Tests of the binding 

 property of rock dust and of the toughness of rock were developed 

 in his Massachusetts laborator3\ and subsequently were improved 

 under his direction in the laboratory of the bureau. 



After 7 vears of valuable work m Massachusetts IMr. Page was 

 invited to become chief of the Division of Tests in the Bureau of 

 Chemistry in order to conduct scientific study of road building on a 

 national scale, and when, in 1905, it was decided to consolidate all 

 branches of highway work, he was made director of the Office of 

 Public Roads. From a small beginning the work of the office 

 developed and extended until at his death it was cooperating in 

 road construction with every State in the Union. 



Mr. Page realized early that in order to bring about an era of 

 good roads the people must know about them. He organized a divi- 

 sion of lectures and exhibits, and with a force of trained men Avent 

 into the country to spread the doctrine of good roads before State, 

 county, and town officials, farmers, bankers, and merchants. Througli 

 the building of numerous experimental roads of different types of 

 construction and studying the service to which they were subjected 

 true facts regarding disputed features and materials of road building 

 were ascertained. With the early indications of the destructive in- 

 fluence of automobiles upon roads came studies of the nature of this 

 weai' and the publication of articles urging more durable forms of 

 construction to meet the new conditions. 



During all these years State after State established highway de- 

 partments, and to not a few of these in their formative stages Mr. 

 Page lent great and much-appreciated assistance. The departments 

 as they were formed necessarily passed through many of the same 

 stages of groAvth that characterized the groAvth of the Office of Public 

 Roads. There was no official connection between the Federal and 

 the State organizations, but there was a great deal of voluntary co- 

 operation, and the Office of Public Roads was looked to by many of 

 the State organizations to help solve perplexing problems. Finally 

 in 1916 the Federal aid road act Avas passed and the administration 

 of the act delegated to the Office of Public Roads by the Secretary 

 of Agriculture. This act brought to road building national recogni- 

 tion, and was the logical outcome of all the yesterdays of endeavor 

 on the part of the Federal and State organizations. The great in- 

 crease in the duties and responsibilities thrown upon Mr. Page by 

 this act, which were further intensified by the worries and perplexi- 

 ties which mounted higher and higher after Avar Avas declared, Avould 

 have overtaxed a constitution much more rugged than his. It is a 



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