60 AN EXPERIMENT WITH A STEAM DRILL 



ravines, requiring heavy fills, have been equally potent in 

 pushing the roadway from the centre, and both together have 

 caused the sidewalk to curve out toward the centre of the road 

 until that thoroughfare has been encroached upon seriously in 

 places. 



Commanding the approach to the main college buildings 

 from the village side, was a hill 510 feet in length, having a 

 continuous grade the whole distance, except for 50 feet near the 

 top, which was level. While the grade was continuous, it 

 varied from one in eight for a distance of 55 feet to one in 

 thirty for a distance of 120 feet, and these grades were so sit- 

 uated as to give a sharp rise for 90 feet in length near the bot- 

 tom ; then an easy grade for 175 feet ; then a very steep ascent 

 for 55 feet, with an easy slope beyond. These grades may be 

 seen as represented by the broken lines in plate 1, figure 1, in 

 which the vertical scale is exaggerated five times over the hori- 

 zontal. The whole line in the same figure shows the grade of 

 the road since its improvement. The lower part of the hill has 

 been reduced to a uniform grade of one in twenty, while the 

 upper portion has a grade of one in twenty-two. In plate 1, 

 figure 2, the straight or nearly straight dotted lines show the 

 former course of the traveled way and sidewalk ; the broken 

 lines show the present position of sidewalk, and the whole 

 lines give the bounds of the street as laid out and the bounds of 

 the traveled way as now built. The dotted curved lines indi- 

 cate the former position of rock areas now removed by blasting. 

 The frontispiece and plates 2-6 give views taken before, dur- 

 ing, and since the reconstruction of the road. The traveled 

 way has been graded 22 feet in width, with dirt slopes of one 

 to one at the sides. The sidewalk upon the north side has 

 been rebuilt in its proper place upon the outer edge of the laid- 

 out way, for which purpose a large amount of rock excavation 

 and fill were necessary. Ultimately, as the land on the south 

 is improved, the grade of the road should be carried to the full 

 width of 66 feet. In the part experimented upon, which in- 

 cludes about three fourths of the grading required for its full 

 renovation, care has been taken to do no work which will have 

 to be undone, but the remainder may be carried forward at any 

 time with no interruption to travel. Enough has been done to 



