Popular Science Monthly 



A common obstruction 



/ /I 



Fire "B" before "A" 



The rock broken up 



The clear road 



has failed to reveal a case where the use 

 of explosives will not hasten the work 

 and decrease the cost. 



The old method of making cuts in 

 hard ground by hand digging, using 

 road plows for loos- 

 ening the clay, is 

 not at all satisfac- 

 tory. It is slow, 

 arduous, and ex- 

 pensive . Well 

 placed blasts will 

 either loosen or 

 throw down this 

 hard ground so that 

 it can be easily 

 loaded into wagons 

 or carts, or can be 

 removed by drag or 

 wheel-scrapers. The 

 object sought is the 

 saving of time and 

 expense. 



When road im- 

 provement necessi- 

 tates the widening 

 of cuts, the work is 

 too often done with 

 picks. The hard 

 ground is loosened 

 and torn down by 

 hand digging, and 

 then carted away. 

 Material saving in 

 time and money 

 may be effected by 

 throwing down the 

 after which the 



Plan of appropriate loading for cut work 



Elevation of approximate loading for cut work 



banks by blasts, 

 loosened soil may be 

 moved with scrapers or by wagons. The 

 exact nature of the loading will depend 

 on the depth of the cut and the nature of 

 the ground to be moved. 



The high side in a road which is 

 caused by a boulder or hard bank on 

 one side, or by the washing away of 



earth on the other side, is now too often 

 left as an impediment to progress. Light 

 blasts are proving effective for loosening 

 this material so that it can be removed 

 by a drag scraper or road machine. 



The stumps, boul- 

 ders and ledges in 

 the side ditches are 

 now largely neg- 

 lected. This causes 

 baddrainage. Their 

 removal can be suc- 

 cessfully accom- 

 plished only when 

 explosives are used. 

 Old water breaks 

 or "thank you 

 marms" are also at- 

 tacked by explo- 

 sives, as blasting is 

 most effective in 

 getting rid of these. 

 Many of our hill 

 roads are now trou- 

 bled with short , dan- 

 gerous curves where 

 skidding and colli- 

 sions are always to 

 be expected. Too 

 little attention is 

 given to correcting 

 the conditions. 

 The new dynamite 

 method of relief is 

 to shoot off the 

 point of the cliff if 

 around the outside 

 pomt, or to widen the side hill cut if the 

 curve points into the hill. The bank may 

 be shot away by heavy charges that will 

 blow all of the soil down the hill, or the 

 ground may be loosened and removed 

 by scrapers or road machines. 



Much interest is now being shown in 

 tree planting along private and pul)lic 



Correcting a heavy grade 



by building a culvert and 



cutting down the hill 



the road ])asses 



