382 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.—1912. 
together. A material to be used for an elastic carpet for the road crust 
must have a more elastic quality, and for this a high class of bitumen, 
mixed with sand, is used. (Specimen of bitumen shown.) You will 
observe that it is capable of being twisted without fracture and when 
freed slowly resumes its shape. 
It is expected that with such material mixed with small stone and 
sand a valuable road protection will be supplied, so that the road 
crust will be practically permanent, the upper protecting sheet being 
re-made up and re-laid as required. 
Time will not permit that I should go into detail in this matter, and 
in any view it is still in degree in the experimental stage; but let me 
indicate how such a protective film will operate. We know that if a 
wooden floor be left bare, persons going over it will cause much noise, 
and if instead boots be used this will affect the surface more rapidly 
than if felt shoes are worn. As regards the noise, which is the thing 
most thought of, it is of course a fact that it is only an effect of the 
motion of the floor caused by shock as it is struck by the successive 
blows of the feet coming down upon it. Let a person slide over it 
without raising the feet and there will be little or no noise. But the 
blows of the feet make the whole floor shake, and the vibration causes 
the noise. It is by preventing the vibration that we prevent the noise, 
so we put carpets or kamptulicon or oil-cloth over it. The blows fall 
just the same, but the covering, yielding and absorbing the effect of 
the blow, prevents the floor from vibrating under shock, and so the 
annoyance of noise is cured. It is the same in the case of the road. 
The horse strikes a blow on the ground at every pace, especially a 
heavy horse with enormous shoes, of which I show you a specimen, 
and the vehicle going over the unevenness of the road also strikes blows 
at every turn of the wheels. This operates downwards on the road 
and upwards on the passenger in the vehicle. The road as we have 
it suffers from these blows from the stones being caused to move and 
to lose their sharpness and become loosened in their hold. 
But if we can clothe the road with a compressible and elastic skin, 
which will yield and recover, then the main crust may last efficiently 
for an indefinite period, and the road be less unkind than it often is to 
persons and vehicles. 
For this carpet or topping, strength is not of so much importance 
as the elastic and silencing qualities, and the freedom from liability 
to produce any dust in summer or mud in winter. 
Our engineers tell us that this ideal road of the future need not be a 
costly one; on the contrary, that once the matter is thoroughly under- 
stood, and the road-men trained to the new methods, the rapidly 
increasing traffic of the time before us will be carried with little or no 
increase in the cost of maintenance, and probably in some cases with 
a decrease. 
I thank you for your patience, and ask to be allowed to express the 
hope and to make the request that you will take an interest in road 
improvement, which will not only add to-your own comfort, but will 
tend to increase commercial prosperity, to give greater efficiency of land 
defence, and last, but not least, will be a powerful agent in improving 
