CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 427 



road between Paris and St. Germaiiis. There are also new possibilities in metal 

 plateways. with lengths of steel plate laid down, one set for the up and the 

 other for the down traffic, on main roads, over -which various types of mechanical 

 vehicles would run. All these are efforts to get away from road surfaces which 

 present great resistance to the passage over them of wheels. The barbaric 

 system of spreading loose stones and leaving them to be crushed in by. the 

 tr.iflpic itself iSj I hope, dying out even in remote country districts. Then, also, 

 the dirt and wastefulness of roads made with water-bound mate'^ial ie being 

 realised. Broken stone or gravel consolidated by water and traffic only leads to 

 speedy deterioration by. weather and weaY^ and, in addition, there is the inevit- 

 able constant scavenging to remove dust and mud inseparable from non-water- 

 proofed roads. 



Nearly everyone talks of the wear of the road without realising what the 

 expression means. The wear of the road is not caused, as many people think, by 

 the wheels merely rolling over the surface of it, though on weak roads heavy, 

 loads on too narrow tyres crush the materials of which the surface is composed. 

 The main cause of the wear of the road comes from what is caJled the ' inter- 

 attrition ' of the stones beneath the surface. Wlien the surface yields to the 

 horse's hoof or to the weight caused by the loaded wheel, something has to move 

 beneath, and the stones which lie between the surface and the foundation are 

 thus rubbed one against the other. The result is that their edges are ground 

 away, a nrocess -which produces dust and mud, which in their turn come up 

 through the interstices of the stones to the surface. It is an interesting fact 

 that stones taken out from below the surface of the road often show signs of 

 wear greater than those actually on the surface, owing to this grinding action. 



As regards the evolution of the road vehicle of the future, in a few years' 

 time, except for agricultural purposes, the horse-drawn vehicle as a means of 

 conveyance of goods will, in my opinion, be extinct. The horse will, nevertheless, 

 always exist for riding purposes, and to a certain extent for agriculture, but as 

 an animal he is unfitted by nature for draught purposes, and his range and 

 mileage is very limited compared with the mechanically propelled vehicle. 

 Jlore and more, too, will the use of mechanical transport on roads be regarded 

 with favour, owing to the immense advantage of the conveyance of passengers 

 and goods from -place of origin to destination effected by this and by no other 

 means. The railway station is rarely the place of origin or the destination of 

 either passengers or goods. You have to move yourself or your goods to a 

 station bv- means of the road or road transport, and from the station by like 

 means. There are thus at least ten to twelve stages in the progress of a, parcel 

 from a shop in London to a house in the country. Constant transference by 

 human hands means much cost, especially with the high price of all labour of 

 to-day. Moreover, while railway transport is essentially suitable for goods in 

 large quantities or for very, heavy or very fast traffic, it is eminently unsuitable 

 for cross-countrv' journevs or for short distances and for conveyance from manu- 

 factory to the ship, or from producer to consumer. In this country, too. where 

 distances are comparatively small to the ports from inland producing centres, 

 there is hardly, any great manufacturing district which is beyond the reach of a 

 single day's run with a mechanical road vehicle. From Birmingham to Tilbury, 

 12.5 miles, probably i> the longest distance from an important commercial to an 

 important shipping point. The great manufacturing centres of Lancashire and 

 Yorkshire are close to their ports of Hull on the one side and Liverpool on the 

 other, for England is here not more than seventy miles broad. The initial 

 advantage of railway transport, namely, the ease of hauling, requiring, say., the 

 small tractive force of 12 to 15 lb. per ton, with a clean steel -wheel on a clean 

 steel rail is in itself largely neutralised by the immensely increasing cost of the 

 labour required to operate the railway and handle the goods. On the other hand, 

 on a well-made road the tractive force may be taken at about 45 lb. tractive force 

 ■per ton, three times as much as that of a steel wheel on a steel rail. But in 

 these days the cost of this extra power produced by steam or gas or motor spirit 

 is insignificant in comparison to the cost of increased labour. The initial 

 advantage therefore of transport on rails is now largely neutralised. It is not too 

 much to say also that railway transport must become year by year dearer, unless 

 radical changes in the methods of operation are introduced, such as the adoption 



