3G1 



disintegrated last season, and during the past summer the patentees 

 at their own cost, re-surfaced it, but before the season was over it 

 had again gone to pieces. For walks it answers a better purpose, 

 but even for walks the signs of failure are at this time becoming 

 evident. The disintegration commences at the bottom and gradually 

 comes to the surface. 



STEAM ROAD ROLLER. 



During the season the Park Commission authorized the purchase 

 of a steam road roller from Messrs. Aveling & Porter, of Liverpool, 

 England. It arrived in the park in August, and was immediately set 

 up by park employees, and put to work, and from that time until 

 the work upon the drives was suspended for the season, it worked 

 almost constantly, and, for a great portion of the time, night and 

 day. It effected a very marked saving in the expense of rolling. 

 The roller weighs fifteen tons, and rolls a width of six feet. It moves 

 either backward or forward with equal facility, and hence does not 

 not have to be turned around on the drive, although it can be turned 

 around in its own length, which is about twenty feet. The rollers 

 are five feet in diameter. Although this roller may be entirely 

 adapted to the rolling of broken stone or McAdam roads, a few 

 modifications could be made which would improve it for rolling 

 gravel roads. The rollers should be at least six feet in diameter, so 

 that they would not have so great a tendency to roll the gravel up in 

 waves before them. Secondly, the face of the roller should be 

 straight. On this one the rollers are about five-eighths of an inch 

 convex, and there being four of them, the effect is to produce four 

 parallel depressions, five-eighths of an inch deep, and this is only 

 produced by moving the gravel sidewise. This sidewise motion is 

 prejudicial to the packing, and would be obviated by making the 

 faces of the rollers straight, instead of convex. Again, for soft roads, 

 park roads, with a layer of fresh gravel, three or four inches thick 

 upon them, the traction power of this roller is scarcely sufficient. 

 This could be obviated either by coupling the four rollers, so that 

 they would all become driving wheels, or else by throwing more 

 weight upon the driving wheels. The roller, as it is, effects a very 

 great saving of expense in rolling, but the above obvious improve- 

 ments would add considerably to its efficiency. The cost of running 

 it is about ten dollars per day, and it does about twice as much 

 effective rolling as the seven-ton park roller, which required eight 

 horses to run it, and costs twenty dollars per day. 



