aS 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
MANCHESTER, MASS., SATURDAY, MAY 16, 1908. 
THE GOOD ROADS PROBLEM. 
Enormous Damage Done by Speeding Automobiles the Object of Study by Director of Public 
Roads. 
The enormous damage done to public 
roads by automobiles was clearly demon- 
strated at a test made recently at Wash- 
ington, by the director of public roads. 
On the North Shore roads especially is 
this damage by automobiles noticed, and 
the following account of the recent test 
will be of interest to all: 
A two ton racing automobile moving 
at something in excess of a mile a 
minute, while an impenetrable cloud of 
fog-erey rock dust hung to the horizon 
and marked the spee/ling course of the 
big machine, was the sight witnessed by 
travelers onthe famous conduit .road a 
dozen miles from Washington recently. 
The seemingly pronounced violation 
of the speed ordinances was countenanced 
by two of the Nation’s federal depart- 
ments, agriculture and war; however, 
the rushing motor-car having been pres- 
sed into requisition by L. W. Page, dir- 
ector of the office of public roads, and 
Dr. Allerton $. Cushman, assistant dir- 
_ ector, in the effortto determine the ef- 
fects of automobile traffic upon macadam 
highways, and the stretch of thorough- 
fare was placed at their disposal by war 
department officials. 
While the racing car and others of 
various weights and types made many 
trips over the selected stretch of a mile 
and a half at varying rates of speed, from 
5 to 65 miles an hour, a corps of skilled 
photographers, equipped with the most 
modern devices for photographing vehi- 
cles at very high speeds, made accurate 
records of the various tests. 
It has long been known to highway 
engineers that automobiles were rapidly 
shortening the lives of the rock surface 
roads of the world, and many experi- 
ments have been made in the past six or 
seven years to determine the actual cause 
of the damage done. To understand 
how the soft broad tires of the modern 
motor car can work an injury to a sur- 
face that not only withstands but im- 
proves under the constant passing and 
repassing of vehicles with iron tires, one 
must be apprised briefly of the theory on 
which, first Tresauget of Limoges, and 
later MacAdam of Ayr, worked when 
giving such highways to the world. 
‘They reasoned that a road surfaced with 
bits of stone would improve under wag- 
on traffic because the iron tires of the 
passing vehicles would constantly crush 
the stones and form rock dust particles; 
that those rock dust particles would not 
merely fillin all the interstices between 
the stones but would also form a surface 
dust binder: the wettings and rollings 
tending to cement the dust into a shell- 
like surface and thus make the entire road 
one traffiic-withstandings, water-shedding 
mass. 
They reasoned well and wisely. The 
macadam roads lived up to the theories 
of their inventors and improved with the 
passing years until the advent of the auto- 
mobile. It was but a short time after it 
came into vogne that highway engineers 
in all civilized lands learned that a new 
condition was confronting them and that 
established customs were being menaced. 
The trouble was quickly traced to the 
automobile and it was studied. It was 
soon noted that the soft rubber tire was 
the highway menace. It crushed no 
rock itself and therefore contributed no 
quota of the needful surface dust binder, 
while the tremendous tractive force of 
the rear wheels drewup the dust made 
by the iron tired wagons and sent it 
whirling away over adjacent lands. 
Those who witnessed the experiments 
recently near the National capital could 
not doubt for a moment that the various 
road experts all over the world are cor- 
rect in the opinion that very rapidly driv- 
en automobiles are rapidly tearing up the 
surface of the macadam road, for not 
only were huge clouds of dust lifted into 
the air and blown off the road, but care- 
ful examination showed that the material 
under the wheel tracks of the machine 
was distinctly loosened and ravelled even 
during the short period of these tests. 
No such effects were noticeable af- 
Firemen’s Relief Association. 
The annual meeting of the Firemen’s 
Relief Association, Manchester, was held 
Wednesday evening at the Engine house 
at which time James Hoare was re-elect- 
ed president; Clarence W. Morgan, 
vice president; Samuel L. Wheaton, 
secretary, and Raymond C. Allen, 
treasurer. [he directors are Charles 
W. Sawyer, Granville Crombie, F. C. 
Cheever and James Hoare. 
The report of the treasurer showed the 
association to be in strong financial con- 
dition. It was voted to donate $25 to 
Tests Made at Washington. 
ter the passing of iron tired vehicles; the 
series of tests beginning with the passing 
of a horse drawn vehicle. “Uhis was pho- 
tographed as it moved along and also as 
the wagon tires passed a given mark. 
Then the automobiles were sent over the 
course. The first was a heavy weight 
touring car moving at five miles an hour. 
A series of pictures was made of that car 
on its many journeys at varying rates of 
speed until its maximum of 45 miles an 
hour was attained. Then the work was 
taken up by the huge racer, which tore 
the road first ata speed of 50 miles an 
hour, then at 55, 60, and finally at 65. 
It fairly lifted the road surfacing material 
as it sped along, regular ridges of rock 
dust rising in front of the rear wheels and 
floating away in blinding clouds. Other 
tests were made and other pictures taken 
of various types of heavy Limousine cars 
and runabouts. It was plainly noticeable 
and was commented on that the automo- 
biles when moving at the slow rates of 
speed equal to the speed made by horse- 
drawn vehicles made very little dust, the 
theory that fast speeding automobiles are 
responsible for road surface destruction 
being pretty thoroughly substantiated by 
these means. 
The results of this interesting bit of 
road work will be carefully studied and 
put together in a paper or papers to be 
presented to the International road con- 
gress which will meet at Paris on Octo- 
ber 11: for so far-reaching are the rav-, 
ages of the automobile on the wonderful 
roads of France that that country has 
-urged highway engineers of all lands to 
assemble at her gay metropolis in the fall 
to take up the problem and strive for a 
solution of it. 
the Chelsea Firemen’s Relief association. 
Town Meeting Dissolved. 
The annual Town Meeting in Man- 
chester for 1908 came to a close Monday 
evening, the business called for in the 
annual warrant being consumed. 
It was voted to raise by taxation this 
year $110,000 which is the same amount 
as voted to raise last year. $25 was 
voted the moderator for his services. 
Less than a score of voters were pres- 
ent. At 7.45 the meeting dissolved on 
motion of E. P. Stanley. 
