IRON ROADWAY

Hokitika Guardian, 31 December 1931, Page 2

IRON ROADWAY

LAID IN LONDON. NEW TRAFFIC ROBOT. LONDON, November 16. Demonstrations are the note of most exhibitions nowadays, but the most practical one to date was that arranged by a road-making firm for the roads and transport works ait Mae Roya. Agricultural Hall, Islington, to-day. A section, of the newest idea in roads was laid down in Upper Street, immediately outside the hall. It is of cast iron, and the engineer supervising it told a “Star” reporter that it is there for forty years, just to prove to the Islington Borough Council that the new iron road has come to stay. TRAFFIC ON CAST IRON STRIPS. London drivers are used to most things, and, although they looked hard at the new silrip when the barriers were removed, they took it in their stride without stopping to ask questions. Borough engineers and other experts paused with the usual Londoners of leisure to watch the behaviour of 'Hie strip

The experiment is an indication of the way in which borough councils raid engineering firms are co-operating on all road problems.

A thousand surveyors and 001-ough engineers are up for tills Congress, and the number of exhibits is a record Most of it is heavy stuff, and romant'eminded folk will be glad to note that, amid a'l the advancement of engineering science, the steam-roller holds its own. It is still called the steam-roller, though it is often driven by Diesel engi.'v s nowadays, and it sticks to its old motto of festina lentc. Four miles an hour the Victorian steam-roller went, and what was good enough for their fathers is good enough for the Georgian boys of to-day. Incidentally the British steam-roLer rolls all over th' world, and there are some magnificently turned-out specimens at the show. NEW TRAFFIC REGULATOR. At the very modern did of the scale is the comp Ute automatic traffic regulator. This is easily the highest-browed robot yet born. Bv contrast the ordinary regulator with its old-fash oned ideas of regular intervals belongs to the mechanical Stone Age. The Eleetromatic consists of what looks.like a small wireless set fixed into a kind of fire alarm post. Into each approach roadway detectors are fixed. The controller functions according to the state of traffic. If it is a slack tune the approaching vehicle is able to go straight ahead. If there is heavy traffic one way aiid little the other, the rush stream get preference, except that, after a certain interval, the waiting one is lot through, and the stream resumed immediately. To see the Eleetromatic in action is to see intelligence functioning with a clear, cold calm that even the best policemen never quite attain. DECORATIVE STREET SIGNS. Another example of co-operation is provided by a stand devoted to street signs. Here, as a variant from the usual road signal, are some delightful stands designed by Mr J. F. Richardson, Oxford’s city engineer. Some street names a iso designed by Air Richardson are models of utility and decoration. Finally those who have suffered from the pneumatic roa.l drills will be depressed to learn that there is no relief in sight. The silent road masticator is as far off as ever. In the show they are models of deportment and tranquility, but all efforts to keep' them quiet in action have resulted in the freezing of the compressed air as it escapes.