THE INVENTION OF MACADAMISED ROADS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 150, 25 February 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE INVENTION OF MACADAMISED ROADS.

Many men's names have become household words in connection with thei; inventions. We speak of Bcs6o- - steel, Marconigrams, and Pasteurisation as our lathers talked ot Broughams and Mackintoshes, of Wellingtons or Bluchers. But some words have so entered into our language that we forget they were ever names at all. Who. when speaking of a "macadam ised road,'' calls to mind the canny Scot, McAdam, to whom we are indebted for such 1 itios to locomotion? He died, it is true, as long ago as November 26, 1836, and, by the irony of fate, the railways lame in to drive the traffic from our highways (till the motor brought it back threefold) just as he had completed his life m ork. Born li 175G, he early emigrated to America, l. hence be returned some years later enriched by I.is gains as an agent for the sale of naval "prizes' (captured vessels.) For thirty years he lived quietly near Ayr as a magistrate and load trustee, and, spend.".;-, his spare time m experimenting, he discovered the secret of a smooth and resisting road surface small, regularly-broken stone in thin layers. In INIS he became Surveyor for the Bristol Boad, and put his theory into practice. Ho boon became famous. In 1823 a Committee of the House of Commons sat to consider the whole question of Eng. I'sli road making, by McAdam's petition, and in I*2" the Scottish magistrate was appointed General Surveyor of Bonds for Great Britain. The Irishman declared that

If you'd seen these roads before they

were made, You'd have lift up your handfi and

blessed General Wade." and the Briton and 18] night have said as much or more of the great McAdam.