Oiled Roads.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 293, 9 December 1902, Page 1

Oiled Roads.

I The importance of good roads to the community and the t<mble nuisance inflicted on all by dust, jshall be our excii?e for again 1 referring to the subject < f oiling 'roads as a cure for tbe dust evil, and as a means of preserving the roads themselves. Ltko many good ideas, this one comes from America, and Mr W. A. Cobb, tbe New South Wales Sate fruit expert, narrates, in a letter to tbe Minister for Mints, the genesis of the idea and tbe manner of its adoption. It appears that tbe fruitgrowers of [California were puzzling over the problem of protecting their orchards from dust. In American fashion, they were not satisfied with cleaning their oranges belore marketing them, they sought to prevent the dust getting at them. About thin time an oilfield, producing oil of a coarse bituminous quality, was discovered at L)s Angels. Oil became oheap, and was carried all over the countryside, " tbe spillings and drippings giadually spread over considerable areas of the public and private ways and, 10, the dust was gone!" The orchardists were quick to see the value of oiled roads, and to their adoption of the principle is due tbe spread of the system in Sau iFrancisco and other cities. In San Francisco the first experiment was made on a road through one of the principal narks. After treatment the surface of th« road is said to have become like asphalt pavement, and the success of the trial was so undoub ed that other streets were similarly treated. A test of the system was lately made in England, with most satisfactory results. A week after the oil was applied the portion treated was absolutely without dust. 'lt looked at first like a stretch of wood pavement newly laid, being of a very dark jnondescript colour, and almost black in parts. There was but [little smell, no surface dirt, and no stickiness to the feet, and the almost entire absence of noise from passing traffic was matter for very pleasant surprise. The dull brown colour was also a pleasant change from the glare of the white dust of the ordinary surface." Several streets in Sydney are now undergoing the oiling process, by an extemporised sprinkler. The oil [used is the residuum of crude (petroleum, after kerosene, naptha, and benzine have been extracted from it. It is supplied by the Shell [Transport Company, who are applying it to the streets, at 2000 gallons for £SO, but the cost would be less wers the oil purchased in larger quantities.