ROAD CONSTRUCTION PLANT AND MATERIALS.
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THE appropriate exhibits, naturally, bring together a complete display of the plant, and materials required in modern methods of road construction. They ara of enormous interest to the road engineer and they should not be passed by even by the merchant who is merely concerned with getting his goods delivered to the consumer or by the haulier who simply desires to find the shortest route between the collection and delivery points. Durability of road foundation and crust, suitability of material, quickness of construction, readiness of repair and maintenance—all these
.D28 mean lower road costs, and if not lower taxation on motor vehicles at any ,rate the spreading of taxation revenue over a greater road mileage and, in consequence, better road surfaces, which make for higher possible vehicle speeds and lower cost of vehicle maintenance because of the reduced vibration.
Roads and vehicles go together : they are partners in road transport, and unless road construction can be advanced commensurately with the advance of vehicle design, the latter and, necessarily in consequence, road transport must be handicapped and held in check. We
point this out because we have heard most illogical remarks from commercial vehicle users on this very subject The correct line of argument should be this, and it is simple enough in all reason : every penny provided by motor vehicle taxation should be spent in the most economical and most efficient manner on the improvement of the roads, and just what is possible to be clone in this regaid cannot be known to the people who provide that revenue unless they give a few moments' thought and consideration to the means, as displayed at the Public Works, Roads and Transport
Exhibition, at the disposal of road engineers.
With the highly mobile plant-lordes, platform wagons, tipping wagons, tractors, traction engines, rollers, trailers, and such like-we deal in the first part of this report. Here the first thing we have to consider is road material, and it will be found that the strong line in foundations is reinforced concrete. A number of exhibits are constituted of the raw materials for this useful foundation. Cement manufacturers and suppliers, and manufacturers of Steel reinforcements and of cement waterproofings, show interesting examples of their products. The Brown and Tavvse reinforcement, (Stand No. 9, Raw E.) is a wire mesh of mild steel, each wire being cold twisted, thus eliminating the first stretch in the metal. Johnson's lattice (Stand No. 6,, Row E.) is a cheap and strong material. The B.R.C. (Stands Nos. 7 and 8, Row E.) . is a welded fabric without interweaving of the warp and weft. Expanded metal (Stand No, 13, Row F.) is expanded from sheet stool, and a new product is the rotary diamond mesh supplied in coils that are easily handled in road work. The Walker. Weston (Stand No. 4, Row B., Gallery) is a combination of two layers in a framework in which wire and bars are equally distributed over the whole area of the concrete. The Wonpees fabric IStand No. 7, Row B, Gallery) is in a continuous roll of jointless material, the wires and
bars being barbed. The triangle mesh iStand No. 1, Row D., Gallery) is woven in various strengths to carry light, medium and heavy traffic.
In surface materials, Shell-Mex, Ltd., (Stands Nos. 5 and 6, Row .L.4. ) have specimens of bitumen suitable for rariona types of constructional work, including sand and clinker carpeting, asphalt, macadam and grouting and surface dressing. The .Limmer Co. (Stand No. 2, Row B;) also-show samples of their well-tried products. Tarmac (Stand No. Ea, Row C.) has stood the test of 19 years, and is claimed to be more extensively used than any ether road material of a slim
lar description. It has certainly earned a good name among motor users. Monolastic (Stands Nos. 5 and 6, Row F.) is a bituminous paving, of ‘villich samples taken from roads which have carried heavy traffic are shown to demonstrate its durability. The Emborough Stone Co., Ltd. (Stand No. 4, Row G.) show a tarred limestone macadam made in a recently completed plant. R. S. Clare and Co. Ltd. (Stands Nos. 5 and 6, Row G.; also show bituminous agglomerating materials for the manufacture of tar macadam. An interesting road surface is that shown by A. S. Grunspan (Stand No. 12, Row A, Gilbey Hall). It consists of pre-cast circular concrete blocks, 2 ft. in diameter, with diamondshaped filling pieces, the blocks being keyed together by steel dowel pins passed from the surface into diagonally-extend ing holes. Grout or a bituminous substance is worked into the holes. There is no direct line of joint, and the surface can be relifted and relaid when it, is necessary to work on the pipes or maims below the surface.
Waterproof binders for macadam are shown by Roemac, Ltd. (Stand No. 1, Row E.), cement waterproofing by Super Cement, Ltd. (Stand No. 4, Row F.), and a pine wood binder product by A. Newsome (Stand No. 16, Row F.). Read-making plant constitutes a fas cinating section of the show. Stone breakers are to be found on the stands of H. R. Marsden, Ltd. (Stand No. 11, Row A.), Fleming and Co. (Stand No. 1, Row D.), Hadfields, Ltd. (Stands Nos. 1, 2 and 3, Row Cr.) and Hugh Wood and Co., Ltd. (Stand No. 1, Row C., Gilbey
Scarifiers are shown by Barford and Perkins, Ltd., and Aveling and Porter, Ltd. (both on Stand No. 2, Row C.). Mixing machines for concrete, and combined drying and mixing machines for making tar macadam, are shown by Ransome Machinery Co., Ltd. (Stand No. 1, Bow C.), Stalled and Pitt, Ltd. (Stand No. 4, Row C.), Millar's Timber and Trading Co.,Ltd. (Stands Nos. 6 to 9, Row C.), F. Parker (Stands Nos. 1 and 2, Row A., Gilbey Hall.), Goodwin, Bansby and Co. (Stands Nos. 9 and 10, ow A., Gilbey Hall), and Builders and Contractors' Plant, Ltd. (Stand No. 5, Bow C.).
A very important feature in mixing i tar macadam s that the hot, dry stone should not become cooled or exposed to damp air between the drier and the mixer.
The truck-tractor shown by Millar's is typical of the row mode of. handling materials between the mixing plant and the men working an the job.
A tamping machine, convertible into a surface breaker, make by B. Johnson and Son, and shown by Cr. P. Trentham, Ltd. (Stand No. 11, Row B.), consists of a beam carrying the ram or surface breaker (as may be required) at one end and balancing it a al h.p. Fetter engine driving the lifting gear by belt. The whole is mounted on a four-Wheeled carriage, the front axle having Ackermann steering. One man can control and direct the plant, moving the head to any desired position. The fall is 3 ft., and the weight of the head is 175 lb. Loaders for lifting crushed stone into a lorry are-shown by Millar's, tar sprayers and grouters by J. Fowler and Son, (Leeds), Ltd. (Stand No. 7', Row D.), by Johnston Bros. (Stands Nos. 1-3, Row E.), and by W. Weeks and Son, Ltd. (Stand No. 2, Row C, Gallery).
Subsidiary plant of interest to road engineers is displayed in all parts of the main and Gilbey Halls, and we have no fear that those who are engaged on road construction would fail to find some labour-saving appliance or device that was new to them.