THE DUST PROBLEM.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 113, 11 May 1909, Page 7

THE DUST PROBLEM.

A writer in The Times has been /frying to .make the flesh of the British public creep, by bringing home' to ■them the abominations of city dust. Firom ■am analysis made some tiro© ago, it was cscenrtained that desiccated animal matter largely predominated ■in. the stuff (raised by city winds. The matter was alive with mainy germs, in>cluding those of common diseases, such as typhoid <aoid pneumonia. Coming to the prevention of the dust nuisance, the writer instances three methods to cope with the problem. One system is that of laying once and for all metal which by nature is dustless. Tairred macadam and other materials of the same nature would be used in the construction of such a road, and would doubtless prove the most satisfactory in the case of a highway over which fast, continuous, and heavy traffic passeis. Thei disadvantages of this proposal lie in the heavy cost necessitated for re-metalling, although the life of the road would be undoubtedly prolonged. Another method is known as the Gladwell system. It consists in laying a coating of some •bituminous substance such as tar either under or over tihe ordinary metal ; with the addition of granite drippings, and when this has been rolled the road in a few days presents a compact, mosaic-like and- waterproof surface, being dlistless and mudless. The cheapest method of dust-laying — that of tar-spraying—hais already been tried at Home, aaid with gratifying results. A surveyor of a road area near the metropolis (says the Christchurch Press) estimates that the cost of coating the roads in his district® is only £40 per mile. It is also stated by an engineering authority that the descent towards Kingston—which had ani unenviable notoriety—has now beem turned into one of excellent and dustless surface. No doubt in a decade or two hence such comparisons as "dry as dust" will have very little significance for us.