CAST IRON ROADS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21112, 20 February 1932, Page 7 (Supplement)

CAST IRON ROADS.

EXPERIMENTS IN BRITAIN. Cast-iron roads are to bo laid experimentally in many parts of Britain, as a result of tlie success of tho sliort trial sections put clown in Islington, Nottingham, and other parts. English labour and materials are used throughout for the work. The iron road, which was invented about eighteen months ago by Major Frank Small, a member of tho original Royal Flying Corps, says the Morning Post, consists of triangular castings laid 011 a foundation (if cement thinly covered with bitumen. Tho surface has projections like a non-skid tread, and the first cost of the road is the same as for the best wooden paving. Iron roads are guaranteed for ten voars, which is about twice the period of tho stone setts, which are made mostly of foreign granite. Tho borough engineer of Islington states that the motor traffic was extremely heavy at tho place where tho test, section of iron had been laid, and that the road had given every satisfaction. There had been no trouble with it of any kind. lie added that tho period of test, rather more than a month, had not yet been sufficiently long to give a final opinion on the merits of the road. In Nottingham tho test section has been down for more than a year and has given no trouble, in spite of a great deal of heavy lorry traffic. Complete sections are to ho lnid'yt Accrington and at Croydon, and there is a likelihood of a section of five miles being laid near Liverpool. Major Small has invented a special face for the castings where there is much horse traffic, and is arranging to lay a section at the Tower Bridge approach, where tho liorso traffic is very heavy. The object is to prevent the horses from slipping. For motor-cars it is claimed that the surface is non-skid, even in the worst weather, and that, moreover, the suction between tyres and surface is eliminated, so that there is much less splashing in wet weather. One valuo of this road surface, if it proves satisfactory for all kinds of traffic, is that it will be of much-needed assistance to basic industries. If the system were widely adopted many blast furnaces at present idle would have to be restarted. FOOD FADS OF FISH. According to Professor A. C. Hardy, of Hull, who' lectured at Great Yarmouth recently to the British Herring Trade Association, fishermen of the future .will be able to reduce herring fishery from a game of chance to an exact science. Professor Hardy stated that herrings feed on minute organisms, known collectively as plankton, floating below the sea surface. There was clear evidence that the fish had their food preferences. The distribution of this food was in varying abundance in different parts of the sea. Last summer certain fishermen, towing behind their vessels torpedo-shaped instruments fitted with planes, were able to find spots in the sea where herring food and feeding herrings were most abundant. Samples of herring food were collected. Hie results of the examination of the food compared with herring catches at the same spot surprised the examiners. It was found that where the food value was less than 500 units the average catch was ten crans. As food value units rose, so did tho catch, until it was found that those fishermen whose luck had taken them to an area showing 30,000 units had an average catch of 45 crans. Another discovery was that certain floating organisms are obnoxious to herrings, which avoid immense areas when they are present. The use of an instrument would enable fishermen to avoid nights of vain labour and disappointment. DARING AIR EXPERIMENT. M. Sauvant, a French airman, aged 28, proposes to crash to earth in a blazing aeroplane from a height of 3000 ft. He declares that he and his mechanic will escape unhurt. For four years M. Sauvant, who was formerly in the French Air Force, has been working on the invention of a machine with a double casing. When crashing, the outside casing will smash, he says, but the inner one, in which are the occupants, will remain intact. Last year he experimented with a miniature machine in which he had placed a lamb, and the animal was none the worse, and he also placed a chicken's egg inside an ostrich's egg, which he dropped from a height of 375 ft., and the chicken's egg remained unbroken. "My system is adaptable to land or sea machines," he says. " I shall rise, with my mechanic, to a height of 3000 ft.., and then fall, setting fire to the machine as we come down. When wo have crashed and the fire is out my mechanic and I will emerge unhurt from the inner casing."