THE DUST PROBLEM.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12212, 3 May 1909, Page 2

THE DUST PROBLEM.

A writer in The Times" has been trying to make the flesh of the British public creep, by bringing home to them the abominations of city dust. From an analysis made some time ago, it was ascertained that desiccated animal matter largely predominated in the stuff raised by city winds. The matter was alive with many germs, including those of common diseases, such as typhoid and pneumonia. Coming to the prevention of the dust nuisance, the writer instances three methods to cope with the problem. One system is that of layI ing'once and for all metal which by nature is dustless. Tarred 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 passes. The disadvantages of this proposal lie in the/heavy cost necessitated for re-metalling, al- [ though the life of the road would be undoubtedly prolonged. Another method is known as the Gladwell system. In consists in laying a coating of some bituminous substance such as tar either under or over the ordinary metal, with the addition of granite chippings, and when this has been rolled the road in a few days presents a compact, mosaiclike and waterproof surface, being dustless and mudless. The cheapest method of dust-laying—that of tar-spraying— has already been tried at Home, and 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 districts is only £40 per mile. It is also stated by an engineering authority that the dej scent towards Kingston—which had an unenviable notoriety—has now been turned into one of excellent and dustless surface. No doubt in a decade or two henco such comparisons as "dry as | dust" will have very little significance

for us