Meg,
This is very interesting.
I just want to check if dirt roads give better purchase to the horses' hooves even when compared to the tarred roads.
Or dirt roads were better before tarred roads came.
Regards
SNM
Dirt roads are better than tarred roads for horses' hooves. The book I have just finished reading is "The Story of the Road" by J. W. Gregory F.R.S. LL.D., D.Sc. Emeritus Professor of Geology at the University of Glasgow. Published by Alexander Maclehose & Co, 1931
I only took a few quotes from it, because my studies are not about the history of the road, so I was just reading it for background (it was a VERY interesting and readable book). Here are a couple of quotes:
"The efficiency of a road depends on its maintaining a surface on which wheels will run without undue friction; the surface must be even, sufficiently firm to prevent the wheels cutting into it, and yet rough enough to give the horses or driving wheels sufficient hold to enable them to move the vehicle." P 131
"The possibility … is shown by the growing objection to horse traction. Some enthusiastic motorists have suggested that the horse should be taxed off the road, or absolutely excluded from the main roads, sometimes on the ground that it is now simply a dilatory and obstructive nuisance and sometimes on the argument that the horses’ iron shod hooves and the iron shoes used as brakes on the wheels on steep hills are too destructive to the road surface." P 280
I still have the book but was going to take it back to the library today. But I will hold onto it, if you want to know more from it.
Topic: Is it me? (Read 1965 times)