Minnesota Highways, December 1956

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VOL.  6,  NO.  2
1246  University Ave., St.  Paul 4, Minn.
DECEMBER,   1956
New Machine
Defeats Ice
Ice covered highways—one
of the last remaining threats
to safe winter driving—appears
to be "on the ropes" and about
ready to go the way of other
previously solved problems of
winter driving in Minnesota.
Not that the problem is solved
vet—not by any means—but thanks
to the ingenuity and skill of several mechanics of the Minnesota
Highway department, it looks like
the eventual solution is not too far
away.
Several years ago a crude ice-
removing machine was constructed
Sandstone by one of the department's maintenance employees stationed there. He had his contrivance mounted on an old power
grader. After testing it on several
occasions, it was found that it did
not have the necessary strength nor
pressure to satisfactorilv break up
ice and packed snow.
The same problem was later
tackled by several mechanics at
the Detroit Lakes district maintenance shop and they finally came
up with an ice crusher which the
department felt had sufficient
merit to warrant having eight of
these machines built by department
mechanics.
Including the "pilot" machine,
there are now two cutters at Detroit Lakes and one each in the
Owatonna, Mankato, Windom, St.
Paul Park, Hopkins and Duluth
maintenance districts.
The heart of the machine is a
bilateral spiral blade mounted on
a rotating shaft so that it cuts the
ice in a V pattern as it moves
down the highway.
Delivers Heavy Pressure
In order to obtain the pressure
necessary to shatter the ice, a hydraulic   system   is   utilized   which
(Continued  on  page 4)
Pear? on lEarttj
It is again my privilege, as so many times in the past,
to wish all employees of the Highway department and
their families the traditional greetings of the approaching joyous Christmas and New Year season. We of the
Highway department have continuing ample reason to
be joyful in our accomplishments of the past year and
prospects for the future. We live in a land blessed beyond all others in peace, freedom, and prosperity.
As we rejoice in our own good fortune this Yuletide,
let us pray that the spirit of Christmas—of good will
between men—may extend more compellingly to other
lands now sadly beset or threatened with cruel war or
civil disturbance — even including the Holy Land,
birthplace of the Prince of Peace.
In a time when our own good fortune is the more
emphasized by difficulties elsewhere, I believe our
Christmas and New Year thoughts will reach the deeper for our loved ones and friends, and for the people
less fortunate than ourselves throughout the world. It
is in this feeling of appreciation for blessings past and
future hopes that I wish you all a very merry Christmas and most happy New Year.
Minnesota Highway Ice Breaker
FRIEND TO WINTER MOTORISTS . . . Under heavy hydraulic pressure, this truck-
mounted spiral blade cuts ice and compacted snow from Minnesota trunk highways
to   increase   driving   safety.
Computor To
Speed Work
The Minnesota Highway
department next month will
become one of the first state
highway departments in the
midwest to begin mechanizing its great volume of routine engineering calculation.
The department has leased
a Univac 120 Electronic computer (so-called mechanical
brain produced by Remington
Rand), to be installed early
in January in the Highway
offices in the Griggs Midway
building on the St. Paid Midway.
A six-man team from the department has been organized and is
being trained to operate the new
equipment as an engineering electronic computing center.
Purposes of the institution of
an electronic computing center in
Construction Plans were described
by J. C. Robbers, assistant chief
engineer of the Highway department, as follows:
To expedite highway planning
and design by shortening the time
now required for routine mathematical calculations.
To free engineering personnel
"from the voluminous tedium of
routine computations to do more
essential design work."
Coupled with the machine's fast
operation is its extremely high degree of accuracy, a factor essential
to engineering mathematics, Robbers pointed out. Univac will perform at the rate of 6,000 additions
or subtractions per minute, or
1,200 multiplications  or  divisions.
Its highway engineering computations, as so far demonstrated,
appear to require only about one-
tenth the time consumed by pres-
(Continued  on  page  2)