Show TO MAKE SOIL TESTS experiments on the distribution of pressures through soils are to be conducted at the governments ern ments arlington farm near washington by the office of public roads and rural engineer ing U S department of agriculture A specially designed apparatus will be installed which will permit of earth pressure measurements being taken in a large nu number aber of positions position 3 during a single application of taj te load this feature is dedas as an tn important one ane and it hoped that an unnatural rel rearrangement of the soil franf I 1 previous load applications in various positions will be thus avoided earth fills filis up to ten feet thick may be accommodated by this apparatus and it will have lateral dimensions sufficiently large to permit of obtaining the full distribution of the load in all directions very comprehensive plans have been made for a practical solution of this problem and it is hoped that definite results will be forthcoming within a short time the uncertainty of the distribution of pressures through soils both vertically a and nd horizontally zon tally has long been recognized by the engineering profession and several isolated experiments have been made with laboratory apparatus to gain knowledge on this subject in magnitude the problem is such that its iti practical solution can be attempted only by the 0 11 experiment stations in application the final solution tj n will be important to all branches of engine engineering bring anait n dit has seemed desirable th that atthe the department should devote a portion of its experimental ces to a most thorough and conclusive research of this nature |