Ever lived your whole life under an illusion, and wake up one day realising that you thought you knew who invented tarmac roads... but you didn't?
Well (and thanks are due here to Auto Shenanigans on the 'tube) it wasn't exactly the guy in Scotland who developed Macadam, but the guy above who added the tar.
In summary, the Romans were using stones of different sizes to build roads here in the UK with layers of different sizes.
In their case they got generally bigger toward the top, and Telford here and a guy in France perfected this, paving Paris with cobbles until 1968 when students used them against riot police.
Macadam's insight was to upend these layers and to use ever-finer aggregates for a smoothest possible surface... but even this could not withstand motorised traffic.
Combinations of tar and aggregate could:yet was a mistake Hooley came across on his travels.
He encountered a lovely smooth road where tar had been spilled and in the effort to clear it up, had been mixed with slag and spread like Nutella.
As ever we stand on the shoulders of a character who was likely sacked for spillage.
Have you ever laboured under a life-long illusion? If so, don't bother me with it.
