The Sun.
London, England, 1840-06-17 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 1840.

Lydney, Gloucestershire—C. Hart and T. Lewellin, woollen
warehousemen, Newgate-street:—J. Unsworth, calico printer,
Brindle, Lancasbire—H. R. Fanshawe, jun., manufacturer of
Caoutchouc, London-wall.
PARTNERSHIPS DISSOLVED.
G. Dickinson and A. Clement, carpenters, Bath—J. Fan.
court and N. Pratt, upholsterers, Nottingham—W: Burstall
and G. Cowper, coal merchants, Liverpool—S. Cooper and W.
Hyde, linen manufacturers, Barnsley, Yorkshire —J. Grimshavr,
J. James, and J. Barker, commission agents, Manchester—W.
Mole, J. Bickers, and S. Appleford, silversmiths, Little
Warner-street, Clerkenwell—G. and J. B. Carey, lace manu-
facturers, Nottingham—G. Chismar and B. Treacher, corn
factors, Muscovy-court, Trinity-court, Tower-hill--J. and A.
Shepherd, victuallers, Red Lion, Liverpool-street, City—J. and
W. Tigar, hatters, Beverley, Yorkshire—G. Sewell and J.
Collin, surgeons, Romford, Essex—R. Lancaster and T. W.
Thompson, newspaper agents, Fleet-street—W. and G. Leeson,
ivory turners, Birmingham—J. Dunning and T. Hemingsley,
cut nail manufacturers, Wolverhampton—J. Edgcomb and H.
Blakesley, manufacturers of furniture fringes, Watling-street—
W. Spinks, M. Spinks, and J. Harris, milliners, New Bond-
street—G. and T. Corker, carpenters, Edmonton—T. Salter,
T. Sherwood, jun., W. C. Haigh, and J. Atkinson, worsted
piece manufacturers, Little Horton, Yorkshire.
SCOTCH SEQUESTRATIONS.
WILLIAM WEBSTER, merchant, Dundee, June 20 and
July 15, at one, at the British Hotel, Dundee.
WILLIAM MERCER, Writer to the S,gnet, Edinburgh,
June 22 and July 13, at eleven, at the Royal Exchange Coffee-
house, Edinburgh.
CHARLES INGRAM, gunmaker, Glasgow, June 22 and
July 17, at twelve, at the Chambers of E. Railton, writer,
Glasgow.

METROPOLITAN PATENT WOOD
PAVEMENT.

From the experience had, there seems very little
doubt that wood pavements will come into general use
in the capital and all great towns. The easiness of
draught, the absence of noise, the exceedingly small
quantity of wear and tear, give it a superiority over
every kind of paving yet used for carriage roads. Nor
do these qualities appear to have any per contra set-off
in expense, or the rapid wear of the blocks. So far,
indeed, from it, that there is every reason to believe,
from the experience already had, that ordinary fir blocks
will last for many years in their natural state if well laid,
at an insignificant annual expense of repair. And if
they were to be Kyanized, there is no telling to what
term they may endure, for the wear appears to be ex-
ceedingly small.
The principle of wood pavement being once admitted,
the next question is, as to the best form of blocks and
best method of laying them down. In the first spe-
cimen laid, at the east end of Oxford-street, the
blocks were independent hexagons, about nine inches
long, and six diameter, the grain being vertical, and
the bottom a well prepared Macadamised ground. This
stood so well, after twelve months' trial, as to bring the
wood into immediate reputation. Still it was evident,
from the partial subsiding of the blocks, that some
improvement was wanting. Though, as a whole, the
pavement stood the test of twelve months wear ex-
ceedingly well, there was evidently a want of what
may be called coherence or bond of aggregation of the
road. Each block stood alone ; each had to bear the
weight as it came on it, and there, was no means of
calling in the assistance of its neighbours. If, therefore,
every one was not equally strong or equally well sup-
ported, it naturally gave way, and left the road here
and there in hollows, which, though not very glaring,
were obvious enough after a shower of rain. From
the smoothness of the surface also, in greasy weather,
became exceedingly slippery.
Succeeding this was another attempt in the Old
Bailey of the same kind, which did not succeed.
Another similar one in Broad-street, St. Giles's re-
quired considerable repairing immediately after.
At length, in the summer of 1839, a plan was pro-
posed by a foreigner (we believe the Count de Lisle),
in which he proposed forming the blocks in a peculiar
rhomboidal shape, by what he calls " a new section,"
or " stereotomy of the cube." Without following the
author through all his details of superiority of this new
section, as he calls it, we shall here describe it, and show,
as far as we can perceive them, the practical advan-
tages of his plan.
Description.—Let C D, Fig. 1., be a square,

A. m-- P.
-- 1
' ,-1\
~ \ ••, I '':‘‘... ''',1.4:,...
s.-
en .11 c 1,

and let the base D C be bisected in E. From
E draw A E and complete the parallelogram
A BF E, which will be the longitudinal section
of his block, the transverse section being a
square. if now perpeddiculars be let fall from the
obtuse angles E, B, on the opposite sides, A, B, E, F,
they will cut the diagonal from the acute angles, A, F,
in points, P, Q, which will be the points of connexion
or tic for the adjacent rows of blocks. These rows are
so placed that alternately they run or lean the same
way, but adjacently the opposite. Thus, if we suppose
the row of blocks (Fig 2), A B H I, B C G

,
a, C
9
-

C D F G, all leaning towards the north, the adjacent
rows on each side of it, as C B I H, D C H G, E
D G F, will all lean towards the south. _ By this

means the two pins a, h. of the block, C B I H, coin-
cide respectively with the holes in the blocks A B H I,
and BC G H. So that if they are thus pinned, every
block of one row breaks the joints of the adjacent rows,
and is pinned to the two whose joints it breaks.
Hence there is formed a continuous and compact body,

in which the pressure is distributed over a considerable

surface.

If we examine more minutely the properties of these
blocks, we shall find a peculiarity in their shape, as thus
pinned together, which gives them the power of distri-
buting the pressure much superior to that of the up-
right hexagonal blocks. In the hexagonal blocks a
weight upon any one block is wholly supported by that
block during the entire time the wheel or body is pass-
ing across it, if unconnected to the other with pins ; and
if it is connected, then nearly the whole pressure, if the
ground beneath it is at all yielding, w►ll be borne by
the pins, which must of course tend much to break
them. But it we take one of the present blocks, in no
instance can it have to sustain the whole pressure for
more than over one-half of its surface. For if wo re-
fer to Fig. 1 we shall see that the block A B F E sus-
tains the whole pressure only when the weight is be-
tween m and B. When between m and Ait is partly
supported by the preceding block by a direct pres-
sure of the one block upon the other. The mere
keeping of the two blocks, therefore, together,
which the friction of the subsoil does almost alone, would
cause a distribution of the pressure over the greater part
of two surfaces instead of over one. But the method of
pinning them and breaking the joints really spread the
pressure over a great number of them, and that without
any great strain upon the pegs, for the friction of the
sub-earth beneath helps much to diminish this strain in
the way we have before alluded to. Hence by dividing
the pressure over a large range of the blocks longitudin-
ally, the co-operating aid of an equal number on each
side of this row is called into action by means of the
pegging system, and the individual pressure therefore
is much extenuated, as well as the strain on the pegs.
Indeed the whole body has somewhat the property of a
solid, every part being united to the other by the manner
of breaking the joints by contra-running rows, and pin-
ning them together. It is thus in a great measure in-
dependent of unequal hardness of subsoil, and must pre-
serve, much better than the other methods can, a more
even surface.

In the hexagonal blocks the grain is perpendicular
to the road ; in these it is parallel to the sides of the
blocks, and therefore somewhat oblique to the road.
It is said this has been found preferable, and that
horses do not slip so much on this sort of road as they
do upon the other blocks. If this be the case, it is
curious and highly advantageous property, of which,
however, we do not see any physical reason. We
have, at different times, paid some attention to this,
and certainly have observed, or fancied we have, much
less slipping upon the specimens laid down after this
plan than after the other plans. This, however, may
be in part occasioned by a groove cut longitudinally
along the blocks, which, if so, another groove, cut
transversely, would be a still farther safeguard against
slipping. _

.. -
It may be supposed that there would be some diffi-
culty in shaping these blocks, but there is really none.
The blocks are cut in long square lengths in the direc-
tion of the grain, and the figure is given at once, with-
out waste, by cutting them off in the proper oblique
angle. The joints are of course, therefore, be-
tween the blocks far more perfect than it is almost
possible they can by any expense be made in the hexa-
gonal shape.
Our readers will thus see that the great advantages
of this plan consist in accomplishing by a simple and
easy cut figure in the blocks, and proper pinning, a
greater uniformity and distribution of bearing, a much
more even surface, and consequently a less wear and
tear, and less annual expense in keeping the road up.
We have heard that so conscious of superiority in the
diminished wear are the parties connected with the
undertaking, that they decline laying down a pavement
unless they also are permitted to contract for the
keeping of it in repair.
The patent, is now in the bands of a company, and
it seems by the interest excited in its favour, that ere
long it will become almost the sole and only plan of
wood paving not only throughout Londan, which there
is little doubt will, in a few years, be nearly all paved
with wood, but in other large towns of the United
Kingdom. We have just heard that an order for one
quarter of a mile of this plan has been given for the
town of Manchester.
Our intention was, in the present number, to com-
pare the expense of this sort of pavement with others,
for which we have collected some materials, but we find
we must defer it to our next.—Railivay Magazine.