The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-27 00:00:00

Street Paving.

A very successful trial has been made in London,
of the Val-de-Travers asphalte, a substance which
has for many years been used in Paris. Upwards of
a year ago the City Commissioners of Sewers,
with the consent of their engineer and surveyor, re-
solved to lay down a quantity of the asphalt° by
way of experiment in one of the most frequented
of the metropolitan thoroughfares Thread-
needle - street; Owing to the satisfactory

MAY 27, 1870.

result which appeared to follow the action of
the Commissioners, they have been petitioned by
the inhabitants of other streets to have the news
paving material applied to their thoroughfares a
well. It has been noticed that the Val-de-
Travers asphalte gives to a carriage-way all the
advantages rendered by granite or macadam
without the drawbacks of either of the latter. It
does not produce a slippery pavement, it is unaffected
by heat, or frost, is easily laid down, ana
makes a street smooth and clean, and, lastly
and chiefly, it is enduring. This peculiarity
is what tends to make the substance
especially valuable in the busy roadways of London,
and it is on account of this mainly that the citi-
zens are anxious for the further adoption of the
material. To remove all doubt as to the last-
ing character of the paving, a piece of the
roadway near the Bank of England was taken up on
Wednesday, and although the portion was selected
from a spot where the traffic is usually greatest,the
reduction in its thickness, after nearly eighteen
months' wear and tear, was the least imaginable.
Death in the London Streets.

Statistics enumerating the large number of persons
who, are annually killed by being run over in
the streets of London, are given in a
return issued from the General Register-
office, and assuredly the magnitude of the
disasterSiss-Vtlt as the increase o€-fatal cases which
is shewn to take place yearly, is sufficient to warn
ordinarily .nervous persons not to leave even
their homes. In 1867, 164 people were
killed by horses or vehicles. In 1868 the number
increased to 203, while about 2,700 others
were maimed or seriously injured. There was a
slight decrease in 1869, chiefly noticeable in the
deaths caused by vans and waggons, but in the
present year the mortality list seems to again have
received alarming augmentation. Dr. Farr, the
Registrar-General, calculates that one hundred
thousand men, women, and children are
subject to being run over in the streets of London
in twenty-four hours, and he states that the deaths in
1868 shew that two in every 1,000 of the passenger
population of the city are exposed to risk for a year.
This is the same as his estimate of railway passenger
mortality all over England. Dr. Farr concludes the
report by expressing an opinion that the cause and
the prevention of street accidents might, with much
advantage, be inquired into by a commission.
He also offers many wise suggestions .by
which the public themselves might try to counteract
the prevalence of disasters. To the latter his
chief word of advice is that, when foot passengers,
they should consider the question of their safety
before crossing a street, and that when crossing they
should keep themselves at once cool, attentive, and
alert.