Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-02-14
HOW TO PAVE.
A Short History Of Many Experiments
in New York City with Vari-
Gus PaVements.
Stone Remains the Only Kind Which
Stands the Test Of Time and Can
Be Thoroughly Relied Upon.

A resolution having been offered at the
last meeting of the Legislative Council to
pave Second street with wood, when the time
for paving should come, the APPEAL feels
called upon to show again the inutiliiy OF
such a measure. Memphis has no very
pleasant mementoes of Nicolson pavements,
either in point of use or in health. The peo-
pie have several practical results of wooden
streets. Second street is a standing protest
against any further experiments in this line.
Experience has shown time and again,
despite the engaging exhibits of interested
parties, that stone pavements are the only
kind that can Re relied upon. In New York,
over a century ago, certain streets were paved
with cobblestones. This covering has out
lived the officials who ordered it laid, the
children who saw it laid, and the records Of
the work. The existence of these pavements
can be traced back TO 1911. There are Fifty
miles of such pavements in New York to-
day, some portions of which, there is reason
to believe, were laid over q century sgo.
New York, says the Times of that city, re-
members her experience with
WOODEN PAvEMENTs
of various kinds. Luxuries they we're for a
few weeks after they were laid; expensive
luxuries and signal failures they proved to
be before they were finally torn up and other
and more substantial pavements were laid
in their place. The travel on even the most
unfrequented Of New York's streets is too
great TO permit of a wooden pavement
standing the wear asd tear. And 30 the
experiments with wooden pavements, which,
in the aggregate, cost New York's taxpayers
hundreds OF thousands of dollars, have been
abandoned, and there are now no wooden
pavemepts in the city. The question as to
their life il, therefore, settled satisfactorily
80 far as people in the city interested in such
matters are concerned. Twenty miles
of various kinds OF wooden pavement, laid
fully in accord with the theories of the in
the taxpayers. 1t took seven years in all to
prove beyond doubt that blocks of wood,
no natter how laid or how treated were fail
ures The best Of the lot lived, 80 to speak,
only from three to five yesrs, and it required
the most careful nursing to bring these petted
and fendled and expensive children up to
that age. The costly experiments proved
that wood would no more take the place of
stone for pavements than would Japanese
paper that OF coarse linen for napkins in q
cheap Bowery restaurant.
THE ASPHALT PAVEMENT
has also been largely experimental with in
New York, and has been signal failure be-
cause of the slippery surface of the street
and the great expense incurred in repairing
There is little likelihood that the asphalt
pavement will ever be extensively used in
New York.
THE rELFoRD-MAcADAM PAVEMENT
has also been tried in the avenues and boule-
wards above Central park, New York. On a
bed of coarsely broken rock is laid the more
finely crushed rock and gravel, which gives
a firm and easy bed. These psvements, so
much liked by the owners Of fast horses,
were first extensively laid there in 1870 and
since they were laid prove degree of dura-
bility sufficient TO make that style of road
bed available for the purpose for which it is
used. But when it is used BY heavy wagons
and trucks il, loo, becomes q short-lived
pavement. Its failure for general use is shown
by the condition of Fifth avenue above
Fifty. ninth street, where the road-bed has
become converted by the passage of
heavily loaded beer wagons and contractors
wagons over it from q lawn like surface into
one with ruts and ridges like those in coun-
try road. To reach this smooth pavement
drivers have been in the habit for several
years Of going many blocks out of their way,
and while they have secured their own COM
fort they have also secured the discomfort of
thousands Of others, and have proved beyond
dispute that for the general use Of cities the
mscadsmized pavement, as it is called, must
be put down as among the short-lived pave
ments.
THE SUPERIORITY OF STONE.
Stone, then, remains as the only material
with which 10 pave streets, and, singularly
enough, this apparently serviceable material,
when first used scientifically" was a dire
failure in New York City. When it proved
a failure the huge blocks of granite or trap
rock used were almost perfect cubes. Laid
though on beds of gravel or CO.
ment, the blocks would not keep even an
approximately even surface. The passage
of heavy teams resulted in depressing the
blocks at their regularly marked points of
juncture. As truck after truck passed over
the stone surface the depression became more
marked, and eventually developed into ruts,
which made the street as uncomfortable to
pass over as the cobblestCne-paved streets of
the forefathers. 1t was not until the present
form of block used-oblong in shape and
giving surface of broken joints-was sug-
gested, that the proper thing for pavements
in the much-traveled streets Of large cities
seemed to have been reached. Broadway
and Fulton street, New York, have such
pavements, laid on a bed OF concrete, and all
the principal streets of the city have similar
blocks, laid on beds of gravel. Whether
they will live as long as generation Of
mankind and serve the purpose expected, is
still a question that is by no means fully
answered. 1t is confidently expected, how
ever, that this pavement will prove 10 be
all that is claimed for it, and will satisfy
the demand of road. builders for pavement
that will outlive, with proper care, the man
who laid it. The pavement has not been
down sufficient length Of time, however, to
ascertain what its life may be. That it will
live score of years has been satisfactorily
proved; that it may live for century is
within the range of possibilities. To secure
this life, however, one of two kinds of stone
must be used-either granite or trap rock.
In either case the stone has to be carefully
selected, and the preference with road build
ers is decidedly in favor Of granite as the
longer-lived OF the two.
The relative values of pavements as held
by The New York City authorities may be
ascertained from the following figures: There
are OF the paved streets of the city 255 miles
of granite blocks and trap-rock, twenty-six
and one half miles of the combination Tel
ford and macadam pavement, fifty FIVE miles
of cobble, and two-thirds OF mile Of asphalt
and concrete.
The experience OF New York in this mat
ter certainly ought to settle the question for
Memphis.