The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-03-22

Many Excellent Papers Wore Read and
Some Excellent Suggestions Made
| vitrified Brick and Asphalt Blocks
| Warmly Supported Kim.
ball 0uoted-His Remarks in Regard
to the Streets of Roanoke Endorsed.
The weekly meeting of the CONNER
oial Associator last night was crafty
ing success in every particular. The
attendance. particularly Of business
men and property holders, was excep.
tionally good and shows that the paving
question is of moro than ordinary inter
est to them. The board of public works
and several contractors for macadam-
izing the streets were present and
evinced deep interestin the proceedings
President Pechin was very felicitous
in his opening remarks and when he
introduced j. e. M. Hanckel, we'll
known civil engineer of this city, the
audience was prepared to give him close
attention. Mr.. Hanckel came out flat
! footed in favor of vitrified brick pave
ment for the streets of Roanoke. The
following is taken from the paper read
by him:
1.-The conditions pertaining to the
paving of the lower business streets OF
Roanoke are of rather unusual occur
renee. The grade on these streets is so
light that water will flow off very
slowly, and when this water becomes
thick and muscous with mud brought
on the street by wheels of vehicles
coming from unpaved streets and the
droppings from horses, the streets are
ponds of an almost standing solution of
mud, store sweepings and horse drop
pings.
GA permanent pavement must be I'M
pervious to water. That is, the pave
ment must be of such character as to
shed water to each side, so that it will
be carried off in tho cutters and not
absorbed. In the case before us in Roa-
noke, permanent pavement for these
low business streets, with their light
grades, must be Of such character as to
present the slightest obstruction pos
siblc to the flow of water, and at the
same time to give the longest duration
of wearing surface.
Tho three materials already spoken
OF for paving our streets are granite,
asphalt and vitrified brick. Let me
present the merits and demerits of these
"First, granite from which Belgian
block pavement is made, (for no City
Council that has the interest Of the tax
payer at heart will allow granite rubble
to be laid on its streets) makes q pave
mont that has very long life, and
makes handsome appearance. The
objections to it, are first, it is noisy and
becomes moro so as it wears much more
rapidly at the edges that are traverse
to the line of traffic than in the center
of the blocks, thus making surface of
something approaching a corrugated
form. For tho same reason as the
int stices between the blocks become
larger, there is more accumulation of
dust and detriti. and of course greater
obstruction to flow of water.
Second, asphalt makes the smoothest
pavement known, but does not present
very sure foothold for horses; it's short
life precludes it from being desirable
material for paving our streets and it is
much injured by uric acid from horse
droppings, and as the flow on our streets
will be very slow this adds strength to
the argument against its use.
LASTLY, 1 como to vitriied brick,
which is the newest form of pavemt mt
III this section, though it promises to be-
come the pavement for business as we'll
as residential streets.
The manufacture of this kind of
brick is carried cut witc great care in
preparation of the clay and mixture and
forcing it into molds of gre at pressure
1t is then burned in down draft kilns,
and raised to 5000 degrees Farenheit of
heat until they are vitrifed; then tho
kiln is closed up about alright. and the
bricks are annealed or gradually cooled
for about ten days. This process tough
ems them.
''This pavement has almost the
wearing life OF Belgian block, and some
brick men claim it's life equal to Boil.
gian block. AS the edges of the blocks
como close up to each other there is
the least possible wear at these points,
and for the same reason there is little
obstruction to flow of water over its
surface, and therefore it catches no
dust and droppings. The surface of
the brick give an excellent foothold for
horses, and does not wear slippery.
This merit of vitrified brick was
fully determined by a trial in Chicago,
Ill, at the warehouse OF the Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy railroad. The
approach to 1t was very steep, and an
average of 25,O0O,OOO pounds or 1000
teams each day passed over this street.
The railroad company tried granite,
asphalt and wood pavements. These
were each put down in the order named,
and the company, dissatisfied with them
all, took them up, and at last tried
virified brick This has been down now
one year and and half and is giving
perfect satisfaction, which no other
pavement heretofore put on this street
had done, the granite and asphalt be-
coming so slippery that horses could
not hold their footing, and the wood