St. Paul daily globe., 1895-06-02
TEST THE ASPHALT.
A Correspondent Makes Good
Suggestion.


Suggestion.
To the Editor of the Globe.
Referring to an article in one of the
morning papers of yesterday in regard
to the asphalt paving, now going on on
Seventh street and on Sixth street, 1
would say that, as a citizen of st. Paul,
l am very much interested in this as
phalt paving question, which has been
before the public of st. Paul very fre-
quently these last months. From the
article in the paper 1 find that Trinidad
asphalt is used on Seventh street, and
Bermudas asphalt on Sixth street.
1t would be very interesting, as well
as valuable, to know what safeguards
the city, through it's department of
public work, has taken to be guaran-
teed that Trinidad asphaltum and no
other kind of asphalt is and will be
used on Seventh street, and likewise
in regard to the Bermudas asphalt on
Sixth street, except what might be
guaranteed by the contractors. 1 con-
slider this very important question,
not only for the present, but also for
the future, that the city should have
absolute knowledge, not only of the
asphalt used, but also of the actual
composition of the asphalt, as such
as well as the ready mixed compound,
ready to put on the street, in other
words the writer queries if the city
officials make regular inspections of
the asphalt, the refined asphalt and
the asphaltum compound ready to be
put on the street. The city officials
may have the fullest confidence in
oo+O hn
they will do their very best, at the
same time it seems to the writer that
it would be very important to have
samples taken from each shipment of
the refined asphalt, as well as samples
from the ready mixed compound just
as it is poured on the street.
If these precautions have not al
ready been taken, L would suggest to
the officials of the city through your
columns, that certain number of
samples be taken from the refined as
phalt, from each shipment of 100 bar
rels, say about half a pound of as
phalt from each four or five barrels,
this to constitute one sample. to be
kept for future record. Each sample
should be properly labeled, and put
into a well-covered and closed tin can,
so as to preserve the sample in it's
original state.
Next equally important would be to
take, at certain intervals, say once
a day, a sample from the asphalt mix
ture as it is poured from the recep-
tacle into the street; this sample should
be taken in this way Have several
boxes made, four inches wide, four
inches high and sixteen and a half
inches long, inside measure; the mix
ture should be poured into one of
these boxes, filling the same perfectly
full and the mixture should also be
pressed down somewhat, so as to be-
come compact and even with the top
of the box. After the asphaltic mix
ture has become cold and set hard, the
sample should be cut into four four
inch cubes and set aside for future
records, in this way: One of the cubes
from each sample, thus taken and pre-
pared at intervals, should be put ex-
posed to the atmosphere at some suita-
BILE place, under the control and super
vision of the city engineering depart
ment, the other three cubes from the
sample, properly labeled, of course,
should be stored away in a dark and
protected place for future inspection
and record.
The object of these precautions is
rather self-evident, both from a prac-
tical and theoretical point of view.
In the first place the city, or its proper
officials, can at any time deem it ad-
visable not only to have the refined
asphaltium used carefully examined.
both chemically and physically. but
also the mixture of such as it is put
down on the street, thus ascertaining
the uniformity of both the refined as
phalt itself, as well as the compound
put on the street. Furthermore, sup
posing that after eight or ten years.
or sooner, it should be found that the
Trinidad asphaltum as laid down on
Seventh street, should show signs of
decay at some parts of the street and
not at others, or after that length of
time it should be found that the Ber-
mudas asphaltum, taken as a whole
did or did not give as satisfactory SER
vice as the Trinidad asphaltum, then.
by having taken the above recon-
mended precautions, it would be pos
sible to find satisfactory explanations
of the cause of the trouble, by having
the original products at hand:
l will add that the city engineers
department should, of course, keep full
and detailed records when and where
the samples were taken, dividing the
street in it's entire length into given
sections, each section to be repre
sented by samples taken as above sug-
gested. p. H G.