The evening times., 1896-07-21
FamousaAsphalt Suit Decided
Against Barber Company.
LARGE SUMS INVOLVED
Most of the Work Was Done on
Streets in This City-Case Was Be
gun In 1883 and Has Been Fought
Hard Through the Courts-Defene.
ants Will Appeal.

work done on the streets OF Washington
has just been decided at Buffalo, N. Y. The
payment for the work here has already been
made out OF the public funds, SO that moth
ing more can be asked from the Commis-
sioners. Suit may be brought against
them, but they are protected by bonds.
The settlement will be between the con-
tractors and the claimant.
The case referred to is that of Gen.
w. W. AveriIl, the well-known cavalry
leader of the civil war, against the Barber
Asphalt Paving Company. 1t was begun
in 1888, and has been fought hard through
the courts. Gen. Averll got a judg-
ment at Buffalo few days ago for half a
million dollars, and suit will be brought at
| once here and elsewhere to recover am cunts
ranging in the same neighborhood. There
is hardly large city in the country that
has not had more or less work done by
| the Parber Company. The total amount
| likely TO be recovered by Gen. Averiil will
approach 10000, Zoo. His claim is good
only for paving done prior to 1887.
The litigation at Buffalo establishes, in
the Judgment OF the court there, that Gen
Averill is the inventor of the American
process which made practicable the use
has a right to Il share in all profits from
laying such streets The patents he OBJ
tanned have been used, it is held, but
| he has been excluded from participation
| In the proceeds.
Gen. Averi.l is Well remembered among
public men here. He was also well known
at the Patent Office twenty years ago.
He was busy with experiments in asphalt
paving and spent great deal OF money
before he secured a method Of laying the
Trinidad product which would give
satisfactory street.
FIRST EXPERIMENTS FAILED.
There had been, up to the close OF the
civil war, many efforts to use asphalt
! for street paving in this country, but
| iil-success attended all OF them. About
three years after the establishment of
| peace Edward j. De smedt, Belgian
chemist and graduate OF the University of
Brussels, came to New York.
He had been employed under the French
government in laying asphalt streets in
| Paris, and the work was attracting much
attention. The old Mich olsen pavement Of
| wooden blocks all through this country
was wearing out and falling into disfav or
/
engineers were looking for something better,
though good deal OF Nicholson was still
| gong down.
| The trouble with the asphal II had been the
saIne as with the wooden blocks-it wore
out too fast. Tire work in Paris seemed
to stand the test better than any that had
been previously tried. By regulating the
loads hauled over it, and the width OF tires,
il appeared to be possible to have a pave
ment that would wear almost indefinitely,
witireasona ble expense for repairs, and that
was the very thing that street-builders
| had been looking for.
Mr.. De Smedt became acquainted with
Gen. Averiil, who had, in 1863, retired
from the office of consul general at some
Southern place that gave him information
about Trinidad. With Gen. Mcclellan,
Gen. Gilmore and Gen Wright, Of the gov
ernnIent corps Of engineers, he examined
specimens of Mr.. Dc Smedt's pavement
and saw it in use in Paris. He became
| convinced OF its success, and induced a
| number OF friends to invest their money
with his own in an effort to put 1t on the
American market He got contracts for
paving certain streets around the Fattery
and Central Park in New York city and
the asphaltwas put down.
1t was a distinct failure. Partly owing
to the difficulties of regulating teaning
over 1t and partly owing to differences
from Paris In climatic conditions, amount
OF rainfall. intensity of freezing, etc, the
paving broke up SO badly within year
that 1t was necessary to renew practically
all OF it in order to have solid streets.
| ha
and his friends $4,000.
sUCCESSFULPAvEME EMENTDISCOvERED
But he waspot potdiscouraged. He had made
good many laboratory experiments will
the material himself, and he rejected some
of Mr.. De smedt's conclusions. BE con-
tiDued Mr.. De Smedt in his employ to con-
duct practical work and aid him, but fol-
lowed his own ideas.
IDthespnngof1 sT3 he perfected process
and got consent of the New York authorities
to lay some more paving. He put down a
block ON Fifth avenue, between Broadway
and Twenty-fifth street, alongside the
Worth Monument, and il stood the test. II
wore some, of course, as such pavement
still does everywhere, and repairs had to be
made: but they were comparatively sc
slight that it was recognized that success
had at last been achieved with the material
That experimental pavement was in use
with ordinary repairs for fourteen years.
Gen. Averll, as well as many others, rec
ognized at once the value of his discovery
and leased part of the lake on the Island
of Trinidad which has been the chief
source of supply OF asphalt. He thus got
control of the entire importation of the ma
| for tp 10 nf
laying the block in New York until 1876 lie
was busy in pushing the patents for his
process. He claimed and seems to have
proved to the satisfaction Of the Buffalo
court that the seven patents originally
granted to Mr.. DeSmedt did not give sat
isfactory results. While his own patent
was pending he got a contract to lay Ii
pavement on Pennsylvania avenue here
and In 1876 laid on Washington's grea,
thoroughfare the first practical, satisfac
tory asphalt paving of any extent ever put
down in this country. 1t is substantially
the same pavement that now covers thai
street.
BARBER COMPANY FORMED.
The success of the work attracted tn
attention of Amzi L. Barber, then Goa
dealer OF large means. While the pavemep
was being laid under the direction OF MI
DE Smedt, as an ernploye of Gen. Averill; tn
former suddenly gave up his place to be
come inspector OF pavements for the Di,
trict. Gen. Averl says that he at the sam
time signed a contract with Mr.. Barber am
Andrew Langdon to lay pavements through
out the country, and they went to wor
by the Averili process. No patent had ye