Graham guardian., 1896-04-17
ASPHALT PAvEMENTS.
A New York Lady Describes How The
Arc Put Down.

Did you ever watch men laying an
asphalt pavement? This morning o
crowd of men are finishing such pave
ment in front of my window. First
there appeared, about two weeks ago,
some men with picks; and in little
while all the paving stones were loose,
and soon they were picked up and carted
away.
Next carts appeared having coarse
gravel and dirt which were spread over
the street. This was left for few days.
This morning a crowd of men appeared
with shovels, brooms and curious-loolS-
ing tools. A big pan on wheels was put
at the corner. Uuder this pan was a fat
piece of iron in which were holes; a fire
was made on this, and the pan was filled
with soft, tar-like substance of about
the consistency of coal dust. A little
further away pot filled with liquid
tar was placed over another
fire and was soon boiling. This
tar the men poured from a
pail at the point where the surface met
the curbstone; they were followed by
others who had tools like fiat hammer
head in an iron handle, and they pound
ed the tar until it was hard, looking like
a black seam. Now the coal-dust sub
stance was taken from the pan and put
in carts, from which it was dumped
smoking hot on to the coarse, cinder-
like bed of the street. How hard and
fast the men worked in this smoking
stuff, spreading it with shovels and
smoothing it with rakes! Other men
with red-hot iron smoothers, which
they pressed on with all their might,
followed the rakes. The space treated
at one time was the width of the street
and about IS feet in length.
When the surface was smooth, two
men appeared, pushing q heavy iron
roller. When it reached the edge of the
asphalt, man washed it off with wet
cloth and it was pulled back. This
smoothed the surface, but the men
with the fiat hammer heads and the
smoothers also worked all the time at
it. Now came the most interesting
part. An engine on big rollers APP
peared, on which sat man. At his side
was wheel just like the wheel of a
pose-to guide the engine. The man
moved the engine in any direction by
moving this wheel. AS you can imagine,
the road was soon smooth and hard.
When the engine had passed over the
soft asphalt few times, man ap-
peared with a wheelbafrow in which
was dust exceedinly fine and light
brown in color. This he threw over the
road, and it was tossed with a light
brush over the surface; then the engine
with its heavy rollers passed over it
and it was rolled into the asphalt.
Tar was poured at the edge again, and
the engine passed over it right against
the curb. When the Is feet of road bed
was finished, q man with rake broke
its edge in curves, and the engine passed
over this broken edge until there was a
slanted surface to the unfinished 5neXt
to be done. The reason for this was
that the joining might not show. Be-
sides, if a straight edge was left be-
tween every IS feet, it would be q
crack, and the rain would settle in it
and destroy the road bed; by this meth
cd the joining was not unlike a piece of
dovetailing in carpentry, and the road
was perfectly smooth and unbroken.
The men examined every inch of the
surface after it looked finished, and
every uneven place or marred place was
scraped with a knife, and the men with
the fiat hammer heads and the smooth
ers, both heated very hot, passed over
the place where the defect had been
ness and equality. a bevel like carpen-
ter's bevel and a long, thin board, were
passed over the whole 81 feet to de,
termine its equality. 1t took two hours
to finish each Is feet of road, and about
IS men were working. They worked
like soldiers. Each man had his work as
signed him, and did it as though he were
part of machine. When his part was
finished he stood out of the way of the
other workers. The horse that dragged
the cart in which the asphalt was carted
hot knew perfectly well what he was to
do. He backed and turned without a
word being said to him. He had driver,
but apparently he did not need him
Asphalt is mined, and there are several
states in this country in which it is
found. The mines in this country have
not been worked much until the last
few years, most of the asphalt we used
being imported from Trinidad. The
industry in this country is now being
developed, as there is greater demand
for the product.-Mary Willis, in N. Y.
Outlook.