The San Francisco call., 1898-03-26
Granite Curbs From Folsom State Prison Are Used
 on the Job.
AN INSPECTORS RECORD.
Prison Material Comes Billed by Rail to W. o. Badgley, Shareholder
 of the Paving Company.


 improvement As the plan is extensive and in a measure experimental it has attracted the attention of The Calls expert in street paving. The progress sive citizens of Oakland decided to
 pave East Twelfth street from First to
 Thirteenth avenue with redwood
 blocks on top of concrete The story
 goes that considerable influence was needed to get a wooden block specified
 tion. Seven lumber companies, it is
 said. had to unite in the pull for the blocks.
 The proposed improvement will cost
 SAP 900 of which amount the city of Oakland pavs one-half and the inter- ested property owners on the line of the avenue the other half On the first
 proceeding to pave the avenue the con- tract was awarded to a San Francisco
 firm. but a technical objection was pre- scented and the proceedings were re- opened. On the second deal the con- tract was given to the East Oakland
 Paving and Contracting Company.
 The method of preparing specified
 lions in Oakland differ somewhat from
 the fashion followed in San Francisco. Over there the City Engineer, who is
 an elective officer, prepares the specif1-
 cations and establishes the grade.
 Then the Street Superintendent, who is
 appointed by the Board of Public
 Works. comes forward and carries out the work with the assistance or ln- spectors appointed by himself
 For the East Twelfth street paving the Engineer made capital speclnca-
 tions. For concrete bed ne oeslellaleu elements in this proportion: One un- | broken barrel of cement, containing three and four tenthS cubic feet; three cement barrels of sand and elght ce-
 ment barrels of rock. It seems that anybody should understand this specl- fication. In due time Marsden camp | bell who says that he is candidate fo City Engineer of Oakland, was ap- pointed to inspect the work. He has
 record as a graduate from the San
 Francisco Harbor Commissioners School of Assistant Engineers. He was mentioned in the court testimony re-
 gently as an inspector who accepted
 undersized piling timber on the State | work.
 As the work progresses In Oakland Campbell stays with the rock. The sta | tion, seven blocks distant, where the sand and cement are mixed, does not
 receive the careful supervision of the | inspector. The men of the contracting company look after affairs at the point
 where the cement comes in. At the mixing station there is a box three by four feet, containing twelve cubic feet. This box is for sand. On top of the sand is another box. This one, two by
 two feet, holds four cubic feet. This
 box is for cement, but 1t has no bot tom. Cement is originally placed in the barrel under hydraulic pressure. When | the barrel is opened and the pressure relieved the bulk expands in the two by two box from three and four -tenths | tn a l feet. The mixed sand and cement is then hauled seven blocks to the rock
 on the street. One barrel of the mix ture is used to every thirty-three cubic feet of rock, whereas the real propor- tion, according to the specification, should be one barrel for every twenty seven cubic feet of rock.
 It is calculated that there should be used on the entire job, according to the specifications of the engineer, 5000 bar relS of cement. Under the measurement of the Street Superintendent and in spector less than 2300 barrels will be used.
 Cement of the brand used, the Hill ton. costs laid down in Oakland about $2 85 a barrel It Is not improbable that
 the contractors will save s1960 on ce- ment alone.
 Oaklanders will be delighted to learn that the East Oakland Paving and Con-
 tracting Company is using on the East
 Twelfth-street job granite curbing hewn and dressed at Folsom Prison.
 How the law forbidding the competi- tion of prison labor with the labor of free men is evaded is not clear at pres ent. The Board Of Prison Directors may be able to throw some light on this branch on the subject.
 The story concerning the use of the
 Folsom prison granite presents some striking features. Observations of the
 work made on behalf of The Call
 pointed directly to the use of the prison dressed stone for the curbs, but the paper hesitated to believe that the East Oakland Paving and Contracting Com pany was advisedly using the product of convict labor. Verification of the report was demanded When Prison Director F'itZgerald was asked whether
 such material was in the market he re- piled that Warden Aull of Folsom was under some obligation to supply Oak land with granite curbs. Tracing the
 subject further it was ascertained that w. o. Badgley, real estate and in- surance man of Oakland, was able to
 obtain granite curbs from Folsom
 Further inquiry disclosed the fact that the curbs from Folsom came by rail
 billed to Badgley, but that the East
 Oakland Paving Company received the
 material and paid the charges. Ad-
 herring to the same thread a journey was made to the clerks office and
 there it was found that MT. Badgley
 was a shareholder of the East Oakland
 Paving and Contracting Company
 When MT Badgley was asked if he
 could supply curbs of the style which engaged the attention of The Calls ex- pert he inquired as to the quantity re- ouired and gave the price at which he
 could supply small lot at 45 cents lineal foot on the cars at Folsom. Sur prise being expressed at the high figure
 MT. Badgley called attention to the ex- cellence of finish and the general beauty of the curbing. It was suggest
 ed by MT. Badgley that the customer