The herald., 1898-02-27
REPLIES TO CRITICISMS
Prof sadtler Again Goes Over the
Asphalt Tests

It seems that the ghost or the aspnal
fight will not down, and time but serves II
bring to the front new arguments pro an
con on question which all had supposed
definitely settled when 2 disintereste'
eastern chemist Prof. Samuel p. Sadtle
of Philadelphia. was engaged 10 analyZ'
and report on various samples. which M
did.
Instead of settling the question. tbs
Western OIL and Asphalt company, who's
asphalt was given a secondary rank as
paving material. at once had a report OF
their asphalt prepared and submitted tt
the members of the council. In this repor
the deductions of Prof. Sadtler were at
tackled and statements conflicting will
those made by him advanced. casting
doubt on the result of his analyses.
This document was sent on to Prof
Sadtler by City Clerk Hance. and yester'
day the following self-explanatory reply
was received:
PHILADELPHIA. Feb. 81. 1898.
c. H. Hance. City Clerk. Los An
geles. Cal.-Dear Sir: Your favor of
the 18th inst, enclosing a communca-
tion from the Western Oil and Asphalt
company. criticising my report on the
several asphalts recently examined by
me. is at hand. with a request that | re-
turn it after examination.
You do not ask me to discuss it. SO
shall not do more than call attention to
few statements which think are in
accurate. | have also received a let
ter from the president of the same COM
pany. which | have answered. and
which answer Mr.. Brown is at liberty to
show in its entirety, if he wishes.
In the first place it is not correct that
my conclusions were based upon the
physical tests only. and are at variance
with the results of the chemical exam
nation. When the bitumens are COM
pared directly as is done in the second
table of my report. it is seen that the
ratio OF petrolene and asphaltene is a
shade better with the Alcatraz Az and
in Ia of the Western Oil and Asphalt
company With the liquid fiuxes, the
3B is distinctly better than "a. and its
petrolenc is more tenacious and thicker
and it contains HIS per cent of asphalt
enc giving it body.
AS to the y per cent of fine silica
contained in the Alcatraz sample 4B
you can see that. as We use only Ten
parts of the paving cement. previ-
ously f1uXed with 1.5 parts OF the liquid
asphalt. in making up the briquettes,
it increases the total amount of for
eien matter in a very slight degree.
The sole use of the powdered lime
stone or other finely-powdered mineral
particles Of asphait-covcred sand. and
that Is the only way in which it can
add strength to the mixture. I salts
fed myself by a careful inspection of
the bri1uettes on the broken surfaces
that this end was attained in the case
of each of the mixtures.
AS to the proportions | used being
unfair to the Western Oil and Asphalt
company's sample. it was purer as
.t4a1t inF, -,-ET1
] said in my letter to Mr.. Brown. have
made numerous mixtures in the past
for physical tests in which ] have used
Bermudez asphalt. which is 9S.5 pure
bitumen. huXing it with different liquid
asphalts in the proportion of 10 to 1.5
parts. and made this asphaltic cement
so Obtained into briquettes, with $50
parts of sand and powdered limestone,
and got results equal to the best quoted
in this report.
The communication calls attention
to what II terms ''the errors of Prof.
Sadter in constantly referring to the
Western Oil and Asphalt solid sample
IA as a paving cement"
l would only say that it was so
labelled and referred to in all the COM
munications received by me in connec-
tion with the matter. and | had no
knowledge of what its manufacturers
claimed for II or how they proposed
to use it. except that it was TO be
fiuXcd with "a.
With regard TO the supposed lack of
judgment in not varying the proper
tions of the several mixtures so as
ito secure the best results from each"
II is a sufficient answer to say that |
1elt 1 was obliged to use them accord
ing to their designations. and treat Ia
paving cement in same way a Alb paw
ing cement, each to be fluXed in the
same proportion with its appropriate
f1uX Moreover, after making the chem
ical analyses and heating tests, I had
barely enough of the samples la and
4B to make up the 1860 grams of nav
ing mixture needed for the physical
tests. l was not asked to conduct a series
OIL experiments in order to determine
What mixtures would give the best re-
suits for each variety Of aspbalt nor
did | promise to do so when wrote
originally.
There are number Of insinuations
and vague charges of unfairness which
l will not take further space to ans
wer as the facts already stated suf
nee 10 show their unreasonableness
and improbability.
After reading all that is said in this
communication. | see no reason to
modify the opinion expressed in nv.
report, viz: THAT the mixture com
posed of BIB and Alb is capable of max
ing a strong and durable paving, and
in these respects is moreover superior
10 the other mixtures" Very reepect
fully, SAMUEL p. SADTTIsR
Auditors Balance Sheet
The trial balance of the ci+v a,,ditor ro,