The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1900-11-01
ASPHALTEOKPAVEMENT
WONDERFUL GROWTH OF THIS MOD.
ERN SYSTEM OF ROAD MAKING.
Vast Lakes" Of Material - Found In All
Parts Of the world, and the supply
IL Practically Unlimited-How it Is
Prepared How Applied to streets.


An eminent scientist. with long
string of capital letters after his name.
has made asphaltum out of dead fish
ana sawdust The experiment wasa sue
cess-as IN experment-but the pro
duct would hardly do for II Broadway
pavement; besides. II Is too expensive.
Scientists have also made diamonds.
and may do so again. but the stock
of the Kimberley mines is still quoted
at a premium. II Is reasonably GER
tain that. for years to come. the
worlds supply of asphaltum for pay
ing purposes will be drawn from ma
ture's storehousc.
Twentyfour years ago commission
of United States Government cngi-
neers had Pennsylvania avenue. from
the Capitol to the Treasury building,
in Washington, u. c.. paved with as
phalt. This was the first time asphalt
had been used in paving II thorough.
fare on this continent. To-day In 100
cities and towns In the United States
and Canada there are 2600O,000 square
yards. or 5000 acres. of asphalt pave
mcnt i'm use. The asphalt pavements
of this country. It is estimated, would
make Il street twcnty-SiX feet wide
and 1850 miles long, or considerably
moro than the distance from New York
to New Orleans.
For twenty years prior to the intro
ducton of asphalt in America com
position of bituminous rock. composed
principally of limestone pounded fine
as flour, was used in paving the streets
of some of the larger cities i'm Europe
In all Europe there nrc little over
100000 square yards Of this pave
mcnt to-day. whereas In the United
States there are being laid annually
about 2.5O0.00O square yards of as
phalt. The American composition Is
mixture of sand and asphalt which
forms kind of artificial sandstone
which retains rough surface. The
bituminous limestone rock of Europe
however, taxes high polish under
continuous traffic and becomes cX-
ceedngly slippery, making it danger
Gus in bad weather.
In the boroughs of Manhattan and
the Bronx of New York city. alone
there are 40 miles of asphalt pave
ment. and contracts have been let for
the construction of twenty miles addi-
tional The New York City contracts
call for the expenditure of Sl.3OO,OO0
for asphalt pavement in the near fu-
ture. These contracts require that the
pavement shall he guaranteed for
from ten to fifteen years.
Asphaltum, which only recently has
been made useful to man, was abun-
dant in the very backyard of early
Egyptian civilization, but there is No
authentic record to show that the en-
lghtcned RameScs H.. or the other
Pharaohs took advantage of the depos-
its. The shores of the Dead Sea in
Palestine are covered, in places. with
asphaltum, and it Is abundant near the
Caspian Sea. Asphaltum also occurs
in Brazil Venezuela. the island of
Trinidad, Cuba and Mexico. In Eu-
rope it is found in Val de Travers and
different parts of Switzerland and in
Sicily. In the United States asphal-
tum has been found in Kentucky,
Texas and the Indian Territory but it
is so sandy as to he difficult of prepar-
alton for commercial purposes
In the State of BcrmudCZ, in Nenc.
zuela, and in the island of Trinidad,
II British possession, just Off the Nenc-
zuelan coast and almost opposite the
delta of the OrinoCo River asphaltum
deposits assume the curious form of
large lakes. In general appearance
these deposits resemble Il sea Of black
mud. This asphnltum Is pure btu
men in nearly Il solid form. The Trim
idad lake" is about 10 acres in eX-
tent; that in BermudeZ comprises
about 1000 acres. The surface Is Just
sufficiently firm 10 support the weight
of man, and may be walked upon
with ordinary precaution. II would
not do to stand still in one place for a
very great length OF time however, as
there Is danger that the person so
doing would gradually sink out of
sight. An article the weight of full
grown man II left in the lake" over
night for instance. would be swal-
lowed up by morning.
The Trinidad and Bermudez asphal-
tum is distinguished for its cohesive
ness. This makes it valuable CONNER
clally, but would also make it exceed
ingly unpleasant for any one so
thoughtlcss as to drop off to sleep on
the surface of one of the lakes" He
might be chopped out all right in the
morning and the sticky asphaltum
pried off with cold chisel, but the ex-
perlcnce would be somewhat dscom
fortlng,
The lakes" have been sounded to
depth of over 2OO feet and no bottom
reached to the asphaltum, so it may
safely be said that the supply Is prac-
tlcally ineXhaustible. AS the stuff is
dug out more of II slowly oOzes up
again into the hole thus made, and in
short time, although carloads may
have been carted away, the surface Of
the lake" is perfectly even. and there
Is no external evidence that the deposit
has been disturbed. These deposits
havS been worked for years Two
thirds of the asphaltum used on the
streets of the cities of the United
States has come from them. yet so far
as outward appearances 90 they are
the same, almost, rs they were when
the first carload was taken away.
Asphatum of good quality looks very