|
[page 152, column 2, continued:]
|
|
|
WOOD
PAVEMENTS. — A scientific English gentleman, now
in this country,
for the purpose of examining mines for an English company, has sent us,
at our request, the substance of a conversation at table on the subject
of wood pavements — a matter to which he had given attention in
England.
His surprise at the uncomfortableness of our streets, in
comparison
with every thing else in the country, was very [column 2:] strongly
expressed,
and we think we must allow that this one foot of the centipede march of
civilization, has fallen culpably behind.
One would naturally suppose that the immense advantage
which London
has derived from adopting wood pavement, had been previously felt in
this
country, where the invention was first introduced from Russia;
but
it seems that the system has been badly applied both in Boston and new
York; for surely there is no reason in the difference of climate, soil,
or timber, to render the result so different from what it has been in
London,
where the experiments are considered as entirely successful.
Wooden pavement has not been tried for four years in
England. It is
laid in all the great thoroughfares, such as Regent street, Whitehall,
Oxford street, Holborn, Strand, Cheapside, the New Road, and a large
proportion
of the city and West End. It is calculated that it will be universal
over
London in four or five years more. Since the difference in the results
obtained, in the old country and in this, must be attributed to the
different
method employed, it will not be without interest to describe the
English
system.
The first experiment, on a large scale, was tried four
or five years
ago in the broad thoroughfare of Whitehall, on a principle patented by
the Count D'Lisle. This system consisted in laying the timber
blocks
with the grain of the wood inclined at an angle. Each block of wood
was diamond shaped, and, when placed, they partly rested on their base
and partly on one another.
The angle adopted by Cound D'Lisle was that of the
Diagonal section
of the cube, but experience has shown that the precise angle is not
of importance, and any angle from 55° to 70° will do.
When this pavement was laid first, one row of blocks,
about five inches
square and seven inches deep was laid across the street inclining from
right to left; the second row was then laid inclining from left to
right
and each block of this second row was fastened by wooden joints to two
blocks of the first row. The third row is inclined in the same
direction
as the first, and fastened to the second, — so that it si perfectly
impossible
for one block to alter its relative position. The whole mass becomes,
as
it were, one integral floor of wood; but it is an essential feature to
the success of this mode of pavement that, although so solid, the
particular
mode of arranging the inclined blocks will allow them to expand by
damp
or contract by drought without any strain and without loosening
the blocks. By Count D'Lisle's plan, if they expand by wet, each
block
becomes imperceptibly more vertical; if they contract, each block leans
a little more on its neighbor, but without any effort to disjoint the
whole.
When this sort of pavement was first used, it was, like
stone pavement,
laid on gravel; but it was ultimately found that the water would
get
between the gravel and the wood, and the bed would turn to mud.
Though
the pavement did not break, it floated and waved
under
heavy weights. To remedy this defect, it was found necessary to form a basement
of concrete, which was laid all over the
street to the
thickness of about 9 to 12 inches, and since this improvement has been
introduced the success has been perfect. At the end of four years, in
some
of the greatest thoroughfares, not one half of the blocks of wood have
been replaced, and the original cost in London is, we believe,
13d.
Per square yard — thus joining economy to comfort.
The cost of keeping this pavement in repair is about 10 per
cent,
upon the capital. |
|
|
|
|
|