THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY. 



JANUAKY, 1901. 



ASPHALTUM FOE A MODEBN" STREET. 



By S. F. PECKHAM. 



ASPHALTUM is the solid form of bitumen, as it occurs in nature. 

 It has been known to man from prehistoric times. The word 

 is said to be derived from oc privative, and a^cxXXo 'I cause to slip.' 

 It, therefore, signifies a substance that prevents one from slipping, 

 and was applied to the solid forms of bitumen that soften in the 

 sun. This substance was not rare in so-called Bible lands, embracing 

 the Valley of the Euphrates, the table lands of Mesopotamia and 

 the Valley of the Jordan. It was of frequent occurrence along the 

 shores of the Dead Sea, and was gathered and sold in the caravan trade 

 that passed through the land of Moab and Petrea into Egypt, where 

 it was used in the preparation of mummies. 



During the Middle Ages, asphaltum appears to have found but few 

 uses, and is seldom mentioned. The words asphaltum, petroleum and 

 naphtha appear to have been used with different meanings, and also in- 

 terchangeably or synonymously; yet the words were generally used to 

 signify a thing that was located and defined by further description, so 

 that the bitumen of the Dead Sea was recognized as asphaltum or solid 

 bitumen. 



Within the present century, however, both words and definitions 

 have been more exact. As other and slightly differing material was 

 obtained that in some respects resembled coal, it was claimed that some 

 of the deposits of bitumen were beds of coal, and this claim led, about 

 1850, to important litigation, in which, as experts, scientific men gave 

 very conflicting testimony, one party claiming that the material of 

 certain deposits was asphaltum, and the other that it was coal. It was 

 finally decided that the material — the albertite of New Brunswick — was 

 not coal, and, therefore, did not belong to the Crown. At about this 

 time a deposit occurring in West Virginia, since known as Graham- 

 ite, which, in appearance, is much more like splint coal than albertite, 



VOL. LVIII.— 15 



