AMERICAN AND FOREIGN ASPHALTS. 193 



New York city can boast of only a few small and isolated strips of 

 asphaltic street pavement, her past experience with the "poultice- 

 pavement " having induced the authorities to prohibit the laying of 

 similar pavements. In front of the Brevoort House, and the Hotel 

 Brunswick, samples of compressed pavement may be seen, while the 

 American mastic, or Trinidad, has recently been laid in Fifteenth 

 Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. In Washington, D. C, 

 more than forty miles of the last-named pavement have been put 

 down, and it is said to be doing good service. There are a large num- 

 ber of the mastic sidewalk and court-yard pavements in this city, some 

 of which have already been referred to. 



The advantages claimed for asphalt pavements are cleanliness, 

 noiselessness, and durability, while the wear and tear of horses and 

 wagons is less, and they are the pleasantest of all pavements to ride 

 on. On the other hand, they are often slippery, and horses are liable 

 to fall on them, while they are more difficult to repair when broken in 

 digging for water and other pipes, although it is said that water-pipes 

 are less liable to freeze under asphalt than under other pavements. 



Asphalt does not emit sparks when struck with steel, and therefore 

 is useful for the flooring of powder-magazines, and of casemates in 

 fortifications. 



As damp-proof coating for vaults and cellar-walls it is invaluable, 

 for, not only does it shut out damp from below, but prevents unhealthy 

 exhalations of the soil from entering the dwelling. 



Asphalt has been used as flooring in stables, although there has 

 been some complaint that it is cut by the stamping of the animals. It 

 would seem to be an excellent material for the purpose, as it is un- 

 acted upon by urine, and, being without cracks, prevents the liquids 

 from passing through and saturating the earth beneath. It is in use 

 in the stables of the American Horse Exchange, Fifty-sixth Street and 

 Broadway. 



Asphalt floors have found more extensive nse in breweries and su- 

 gar-refineries, for which they seem perfectly adapted. It is frequently 

 applied to cellar-bottoms in city houses, some careful citizens having 

 covered their cement floors with asphalt mastic. 



A method of laying floors is much used in France, for barracks and 

 hospitals, which would probably answer for many other purposes. 

 Pieces of oak, usually two and a half to four inches broad, twelve to 

 thirty inches long, and one inch thick, are pressed down into a layer 

 of hot asphalt, not quite half an inch thick, in herring-bone pattern. 

 The edges of the blocks are planed down, beveling toward the bot- 

 tom, thus insuring adhesion to the asphalt, and the smallest possible 

 joints. 



A coarse sort of canvas saturated with bitumen is used to prevent 

 dampness from rising through capillary attraction and penetrating the 

 walls of buildings, especially light-houses and marine structures. It is 



TOL. XXII. 13 



