252 Mr Hope on JVood Paving. 



embarrassed form ;__from the wreck of its members it arises, 

 *•' another, yet the same," — a noble, full-bodied, arrowy stream, 

 which leaps, rejoicing over the obstacles which before had staid 

 its progress, and hastens through fertile valleys towards a freer 

 existence, and a final union in the ocean with the boundless 

 and the infinite. 



Abstract of a Paper on TFood- Paving, By D. T. Hope, Esq., 

 F.R.S.S.A., Civil Engineer, Liverpool. Communicated by 

 the Royal Scottish Society of Arts.* 



The excellency of wood, as a material for paving, is now so 

 generally admitted, that it may seem unnecessary to inquire 

 into the advantages it possesses over stone-blocks or Macad- 

 amization. 



And assuming the superiority of wood as sufficiently proved, 

 by the rapid progress it has made in the public estimation, and 

 the very favourable results of its varied applications in the 

 most bustling thoroughfares in London, and some provincial 

 towns in England, — the subject of inquiry may be usefully di- 

 rected to the best position of the fibre of the wood, — its dura- 

 bility and efficiency as a material for paving, under wet, dry, 

 and frosty weather ; and into the value of animal power in 

 draught on wood-pavement. 



The patentees of wood-paving are divided into two classes : 

 one party for the fibre in a vertical position, — and the other 

 party for the fibre at a particular angle. 



The general utility of the subject induced me to pay par- 

 ticular attention to it for some years back ; and with the view 

 of ascertaining the respective merits of the several descrip- 

 tions of pavement and roadways, I made a variety of experi- 

 ments on Macadamized roads and stone and wood pavements ; 

 on wood with the fibre placed vertically, and at angles from 

 vertical to horizontal. 



* Read before the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, 27th March 1841. 



