53° 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



I 



a wooden-block pavement had been in constant use for over ten 

 years, without repair of any kind. The only piece of wood pave- 

 ment of this class which has been laid in this country, to the writer's 

 knowledge, is on Twentieth Street, between Broadway and Fifth 

 Avenue, in the Borough of Manhattan, where, in 1896, the Aus- 

 tralian " kari " wood was laid. The work was done with the 

 greatest care, and the resulting pavement has proved quite satisfac- 

 tory. When Fifth Avenue was lately repaved the use of this mate- 

 rial was considered, but, on account of the popular prejudice against 

 all wood pavements and the delay which would be involved in 

 obtaining the blocks, the idea was abandoned. 



When wood pavements are spoken of in most of our cities, the 

 taxpayer pictures to himself the round cedar block so generally 



Looking -NoiiTii from Bevekly Road Axn East Fifteenth Street, Brooklyn, 



in use in Western cities. These arc used on account of their 

 cheapness. They are usually laid on one or two courses of plank. 

 The blocks are round, from four to eight inches in diameter 

 and six inches in depth, are set as closely as possible to each other, 

 and the joints are filled with gravel, after which they are usually 

 poured full of pitch. Such a pavement, when new, is quite agree- 

 able to ride over. It soon, however, becomes uneven; the defective 

 blocks quickly decay; the surface not being impervious to water, 

 the wet foundation under a pavement with so little rigidity becomes 

 soft, and the mud or slime works its way up between the blocks, 

 and the process of decomposition is expedited. We hear sometimes 

 of the floating ])iivcments of Chicago. These are such cedar-block 

 pavements which are said to rise with the floods of water filling 

 the roadways after heavy rainfalls, and from specimens of the pave- 



