AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 667 



luined and driven from his native city by politicians, has built 

 for himself a monument that will endure long after every vestige 

 of this present great city shall have crumbled into dust. 



It is at times slippery, I will admit, but this is an evil that can 

 easily be overcome without in any way interfering with the pre- 

 sent pavement. 



Five years since I suggested to this Institute an invention that 

 will overcome the difliculty, consisting of a horse shoe, to be 

 placed permanently on the foot, and only removed when neces- 

 sary to pare it; this shoe is to have five case-hardened steel points; 

 one at the toe, one on each side, and two at the heel, to be attached 

 with a screw, so that they can be taken off", sharpened, and put 

 on with a pair of nippers by the groom without the aid of Vulcan, 

 Horses always slip sideways, and with such a shoe upon their feet 

 it would be quite impossible. 



I also suggested, at the same time, the use of gutta percha tires 

 for wheels, instead of iron; one set will outlast two sets of iron. 

 I have not patented either of these inventions, but expect to see 

 them both in common use. 



By the adoption of these two improvements we may enjoy the 

 most quiet and best paved street in the universe. 



In the neighborhood of Lyons, in France, I examined the re- 

 mains of a Roman military road, which was composed of masses 

 of flint stones, about the size of a hen's egg, laid in concrete, 

 twelve feet in depth, and notwithstanding it had been exposed to 

 the wear of time for more than sixteen centuries, I could make 

 no impression on it with a hammer. The Romans invariably 

 established their roads by first ramming the soil, next by spread- 

 ing a layer of flints, then a layer of concrete, composed of one 

 part lime and four sand, then flints, mortar, &c., until the whole 

 mass was perfectly bound together, thus they have left monuments 

 of their good sense that will endure to the end of time. 



Our thanks are due to Caius Graccus, who lived one liundred 

 and thirty years before Christ, for teaching us how to join roads 

 together by bridges, and also to drain them by subterranean 

 channels, and the introduction of mile stones, which everywhere 



