AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 587 



Mr. GarbanatI thought that Broadway was so smooth now that it was 

 difficult to get along upon it, and if it was to be made smoother it would 

 be difficult to get the necessary adhesion. Steam would not be introduced 

 generally at present. He thought that the city railroad companies should 

 be made to put a sufficient number of cars on to accommodate the travelling 

 public. It was done in England, and might be done in this country. He 

 thought no particular mode of transportaion could be declared the best, for 

 under the present circumstances, and with the present prejudices, all must 

 be used. 



Mr. Montgomery finds iron pavement to be the cheapest. Stone disinte- 

 grates by alternations of heat and cold, even without wear The immense 

 wear that iron gives is manifest, from the wearing of corks of horpe-shoea 

 and tires of wheels. Iron stands longer in a well traveled road, than on a 

 field where it is not used. There are electric currents generated by the 

 travel, which improve the iron by imparting to it new qualities. There is 

 only one and one-half per cent, wear to sewer covers after thirty years use. 

 Iron, in fact, is practically everlasting, There may be a perfect level given 

 for wheels and yet the pavement present angles for corks to catch into and 

 give horses foothold to prevent slipping. In his pavement there are deep 

 grooves filled with a tough cement and fragments of stone. Cobble stone 

 or Belgian pavement costs more than iron. For instance, iron costs $5 a 

 yard; Russ, from $5 to $7; Belgian, from $5.25 to $2.37^. The life of 

 these latter is about three years, with repairs. Iron lasts fifty years before 

 its upper side is worn away, it can then be turned when it will last fifty 

 years longer, and then the old iron will be worth ninety per cent, of its 

 original cost, it will have so improved in quality. " We may thus have our 

 cake and eat it." 



Professor Mason.— ^The first iron pavement was laid in Court street, 

 Boston. It cost five dollars per yard and is now seven years old and as 

 good as ever. 



A question having been raised as to the failure of iron pavement in Nas- 

 sau street, Mr. Montgomery stated that it gave way because there happened 

 to be the vaults belonging to the Old Church extending under the street. 

 It was not the iron that gave way, but the substratum. 



A question having also been raised as to the prices quoted above, the 

 cost of iron pavement was stated to be six dollars and a half, while Belgian 

 is but one dollar and a half per yard. 



Mr. Garvey gave an account of a method proposed for towing railcars by 

 means of ropes, worked by stationary engines, the cars being capable of 

 catching on or letting go at the will of the conductor. The ropes being 

 above the level of the side-walks and not crossing the streets, would be out 

 of the way, but still this plan he considered far inferior to the use of inde- 

 pendent locomotive cars. 



Mr. Seeley suggested that some one should give the mathematical rea- 

 sons for and against the use of compressed air as a motor within cities. 



The Association adjourned to Thursdaiy, the 29th, having determined to 

 continue the same subject. 



