KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE, 



growth and prosperity of the body politic and commercial as the free circulation 

 of blood in the veins is to the individual man. 



It is the object of this paper to describe as briefly as may be done, the man- 

 ner in which this city has paved its streets, the conditions precedent and relative 

 thereto, and the extent to which this kind of public improvement has been car- 

 ried in the short space of two years and a half. 



Kansas City is divided topographically into two distinct parts, the main por- 

 tion of the site being a high, broken ground, elevated loo to 200 feet above the 

 Missouri River, and the smaller portion being level "bottom land " lying beyond 

 the base of the bluffs and only about twenty-five feet above low-water mark. 



The soil of the upper town is a rather yellowish clay containing generally a 

 small proportion of silica, and most of it is suitable in its natural state for mak- 

 ing brick of fair quality. Some of it, however, contains too large a proportion 

 of lime. It is very compressible in its natural state, rapidly forms into ruts and 

 depressions under ordinary traffic on newly graded streets, even where formed 

 entirely by excavation. It softens easily and becomes slippery, and is of greasy 

 appearance, when moistened. Flowing water washes it away rapidly and carries 

 a large proportion of it in suspension to fill up low places when the current is 

 checked. It cakes to a hard crust under influence of drought and summer suns, 

 pulverizes to fine dust under traffic, and cracks open during the severe frosts of 

 winter. 



The street gradients in the main part of the city may be stated as ranging 

 from two to five per cent on the north and south streets, and generally about half 

 as great on the streets running east and west — although on some of the latter are 

 found the steepest grades in the city — varying from six to thirteen per cent. 

 These occur on streets crossing Main Street, and in the central business portion 

 of the city. 



Notwithstanding these steep gradients, the loads actually hauled over them 

 every day are very heavy and the wagon tires generally much below the proper 

 width. The city ordinance passed last year requires a three-inch width of tire for 

 loads up to 3,000 pounds, and a four-inch tire for loads not over 6,000 pounds. 

 As a matter of fact, hewever, loads of 7,000 pounds are commonly hauled on 

 wagons with two and three-quarter inch tires, and the ordinary two-horse wagons, 

 carrying loads of 3,000 to 4,000 pounds, have tires usually only two inches wide. 



The heaviest load of which I have information was hauled recently, being a 

 piece of machinery for the Cable Railway Company, which weighed 22,400 

 pounds, and was hauled by eight horses on a wagon with three and three-quarter 

 inch tires. It is estimated that 13,400 pounds of this load was on the rear 

 wheels. 



In the lower town the natural soil is a fine, Hght sand, which becomes satu- 

 rated with water during flood stages of the river and in which there has been de- 

 posited, in the artificial process of filling up, a top layer of clay and debris rang- 

 ing from one to three feet thick. 



The widths of streets vary from fifty to ninety-nine feet, a majority of the 



