36 Hand v. Machine Broken Metal. 



Art. X. — Hand v. Machine Broken Metal, ivith regard 

 to their comparative value for the construction and 

 repair of city and suburban streets and roads. By 

 Mr. A. K. Smith. 



[Bead 9th May, 1870.] 

 After dwelling upon the importance of good and cheap 

 road communication, and referring to the methods adopted 

 by the Romans and other nations of antiquity, he expressed 

 his opinion that no country in the world had done so much 

 in opening up roads as Victoria, where the cost of carriage 

 was reduced thereby to one-twentieth of the maximum price 

 charged in past years. He proceeded to give a series of 

 statistics in reference to Victorian roads, including a 

 statement that during the 18 years ending in 1868, the 

 Go.vernment spent £6,331,717 in making roads, and then 

 addressed himself to his main subject. He traced the use of 

 broken stone in road making from the earliest historic times, 

 and, arguing that the Roman system was the best ancient 

 method, pointed to the fact that in the city of Melbourne an 

 improvement had recently been effected by laying channel- 

 pitchers upon a foundation of concrete, instead of sand as 

 formerly, thus re-adopting the old Roman fashion. Turning 

 to English roads, he described the main differences between 

 the various systems in,vogue there, as also on the Continent, 

 and showed, by a series of figures prepared by himself, that 

 in the matter of density and weight of stone we were 

 supplied with road material of the best quality in the world. 

 Comparing hand-broken with machine-broken metal (samples 

 of which were exhibited), he went on to give the results of 

 a succession of experiments and observations which he had 

 made during the past few years, and gave their final effect in 

 the fact that a cubic foot of hand-broken metal (2| in. gauge) 

 weighed 851b., while machine-broken metal of the same size 

 weighed no less than 961b. As a member of the Public 

 Works Committee of the City Council, he had also made 

 many other experiments, the leading points of which he 

 detailed at considerable length, and their results tallied with 

 those which had previously impressed him in favour of the 

 machine-broken metal. He then described the way in 

 which stone-breaking machinery was introduced to Victoria 

 by Mr. Appleton, the original Victorian patentee, and took 

 special occasion to offer his tribute to the memory of the 

 late Enoch Chambers, to whose skill and enterprise the 



