XI, A, 5 Witt: Philippine Paving-brick Materials 205 



vitrified paving-brick industry in America, Blanchard and 

 Drowne ^ say : 



The first piece of brick pavement in the United States was a short 

 experimental section laid in Charleston, West Virginia, in 1870. This 

 was followed by another experimental piece laid in Bloomington, Illinois, 

 in 1875, and a few other sections laid from time to time, up to 1885, in 

 different cities of the Middle West. The use of this kind of pavement 

 then began to increase rapidly, and at the present time there are very 

 few large cities in the country that do not have some of their streets 

 paved with this material. A census taken of the permanent pavements 

 laid in 1910, in the United States, showed that brick was one of the 

 most popular forms of pavement, considering the number of cities that 

 have used it. From this census it was found that while sheet asphalt 

 was first from the standpoint of yardage in the 460 cities reported, brick 

 was a close second. It is natural that the greatest yardage should occur 

 in those cities throughout the Central States since this locality abounds 

 with clay deposits suitable for the manufacture of paving brick and is 

 devoid of road building stone. 



Evidently what is needed in the Philippines is the local manu- 

 facture of some paving material, because it is unlikely that 

 shipping rates will ever be sufficiently low to allow the importa- 

 tion of large quantities. The Bureau of Science has long con- 

 sidered paving brick to be well adapted to local conditions, and 

 the possibility that it may be made from Philippine raw materials 

 has led to the present investigation. 



DIFFICULTIES TO BE OVERCOME 



It is not an easy task to find a raw material suitable in every 

 respect for making paving brick in the Philippines. In the 

 United States various geological surveys have been made, and 

 if one desires to install a brick factory, he can easily obtain 

 information concerning the various deposits of clays and shales 

 and their working properties, location, and available fuels. The 

 points to be considered in such an investigation for the Phil- 

 ippines are: 



Raw materials. — A clay or shale must be selected with the 

 necessary properties to produce vitrified paving brick, either 

 alone, or mixed with some other material. In case two materials 

 have to be used, they must be located near each other. 



Transportation. — The raw material must be in an accessible 

 place where brick machinery can be installed and transportation 

 to Manila can be had. On account of the lack of wagon roads 

 in many undeveloped parts of the Islands and the comparatively 



• Blanchard, A. H., and Drowne, H. B., Text Book on Highway Engineer- 

 ing. John Wiley and Sons, New York (1914), 550. 



