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aoa cates <sz=5f2 4 > ae 3 = ‘ 73} ssteen Wes Saath sah pees _ THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY SOAS “25 The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return to the library from which it was withdrawn on or before the Latest Date stamped below, Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. To renew call Telephone Center, 333-8400 UNIVERSITY OF L161—O-1096 (ieee meply b ie a. : nad eee a . > J y Lal ial al hak Li * + awe “i 0 ay Th 4 4 Pron! ari A ree Se STARTING IN THIS ISSUE Romances Of Industry—Asphalt AMERICAN INDUSTRIES KXPORT Formerly Export American Industries Covers the largest buyers in all the great markets of the world with its separate Official International Organ of the National Association of Manufacturers English, French, Spanish and Portuguese editions. 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Further information about the publication and sales possibilities for various commodities in foreign markets on application to EXPORT The Official International Organ of the National Association of Manufacturers PHONE: CORTLANDT 7886 50 CHURCH STREET, NEW YORK CITY Vol. XXIII, No. 1 AMERICAN INDUSTRIES August, 1922 American InpustRIEs is published on the 25th of every month by the National Manufacturers’ Company, No. 50 Church Street, New York City. Subscription, $1.00 a year; 15 cents a copy. Foreign subscriptions, $1.50 a year. Entered as second-class matter at the New York Post Office, October 19, 1910, under Act of March 3, 1879. Registered in U. S. Patent Office. MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS SOMME TATA Ay sep 16 ‘27 d MATT Ww WOO AM 603429 Vids E ee eM MMMM Mm ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE REGISTERED IN U. S. PATENT OFFICE = New Yor«K Post OFFICE = MEMBER OF AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATIONS = PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY 2 The National Manufacturers Company, 50 Church St., New York City = VOL. XXIII AUGUST, 1922 No. 1 = Cover illustration: Showing probably the greatest use for asphalt; laying down an asphalt cover- = ing Over a cement base, on the highway between New York and Philadelphia. Page = ROMANCES OF INDUSTRY—ASPHALT - - - - - - . - - | a By Clifford Spurrier Lee, Asphalt Association. = WHAT THE COAL STRIKE INVOLVES - - : - : - - - - 13 = By Edward A. Lyman. = ieaeeresU@ IN THE RAILROAD STRIKE -f- - - - - - - - 135 = By John G. Walber, executive secretary, Bureau of Information, Eastern Railways. = THE MEANING OF THE CORONADO DECISION” - - - - - sata 17 = By James A. Emery, general counsel, National Association of Manufacturers. = THE STATE POLICE AS AN ASSET - - - . - ° - - - - 19 = By Milton R. Palmer, editor of The State Trooper. = EDITORIALS - - - ~ - 5 . é é ‘ : : ‘ 24 = LEST WE FORGET—HERRIN, ILL - - - - - - - - - - 26 = ANGLING FOR INDUSTRIAL WORKERS - - - - - - - = =. 27 = By Kenneth M. Coolbaugh, superintendent, Pennsylvania State Employment Service. = Meson NEWS ABOUT MEN IN INDUSTRW - - - - += -=- 30 = BUSINESS CONDITIONS AS SEEN BY A BUSINESS MAN_ - - - - - 31 = By Walter L. Todd, vice-president and general manager, Todd Protectograph Company. = GREAT PORTS OF THE NATION—NEW ORLEANS - - - : - - - 33 2 By Walter Parker, general manager, New Orleans Association of Commerce. = WORLD WIDE WIRELESS INFLUENCE - - - - - - - - = 39 = By Edward J. Nally, president, Radio Corporation of America, =| WORLD TRADE - - - - - - - - - = y : s é : 41 = BUSINESS CONDITIONS IN MEXICO - - - - ‘ = = E z 41 = MERCHANDISING MARKS IN GREATBRITAIN -- - - - - - - 42 = FOREIGN TRADE OPPORTUNITIES) - - - - - - - - - . 43 = BRAZIL’S GREAT CENTENNIAL - - - - : bs ‘ ‘ 3 2 45 = HOW MOROCCO LOOKS TO-DAY = - Pees ee ww 48 2 HAN iii (tt ttt (tt itt t tr 6 AMERICAN INDUSTRIES A dual-valve engine uses less gas and delivers more power than any other type of engine. Pierce-Arrow TRUCKS | The Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company Buffalo, New York | Prices: 2-ton $3200 33-ton $4350 5-ton $4850 fully equipped UVLO FERRACUTE. PRESSES Hundreds of Sizes and Styles for Every Kind of Work -ADAMS That name is all you need to know about a WHITIN €é*F iT GUARANTEES HIGHEST QUALITY LONGEST WEAR LOWEST PRICE WHITING-ADAMS DIES AND ALL OTHER Sheet Metal Tools Trade VULCAN Mark Rubber Cemented Brushes Inside the binding of each brush every bristle is setin pure plastic RUBBER vulcanized hard and sentenced to imprisonment for life. No second-hand junk rubber is used —no sub- stitute — no imitation — no synthetic rubber— nothing but new, clean, pure, strong RUBBER. Send for Illustrated Literature John L. Whiting-5. J. Adams Co. BOSTON, + Brush Manufacturers a Se 113 Years 8 Brushes awarded Gold Medaland oe oe “Bla i rowalg the highestaward atPanama-Paci Exposition, 1915 FERRACUTE MACH. CO. BRIDGETON, N. J. U. S. A. MTT ADVERTISING That you pay for once and that works for you forever after. WIRE SIGNS To show against the sky over buildings. We Make Them CHENEY BIGELOW WIRE WORKS SPRINGFIELD, MASS. NEW JERSEY the leading industrial state offers Unusual Opportunities to the Manufacturer Accessibility Proximity to raw materials and fuel Labor advantages Low rents and taxes Unexcelled markets Ideal living conditions For reliable information and illustrated booklet, Opportunities in New Jersey,” ‘Industrial Write Land Registry Dept. Conservation and Development STATE HOUSE, TRENTON, N. J. Mae =F (1) AM H $3222) Suto Nhe Vol. XXIII « D.MEdwards, " | Wi, ie aS pL eee JEIAVEE LN Pann A Ze = 4, NES Sit = AUGUST, Romances Of Industry—Asphalt From time of old Nebuchadnezzar down to the present day this natural product has played an unsung but very important role in advancement of civilization and particularly in the United States N ages past a Mesopotamian nomad may have slipped accidentally into the sticky edge of a pool of bitu- men, where the black, gummy fluid bubbled to the surface from the depths of the earth. The stuff stuck to his feet. This experience, or something like it, must have preceded the early use of asphalt as an adhesive in many ways—as, for instance, sticking eyes into the sockets of the stone gods and other images that were worshipped at the time. It is not much more difficult to imagine the intro- duction of asphalt as a waterproofing material. Possibly a wandering tribal image-maker, smeared with the earthy pitch and none too clean of habit, went home and wiped his hands on his tent. And perhaps after several such acts, he discovered that the tent did not leak where this @strange sticky sub- stance coated it. fter long ponder- ing the matter pos- _. sibly he deliberate- oated the whole surface and reveled Written especially for A)\ERICAN INDUSTRIES By CLIFFORD S?URRIER LEE Asphalt Association in his new found comfort. The inhabitants of Mesopotamia to-day coat their tents with this very substance. The canoes or dugouts of early days were made water-tight in the same way. Thus did the distinguished Babylonian navigator, Noah, caull the seams of his Ark before he set out to ride the flood. Thus was coated the basket in which the infant Moses lay concealed in the bulrushes when the children of Israel were suffering under the bondage of Egypt about 1500 B. C. On the Camden-Philadelphia Boulevard “TI provided a pole to paint with and all that was necessary. Six sar of bitu- men I smeared on the outside. Three sar of bitumen I smeared on the in- side.” So, also, says Utnapishtim, the Babylonian counterpart of Noah, as reported on the Eleventh Tablet of Gilgames, dated 4000 B. C. Wherefore asphalt cannot be called the product of modern science for here and elsewhere we have indisputable evidence of its ancient use as a water- proofing material. The substance was used to consider- able extent as a protection for the damp courses of buildings. The great towers of Babylon were pro- tected from damp- ness for twelve stories by coatings of asphalt mixed with crushed rock. Asphalt, or bitu- men, as it was then called, was used al- so as mortar in those early days. Ruined walls now excavated, show positive evidence of having been ce- mented with this material, Nebuch- adnezzar says he built Babylon “with burnt brick and bi- tumen.”. The Bible, in describing the building of the Tower of Babel, says: “And they said to one another, ‘Come, let us make brick and burn them thor- oughly.’ And they had brick for stone and bitumen had they for mortar.” At other times in this era, asphalt was used as a filler for brick pavements, just as it is to-day. Silos, cisterns and wells were coat- ed with bitumen by the Egyptians, 3,000 years ago. Mummy cloths were also waterproofed by the application of the substance. Almost as far back as our knowledge of ancient civilization extends authentic evidence exists that asphalt was well known by the human race for its use- ful and valuable properties. Its earliest recorded use was by the Sumerians, a people inhabiting the Euphrates val- ley prior to the ascendancy of the Babylonians. Some of the oldest relics unearthed by archaeologists, demonstrate that as early as 3000 B. C., asphalt was used by the Sumerians as a cementing medium or binder for attaching small objects or ornaments to sculptures, carvings and pottery. It was also mixed with clay to form a dense mastic which could be moulded or carved into various forms. Such a mastic cast in the form of an heraldic device excavated at Lagash near the mouth of the Euphrates, dates back to 2050).5) G, Nearly a thousand years elapsed be- fore the use of asphalt in highway con- struction apparently suggested itself. It was Nabopolassar, King of Baby- lon, who first used asphalt as a filler or mortar for brick pavements. His son, Nebuchadnezzar, continued this practice, as is proved by an inscription found on a brick taken from one of the streets. This inscription has been translated as follows: “Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, he who made Esaglia and Ezida glor- ious, son of Nabopolassar, King of Babylon. The streets of Babylon, the procession Street of Nabu and Mar- duk, my lords, which Nabopolassar, King of Babylon, the father who be- got me, has made a road glistening with asphalt and burnt brick; I, the wise suppliant who fears their lord- ships, placed above the bitumen and burnt bricks, a mighty superstructure of shining dust, made them strong within with bitumen and burnt bricks as a high-lying road. Nabu and Mar- duk, when you traverse these streets in joy, may benefits for me rest upon your lips; life for distant days, and well-being for the body. Before you I will advance upon them. May I at- tain eternal age.” “Traverse these streets in joy.” Do we appreciate our modern asphalt high- ways? AMERICAN INDUSTRIES Nebuchadnezzar also used asphalt extensively as a mortar in the construc- tion of brick walls and foundations which were subjected to water action and similar use was made of asphalt in the ancient city of Media. Thus long before the birth of Christ the value of asphalt for binding, moulding, preserving and waterproofing was rec- ognized and utilized in and about the Mediterranean region, long termed “the cradle of humanity.” The ancients used asphalt with a prodigal hand and well they might, for an accessible and inexhaustible supply was close at hand. Herodotus, who lived about 50 B. C., traveling exten- sively and describing his experiences and observations very fully, tells us that clumps of bitumen floated down the Euphrates constantly, having become detached from the banks above. A good supply also came from the river Is, a short distance from Babylon. The Egyptian supply seems to have been obtained from traders who brought it from the Dead Sea. Bituminous material was used to fill the interstices of a rock pavement by a Babylonian king about 700 B. C. It was also mixed with clay in the manu- facture of pottery. There is a clay statue of King Manistusha in a Euro- pean museum that is held together with asphalt. Alabaster clay casts bearing inscriptions and decorations were found cemented to walls with bitumen (the binding material in asphalt) by excavators at work among Babylonian ruins. In the Western Hemisphere asphalt was also known and used in ancient times, by the Incas of Peru, who estab- lished a magnificent system of high- ways. It is stated that “some of the highways were paved with a substance not unlike bituminous macadam’—un- doubtedly asphalt. Certainly natural deposits of asphalt were known to the most primitive peoples for they existed in many parts of the world and ante- dated the earliest known races of humanity. This is attested by the remains of prehistoric mammals which some of them contain. One of the most interesting of all these deposits occurs at Los Angeles, . California, just off Wilshire Boule- vard and about eight miles from the center of the city. From this deposit the University of California has exca- vated entire skeletons of a great variety of prehistoric beasts. These animals, venturing upon the surface of the asphalt when it was soft, stuck fast, just as insects stick to fly paper. Grad- ually they sank below the surface, later to furnish excellent proof of both the cementing strength and preservative value of asphalt. The skeleton of an elephant, fifteen feet high, has been AUGUST —————————————— eee taken from this deposit and bones of such animals as the mastodon, saber- toothed tiger, giant sloth, camel, horse, bison, lion, wolf and numerous species of birds also have been recovered from it; The existence to this day of the sources of supply from which the an- cient peoples procured their bitumen assures us that they really used the material now known to us, notwith- standing the great variety and diversity of names they had for the substance. The exact meaning and origin of the words “bitumen” and “asphalt” have always been somewhat obscure. In Genesis XL, 3, a Hebrew word occurs which designates as bitumen the cementing substances used in the Tow- er of Babel. In the Septuagint or Greek version of the Bible this word is translated “asphaltos” and in the Vulgate or Latin version, “bitumen.” In the Bishops Bible of 1568 and in subsequent translations into English the word is given as “slime.” In the Douay translation of 1600 it is “bi- tume,” while in Luther’s German Bible, it is given as “thon,” the German word for clay. The word “asphaltum’’ is said to be derived from a Greek word meaning “I prevent slipping.” Ac- cording to some authorities the word “bitumen” is a corruption of the Latin “pix tumens” signifying “bubbling pitch,” descriptive of the springs from which it was procured. Asphalt once had considerable use as a toilet preparation. The early Roman prototypes of our stage hero- ines used it to darken their eyebrows. Fortunately, or unfortunately, as you look at it, the barbarian hordes that swept over Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire blotted out the knowl- edge of this substance along with the knowledge of many other things, and, consequently, during the Middle Ages, asphalt was used very little for paving purposes. It was used to some extent as a building material but not as ex- tensively as it had been previously. During the Middle Ages, however, asphalt was used for a diversity of other things. Nervous and hysterical people carried it around in smelling bottles. It retained its beautifying qualities according to Foote, a well- known beau brummel of 1752, who writes in his “Taste,” of: “The salu- tary application of the asphaltum pot.” During this time it came to have attrib- uted to it various pharmaceutical prop- erties, being advanced by authorities as a sure cure for ringworm, boils, gout, epilepsy, blindness, toothache and colic. It was used in France to protect shrub- bery from insects. : In 1600, Libarius, and in 1677, Mox- on, published books on the mechanical trades in which they mentioned the ne NINETEEN TWENTyY-Iwo |waterproofing and cementous qualities of bitumen. That its use was gaining in popular knowledge is evidenced by a ‘reference in Shakespear’s play “Peri- ' cles” in which there is a passage: “We ‘have a chest beneath the hatches, caulked and bitumened ready.” Also ‘in Milton’s “Paradise Lost” we read: “Blazing cressets fed with naphtha and _asphalts,” and, “The plain, whereon a black bituminous gurge boils out from -underground—the mouth of Hell.” ' In 1712, a doctor, Eyrinis, found with the assistance of a German work- “man, an asphaltic rock at Val de Trav- ‘ers, in the Swiss Jura. Familiar with the writings of Herodotus and Pliny on the use of this material, he applied to the government for a concession and, receiving it, mined and sold the sub- stance as a waterproofing material. For some reason, in 1735, he transferred his activities to the Rhone valley in Alsace. In various other places, at this time, asphaltic deposits were worked in a desultory fashion. The asphalt mined and used by the ancients was probably similar to the substance now found, composed of 39 per cent bitumen, 29 per cent water and gas, 6 per cent of organic or vege- table matter and 26 per cent mineral matter. When refined, as it is to-day before being used, it is heated and the water and the gas and volatile oils are driven off, leaving the material ap- proximately 58 per cent pure. There is no evidence, however, of any refin- ing having been attempted in the olden days, although the rock asphalt mined by Eyrinis and his contemporaries, a ‘sandstone or limestone rock containing approximately 9 per cent asphalt, was heated in order that the bitumen might be extracted. AMERICAN INDUSTRIES Xe) There are few highways like this now The largest and best known deposits of natural asphalt on the Western con- tinent are the lakes at Trinidad and Bermudez, Venezuela. The Trinidad deposit is said to have been discovered first by Christopher Columbus, who, on his third voyage to America, “careened his galleons and caulked their storm- racked seams with this natural water- proofing material.” Sir Walter Raleigh, who made himself famous in history by paving the muddy palace path with his velvet cape so that the dainty feet of Queen Elizabeth would not be soiled, also found this lake, and wrote: “T found it most excellente goode and meltheth not in the sun as the pitch of Norway.” Although enough asphalt has been An asphalt lake at Trinidad taken from the 114 acre lake at Trini- dad to pave 70,000,000 square yards of roads and streets in the United States, the surface has been lowered scarcely more than two feet, since the supply is constantly replenished from below. It is this phenomena that has led scientists to suspect that asphalt, in its primary state, is an oil. It attains its more solid state after the volitaliza- tion of some of its constituents and after soaking into clay or other mineral matter. Experiments with various oils have led to a point now where sixty- five per cent of the present day supply is refined from asphaltic petroleum, found principally in Mexico, Texas and California. Petroleum asphalt is refined from crude petroleum in 50,000 gallon cylin- drical iron stills, set horizontally and heated from below. They contain a number of perforated pipes through which steam is forced during process of refining. This imitates the natural process while accelerating it, and at the same time the volatile oils, having com- mercial value, are preserved. The tem- perature of the oil in the still is kept below 600 or 700 degrees Fahrenheit, and this, coupled with the steam that permeates the oil prevents any harm being done to the asphalt. As distilla- tion progresses, the material becomes more and more viscous until a semi- solid residue is produced. Here no fluxing or addition of oil is necessary, as is needed after refining the natural asphalt which becomes comparatively hard and must be reduced to a work- able consistency. In the manufacture of asphalt fillers for brick pavements when it is ordi- narily desired to use them without ad- mixture with sand, it is customary to 10 AMERICAN INDUSTRIES AUGUST blow air through the melted asphalt at a certain stage in the process in order to produce a material with a higher melting point than would have been produced by steam distillation. Refined petroleum asphalt is the pur- est of all asphalts as it is practically 100 per cent bitumen. Native asphalts, however, are seldom pure bitumen as they are mixed with foreign substances such as clay and mineral matter. The suitability of asphalt for paving as well as some other possible uses, depends on the relative proportions of fine and coarse particles which increase the stability of the material. Natural as- phalt contains matter in colloidal form and is in a finely divided condition. The first asphaltic road on record built in comparatively modern times was constructed of crushed natural bi- tuminous rock in 1852. It was compact- ed, after the fashion of modern maca- dam construction and it extended from Paris to Perpignan, France. In 1854, a street in Paris was paved with rock asphalt to be followed in 1858 by an- other pavement constructed by crush- ing and beating the rock asphalt before paving. Threadneedle Street, London, was paved with native asphalt in 1869. In 1870, the first American experimental section was constructed with native asphalt in Newark, N. J., followed by the successful use of native asphalt in several California pavements. In 1871, pavements were laid in Washington, D. C., after a favorable report by a special commission appointed to inves- tigate. Construction in Washington was in line with methods covered by the Abbot patent and consisting of a combination of roofing pitch and creo- sote used as a binding material for crushed rock. These pavements lasted for I5 or more years and their success was followed by an adoption of the material for pavement purposes all over this country. The Washington pave- ments are still in use. The development of asphaltic fire resistant roofing is scarcely less roman- tic than that of the paving industry. Beginning with its use as a tent coat- ing by the nomadic peoples of the Bal- kans, it has developed until the annual production is now sufficient to cover 2,500,000 dwellings at an average of Io squares to the roof. Tar-impregnated felt-roofing origi- nated in 1790 in Scandinavia, through experiments by Admiral Faxa. His method was to lay a felt covering on the roof, fastened by short, large-head- ed nails and to paint the felt with hot wood-tar. The partial penetration thus achieved, however, did not make a dur- able roofing. A newspaper published in Leipsic in 1791 credits Michael Kag, of Muhldorf, Barvaria, with having produced an improved form of pre- pared roofing by saturating roofing- paper or felt with varnish and coating the surface with a mineral powder. This product was also recommended as a substitute for leather ini the soles of shoes. Doctor Gilly, of the German Department of Public Works, advocat- ed a system similar to that of Admiral Faxa. this line in Germany but the Napo- leonic wars swept away all trace of its development. The use of asphaltic roofing in the United States dates from 1845 when a mixture of asphaltic tar and gravel was used as a roof covering. About 1850 asphalt-impregnated felt sheets came into use and since then the devel- opment has been so rapid, that to-day several hundred millions of capital are involved in the production of asphalt roll roofings and shingles. Asphalt roofings are composed of one or more layers of a woven or felted fabric saturated or coated with a bitu- minous composition. These fabrics and bituminous mixtures are assembled in numerous combinations of varied texture, thickness and color. The felted fabrics generally are formed of rag or asbestos fibres in a machine similar to that used for manu- facturing paper. If rags are employed, they are first run through a series of knives which shred them into small fragments. They are then put into the “Beaters” where they are ground into a pulp and mixed with water. When all the lumps have been broken up, us- ually after about three hours beating, the pulp is screened to remove all par- ticles of foreign matter. The pulp is then run on the felt machine. This machine consists first of two cylinders covered with a fine wire mesh which revolve partially immersed in the tank containing the rag fibres suspended in water. The wire mesh picks up a layer of fibres and the cylinder carries it around and compresses it into an even layer. An endless cloth carries the layer of paper through several rollers where it is subjected to increasing pres- sure until it is strong enough to hold together. The felt is next passed over a ser- ies of steam rolls. In modern machines there are from 55 to 65 of these roll- ers which expel the remaining mois- ture. The sheet is given a smooth finish, is next passed through a tank containing the asphaltic compound at about 385° Fahrenheit and is thor- oughly saturated. It may be given two or three soakings according to the quality desired. It may also receive a coating of broken stone or slate to give it a more attractive appearance and increase its wearing qualities. Asphalt, varying in chemical nature A lot of work was done along ° to a slight degree, and known by vari- ous trade terms, is both mined and re- fined in different parts of the United States. Each variety has a particular adaptability to some use. Gilsonite is used in the manufacture of paint, japans, varnish, waterproofing and electrical insulating materials. Re- fined wurtzilite is utilized principally in the manufacture of insulating com- position, marine and iron paints, acid- resisting compounds and other protec- tive coatings, including prepared flooring. Grahmite is used for roofing, flooring, varnish and for brick and stone-block filler in street paving. Al- though these products have been mar- keted for only a comparatively few years in the United States, since they are elastic, fire-resistant, antiseptic, acid resistant and moisture-proof, they are in general demand among contrac- tors and engineers and their use is rapidly increasing. When combined with rubber and vulcanized asphalt it is able to resist extreme temperature changes. Ozokerite is utilized in the manufacture of leather polish, sealing wax, electrotyper’s wax, candles, elec- tric insulators, carbon paper and ink. Ichthyol, an asphaltic compound con- taining fossil fish, is used by physi- cians as a curative for skin diseases. In addition to paving and roofing there are a large number of industries, which in the aggregate consume about 245,000 tons of asphalt. A consider- able amount of this is used for water- proofing and flooring and _ lesser amounts for sheathing and insulating purposes. Asphalt also finds it way into the manufacture of considerable quantities of rubber goods, paints, var- nishes, enamels and japans and such specialties as anti-acid compounds, pipe dips, bituminous putty or cement, emul- sions, moulding compositions, electrical insulating products, sealing compounds for storage batteries, wall boards and floor coverings. In most finished products asphalt is used primarily as a binder or coating for the body of the structure and con- stitutes but a fraction of the total weight of such products. Its use is therefore dependent upon the con- sumption of large quantities of other materials the production of which represents industries dependent to a considerable extent upon the asphalt in- dustry. Thus in pavement construc- tion, considering only that portion of the pavement which is bound together with asphalt, an average of about 8 per cent of asphalt is used to bind 92 per cent of mineral aggregate. This rep- resents an annual consumption of over 9,500,000 tons of broken stone, gravel and sand in pavement construction in- cluding nearly 450,000 tons of pul- verized limestone or Portland cement NINETEEN TWENTY-I wo filler. The manu- facture of asphalt roofings probably consumes in the neighborhood of 200,000 tons of felt and similar fabrics and 300,- 000 tons of min- eral _ surfacing such as talc, mica, silica, sand and crushed rock. Without consid- ering the various materials used in asphalt specialties a rough approxi- mation of mate- rial annually con- sumed in the man- ufacture of as- phalt products in cluding pave- ments would be as follows: Tons. Paving asphalts and fluxes.. 761,000 Roofing asphalt and fluxes.. 625,000 Asphalt and fluxes for spe- OO) Total asphalt, not including en hr 1,631,000 Sand, gravel, crushed rock and dust for paving...... 9,950,000 Mineral surfacing for roofing 300,000 Felted and other fabric for roofing Grand Total Latest available statistics show the effect of twelve years’ production of asphalt shingles and roll roofings in conserving the red cedar timber sup- ply. While asphalt shingles and roll roofing advanced from 8,200,000 squares in 1918 to 30,600,000 in I919 the sale of cedar shingles slumped from 8,700,000 to 7,400,000. The rapid growth in the use of asphalt shingles and roll roofings is due to their fire-resistant and weatherproof quali-. ties and their great durability and com- parative low price. Phenomenal is the only word that adequately describes the growth of the petroleum asphalt industry in this country. Petroleum is the source of all asphalts and the old natural process consisted in the slow evaporation over ages of time of the volatile oils. American genius now abridges the pro- cess and produces at the refineries an asphalt 99.5 pure in bitumen, the es- sential constituent. Prior to 1902 the United States was almost entirely dependent upon importations of asphalt to supply its paving needs. No appre- ciable amount of asphalt was used in AMERICAN INDUSTRIES A portable asphalt preparation plant this country until 1883 when about 35,000 tons were imported mainly from the island of Trinidad. In 1892 the United States began to import an additional supply from Ber- mudez, Venezuela, and from Cuba. These importations were also inade- quate, however, and the producers turned elsewhere. Ey 1902 petroleum asphalt began to appear on the Ameri- can market, 20,000 tons being used that year. By 1913 more than 500,000 tons of the petroleum product were being used annually in the United States, 100,000 tons being manufac- tured from imported Mexican crude oil and 400,000 tons from domestic petroleum. In 1913 the importations reached 230,000 tons. Since 1913 the manufacture of petroleum asphalt in America has increased by leaps and bounds. The quantity of native asphalt and native bitumens sold in the United States in 1920, according to the United States Geological Survey, was 198,497 tons, valued at $1,213,908. The sales of manufactured asphalt obtained from domestic petroleum amounted to 700,- 496 tons valued at $11,985,457. The sales of asphalt manufactured in the United States from Mexican petro- leum in 1920 amounted to 1,045,779 tons, valued at $14,272,862. The total for petroleum asphalts was 1.746,275 tons, an increase over I919 of 35 per cent in quantity. The total asphalt consumption in the United States, including that made from Mexican oils, that made from domestic petroleum and that known as “native” asphalt was 2,023,665 tons in 1920. In 1915 the total consumption amounted to 1,225,447 tons or little more than half the 1920 consumption. In the production of asphalt from domestic _petro- leum in 1920, California, with nine operators, ranked first; Tex- as, with four operators, ranked second, and Indi- ana, with three operators, ranked third, both in quantity and val- ue. These three states reported 82 per cent of the total quantity and 80 per cent of the total value of pro- duction in the United States. The increase in the quantity of as- phalt refined in the United States from Mexican petro- leum was almost five times as great from 1919 to 1920 as from 1918 to I9IQ. An expenditure of nearly $518,000,- 000 has been approved by the United States Bureau of Public Roads during the five years 1917 to 1921 inclusive for the construction of 28,500 miles of Federal aid highways. The new Fed- eral Aid law provides $190,000,000 more of government funds for the next three years. In the construction of the types higher than waterbound macadam the keenest race under Federal Aid has been between the flexible pavements, represented principally by the asphaltic types, and those in the rigid class, rep- resented principally by the various types of portland cement concrete. Starting with 1917 the bituminous types (mostly asphalt) and the port- land cement concrete types each repre- sented about 10 per cent of the total mileage paved in that year, the exact mileage being 32.3 for the bituminous types and 33.3 for concrete. During the next year portland cement concrete remained practically constant at 10 per cent while the bituminous types dropped to 6 per cent. In 1919 port- land cement concrete made its greatest gain, reaching a total of 27 per cent, while the bituminous types reached a total of 9 per cent. The year I9g19, however, proved to be the crest of con- crete ascendency for in 1920 concrete dropped sharply to 18 per cent. In 1921 it dropped to 11 per cent. The bituminous types, however, fell off only slightly in 1920 when they comprised 7 per cent of the total. In 1921 they had an actual rise to 9 per cent in con- trast with the sharp falling off in the 12 use of portland cement concrete. The net change from the close of 1919 to the close of 1921 has been a reduction in the percentage of concrete from the peak of 27 per cent to II per cent, or a loss of about 60 per cent, while the bituminous types finished the year 1921 with exactly the same percentage as in 1919 thus showing no net loss. It is an almost incomprehensible fact that in building our state and county highway systems more weight has not been attached to paving practice in our cities where many of the problems of meeting heavy and varied traffic condi- tions were successfully solved before such conditions made their appearance on country and suburban highways. In our cities the original waterbound macadam and gravel roads have for the most part given way to higher types of construction until to-day they consti- tute an average of only about 26 per cent of the total yardage. The three most widely used city types are asphalt, brick and stone block. If we eliminate the waterbound pavements we find that of the higher city types asphalt consti- tutes about 55 per cent, brick about 19 per cent and stone block about 14 per cent, giving a total of 88 per cent for these three types. In connection with the preponder- ance of asphalt pavements the present trend of paving practice in the con- struction of modern brick and stone block pavements is of considerable sig- nificance, as it recognizes a principle which just now is attracting a great deal of attention on the part of our highway engineers. I refer to the use of a flexible joint-filler for brick and block pavements as against the rigid grout fillers formerly so popular. Such cities as New York and Philadelphia are now using asphalt fillers for heavy traffic streets paved with stone block and both the National Paving Brick Manufacturers’ Association and the National Association of Stone Block Manufacturers are preferentially rec- ommending asphalt as a filler for their respective types of pavements. The reason for this lies in the fact that ab- solute rigidity in a pavement structure is not a desirable characteristic. Serv- ice results and comprehensive field tests conducted by the United States Bureau of Public Roads have demon- strated that the brick or block pave- ment with a flexible filler is more re- sistant to traffic than with a rigid filler. A certain degree of flexibility is highly advantageous in meeting the heavy im- pact of modern traffic. Such flexibility is an inherent characteristic of bitu- minous pavements and is imparted to brick and block pavements when as- phalt is used as a joint filler. While in certain sections of the country the satisfactory paving expe- AMERICAN INDUSTRIES AUGUST rience of our cities appears to have been overlooked, it is a fact that the flexible and semi-flexible types of con- struction predominate in our country roads and if we consider the total mile- age of state, county and municipal highways higher than gravel and maca- dam considerably more than 50 per cent may be so classed. By reducing all yardage to a basis of 16 feet width, we estimate that at least 45 per cent of the mileage of the higher types of pavements are of the hot-mixed asphalt types. The latest available informa- tion indicates that last year the total area of asphalt pavements constructed approximated 68,000,000 square yards, which was greater than for any other type. Most of the stone block pave- ments constructed that year were filled with bituminous material and about 60 per cent of the brick pavements were similarly filled. That American cities are making tre- mendous strides in asphalt street pav- ing is indicated in reports from city engineers to The Asphalt Association which show that over thirty million square yards, or 1,750 miles of asphal- tic pavement, thirty feet wide, were laid on city streets in 1921. Reports from state highway departments indi- cate: that twenty-three million square yards were laid on the state highways while the area laid in counties and other districts brought the total to 65,- 000,000 square yards or 3,690 miles of asphalt pavement 30 feet wide. This was an increase of 35 per cent over the yardage in 1920 and is sufficient to build an asphalt road thirty feet wide from Augusta, Me., to San Francisco, Cal., and farther. Such is the romance of asphalt. With it Hannibal concocted his famous “Grecian Fire.” Xenephon used it for mortar and Cleopatra used it to strengthen the royal arch of her eye- brows and enhance her vamping beau- ties. Its wide application not only to street and road paving and shingle and roll roofing as well to the many spe- cialties in which it is used has brought about its highest development in the United States, where its varied use now surpasses that of any other place or period in history. There is no uncer- tainty about its value. The source of supply is practically unlimited and there is every indication that centuries hence, as in centuries past, asphalt, in its ready adaptability to human needs will still justify the phrase “Proved Through the Ages.” Electric Road Standards STANDARDIZATION pro- gram of considerable importance to the iron and steel, lumber, electri- cal, construction, chemical, railway and railway supply industries is presented in the submission by the American Electric Railway Association of 13 standards for approval by the Ameri- can Engineering Standards Commit- Lees The specifications submitted to the A. E.S. C. follow: For approval as American stand- ards: Nine-inch girder grooved rail; seven-inch girder grooved rail; nine- : inch girder guard rail; seven-inch gird- er guard rail; joint plates for seven- inch girder grooved and girder guard rails; joint plates for nine-inch girder grooved and girder guard rails; speci- fication for galvanizing or sherard- izing on iron and steel. For approval as tentative American standards: Seven-inch 80 pound plain girder rail; seven-inch 91 pound plain girder rail. For approval as recommended American practice: Specification for materials for use in the manufacture of special track work; specification for 600-volt direct current overhead trol- ley construction. Four special committees will be ap- pointed by the American Engineering Standards Committee to determine whether the A. E. R. A. specifications are the standards which should be adopted for universal use in the United States; the committee’s decision will, of course, be predicated on its finding as to the desirability of national stand- ardization of the products enumerated. The principal organizations concerned will be asked to name representatives on these special committees. One special committee will be asked to conduct the investigation with re- spect to the acceptability to the indus- try of the specification for 600-volt direct current overhead trolley con- struction; another committee will con- duct the investigation concerning the specifications for wood poles and tubu- lar poles; a separate committee will study the specifications for galvanizing or sherardizing on iron and steel; and a fourth committee will go into the sub- jects of the remaining nine related specifications. The findings of these committees will be reported to the American Engineering Standards Com- mittee as soon as the investigations are completed. NINETEEN TWENTy-I wo AMERICAN INDUSTRIES 13 What The Coal Strike Involves Anthracite miners are demanding an increase of twenty per cent over the increase granted by President Wilson’s commission in 1920; while operators point to decreased market due to high costs NE of the most remarkable things about the coal strike, now in its fourth month, is the apparent lack of concern until re- cently manifested by the public in what has developed into the greatest labor disturbance in the history of the industry. . At the outset there was possibly some reason for this attitude. We had passed through two comparatively mild winters in succession; the sus- pension of mining operations was ordered by officials of the United Mine Workers of America at a time when industrial operations were inactive and heating plants were being shut down for the summer; it was known that there were large stocks of coal in storage and officials of the Federal Government assured us that there was no need to worry. Anyway, winter was a long way off, the operators were trying to bring down the cost of coal at the mines by means of a re- duction of wages and, probably, most of us believed that it was just as well to let matters take their own course on the theory that conditions could not be much worse from the consum- ers’ point of view. The situation has changed. It is doubtful if anybody, least of all the United Mine Workers, expected the suspension to last as long as it has. Storage stocks of anthracite have dwindled to almost nothing and the reserve of bituminous coal is ap- proaching the danger point. If pro- duction does not start in the near future, a shortage of coal this winter is probable. In any consideration of the coal situation there should be drawn a sharp distinction between the anthra- cite and bituminous branches of the industry. The two are utterly unlike, not only in character, methods of pro- duction, price and use, but in tonnage, location, market and_ organization. Also there is a wide difference in the demands of the miners of the two kinds of coal and in the manner the suspension has been handled. There are about 160,000 anthracite Written especially for AMERICAN INDUSTRIES By EDWARD A. LYMAN miners. They are thoroughly organ- ized and the suspension of operations in the anthracite region, which com- prises less than 500 square miles in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, is 100 per cent effective. The hard coal miners are demanding an increase of 20 per cent in wages over the increase granted them in 1920 by President Wilson’s Anthracite Coal Commis- sion. There are other demands, eigh- teen of them, which, taken as a whole, would increase the cost of producing the domestic sizes of anthracite more than $3 a ton, according to figures prepared by the anthracite operators. As against these demands, the operators point to the failing market for hard coal, due to the high price, and state that if the industry is to continue to give full-time employment to miners, the product must be avail- able at prices which the public can afford to pay. They therefore suggest an average wage reduction of 21 per cent, pointing out that the miners would be able to earn more at the reduced rate with full-time operation, than they would at the higher scale, or even at the rate fixed in the 1920 agreement with the partial operation which the operators’ marketing ex- perience tells them will be inevitable unless the mine price can be materi- ally reduced. Representatives of the anthracite operators and miners were in almost continuous session in New York City from March 15 to June 14, when it became apparent that no agreement on wages could be reached by any means yet proposed. The negotiations ended when the miners rejected a proposal by the operators that the entire matter be referred to a commission to be ap- pointed by the President of the United States, which should have full power to conduct a searching inquiry into all matters affecting wages and condi- tions of employment. Since that time public officials and the press have devoted more attention to the coal situation as a whole and President Harding has proposed that the entire matter be referred to a com- mission for adjustment and that, in the meantime, the miners go back to work under the former wage scale at least until August 10, by which time the commission would, the President hoped, be able to figure out some sort of wage readjustment to be effective until March 31, 1923, the end of what is known as the coal year. The plan as proposed was rejected by the mine workers and some of the bituminous coal operators. The an- thracite producers, however, being already committed to arbitration, accepted the plan in principle, merely asking that the hard coal industry, being entirely different in character and conditions from the soft coal in- dustry, should have its problems solved by a separate commission. And there the matter rests at this time, this arti- cle being written on July 18. In order fully to understand the anthracite situation, it should be borne in mind that hard coal production in- volves not only actual mining opera- tions, but a very complicated manufac- turing process in preparing the coal for market. It is this which adds materially to the cost of the coal at the mines, for while most of the bitu- minous coal is shipped from the mines on a “run-of-mine” basis, anthracite has to be put through an elaborate and costly plant known as a breaker, where it is cleaned and separated into the various sizes in which it is sold to consumers. Consequently there are employed at an anthracite colliery more men above ground and about the breaker than are engaged in the actual mining of the coal. The annual commercial production of fresh-mined anthracite, as differ- entiated from the coal recovered from culm banks or dredged from river beds, is about 70,000,000 gross tons of '2,240 pounds each. Of this ton- nage about 30 per cent is composed of the so-called steam sizes which are not suited to domestic consumption. The record of the last nine years shows an almost constantly decreas- ing production, except during the war years 1917 and 1918, with constantly 14 / inereasing labor costs. | In 1913, the labor cost of producing a gross ton of commercial fresh-mined anthracite was $1.595. In 1921, according to a recent calculation by Samuel D. War- riner, president of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, and chairman of the General Committee of Anthra- cite Operators, the labor cost per ton was about $4.11. In order to arrive at the total cost of production, however, there must be added to the labor cost, according to Mr. Warriner’s calculation, $1.05 per gross ton for supplies and fifty- eight cents for overhead, making the total production cost of a gross ton, exclusive of Federal taxes, $5.74. This production cost applies alike to all sizes of anthracite and is a fair average for the entire region where costs vary considerably according to the conformation of the coal seams. It must be realized, however, that II per cent of the total output consists of pea coal which sells at little, if any, above the cost of production, and, as has been stated, approximately 30 per cent is made up of the steam sizes which sell in competition with bitumi- nous coal at prices which do not cover even the labor cost. These small sizes are not deliberately produced by the anthracite collieries. They are the result of the mechanical operation of the breaker in preparing the coal for market. They bear so important a relation to the entire output, however, that they