they were first made of tar concrete, or Scrimshaw. Asphalt began
to be used within the next year or two, and its popularity has been
astonishing, as will be seen from the fact that on January 1, 1898, the
area of this kind of pavement laid in the United States was, as nearly
as could be ascertained, thirty million square yards.
There is a notable difference between the European and American
asphalts. The former may be called natural and the latter artificial
pavements. In the former the material, as it comes from the mine, is
ground to a powder, heated, placed upon the foundation prepared for
it, and tamped into approximately the same condition as before it
was disturbed, though usually the product of several mines is mixed
in order to obtain the best percentage of bitumen, but nothing is
added to or taken from the bituminous rock. In the pavement usually
laid in America, on the other hand, only a small proportion of the
material is brought from the asphalt deposits, the principal part of
it (sand) being obtained near at hand. In the one case the cost of
long ocean or rail transportation has to be paid on the entire mass
forming the pavement, while in the other this expense attaches to but
from twelve to fifteen per cent of the material. This, of course, is a
great advantage, and at recent prices it is scarcely possible for the
European rock asphalts to compete with the artificial ones.
The making of a pavement from one of the standard asphalts may be
briefly described as follows: The material as found in Nature has this
composition:
Bitumen 38.14 per cent.
Organic matter, not bitumen 7.63 "
Mineral matter 26.38 "
Water 27.85 "
------
100.00
This is cooked until the water has been driven off, and some of the
mineral matter has settled.
The above analysis is of Trinidad Pitch Lake asphalt, and is a
particularly favorable result. This material is too hard for use in
making a pavement, and it has to be softened or fluxed by the addition
of something which will accomplish this purpose. In order to do this
there is usually added to each one hundred pounds of refined asphalt
about eighteen pounds of heavy petroleum oil. After this addition we
have the asphaltic cement ready to combine with mineral matter, which
is so selected that when asphaltic cement is added at the rate of about
seventeen pounds of the cement to eighty-three pounds of the other
all the particles will be coated, and more could not be added without
making the pavement too soft. What is found to accomplish this best is
fine stone dust and sand.
The asphaltic cement and sand are heated separately to about 300° F.
The stone dust is then added to and mixed with the hot sand in the
proportion of from five to eighty in the case of fine, well-graduated
sand, to fifteen to sixty-seven for coarse sands, having less variation
in size. The asphaltic cement is then added, and the materials are
mixed to a homogeneous mass, which is ready to be taken to the street.
It should reach there at a temperature not less than 250°, and is
spread with hot iron rakes so as to give usually a thickness of two
inches after consolidation. After spreading, it is rolled with a hand
roller, after which a small amount of hydraulic cement is swept over
the surface, and it is thoroughly rolled with a steam roller of not
less than ten tons, the rolling to be continued as long as the roller
makes any impression on the surface.
The foundation is usually of cement concrete about six inches thick,
though asphalt pavements are often laid over old stone pavements.
Between the foundation and the wearing surface there is generally laid
what is called a binder course, one inch thick and formed of small
broken stone, to which has been added asphaltic cement, the same as is
used in making the wearing surface. Five or six pints of this cement
are used to each cubic foot of stone.
[Illustration: KING'S HIGHWAY, BROOKLYN; SIXTEEN FEET IN CENTER OF ROAD
MACADAMIZED.]
The pavement just described is made from Trinidad asphalt, the material
from which nearly all the earlier artificial asphalt pavements in this
country were made, and which was used almost exclusively until within
the last half dozen years.
Within that time, however, it has been discovered that there are a
number of other deposits of asphalt well adapted to use for street
pavements. A very large deposit containing a high percentage of bitumen
and very little mineral matter is located near the coast in the State
of Bermudez, in Venezuela. Large deposits have been found in several
places in California, and in Utah, Kentucky, and Texas, and a number
of other places. The Kentucky product is classed as a natural rock
asphalt, as it is a sandstone impregnated with bitumen. It has been
mixed with about an equal portion of German rock asphalt and used
with very satisfactory results in Buffalo. These asphalts are quite
different in their composition, and each requires somewhat different
treatment. The Bermudez, being richer in bitumen and softer, requires
the addition of very little flux. The California deposits furnish their
own flux in a liquid asphalt or maltha, which is almost absolutely
pure bitumen, and the use of petroleum residuum is thereby avoided
altogether.
[Illustration: ASPHALT PAVEMENT ON CLINTON AVENUE, BROOKLYN.]
It has been recognized since 1836 that the bitumen which forms the
greater part of natural asphalts can be separated into two substances,
which have been commonly known as petrolene and asphaltene, the former
of which possesses the cementitious qualities essential to the making
of a successful pavement. Instead of the arbitrary names--petrolene
and asphaltene--these substances are sometimes more aptly designated
as active and inert bitumen. It has been found that of the bitumen
extracted from asphalts which have given the most satisfactory results
in making street pavements, sixty-nine per cent or more is soluble in
petroleum naphtha having a specific gravity of 72° Beaumé.
An asphalt pavement can not be economically kept in good condition
unless every defect which may develop is immediately repaired. When
the smooth, hard surface is once broken, disintegration proceeds very
rapidly, and a large hole is soon formed. The more general distribution
of smooth pavements, however, will tend to distribute the traffic
more evenly, and the increasing use of rubber tires and rubber shoes
for horses, to say nothing of the probably quite general use of motor
vehicles, within the next decade will result in the elimination of the
forces at present most destructive to pavements.
Much regret is often expressed that asphalt pavements should be so
frequently opened for the purpose of laying or obtaining access to
subsurface pipes and conduits, and thereby mutilated. As a matter
of fact, there is no pavement at present in use which can be so
effectively and satisfactorily restored as asphalt. When skillfully
done, almost no trace of such an opening can be found.
The first question to arise, when it has been determined to pave a
street, will be the selection of material, or the kind of pavement to
be laid. In determining this, the governing considerations will be the
traffic to be sustained, its density and character, the rate of grade,
and the presence or absence of railroad tracks.
If the traffic be very heavy and the street given up wholly to
business, ease of traction, durability, and economy of maintenance are
of first importance, while quiet, comfortable riding, and beauty can
be sacrificed to them. Many efforts have been made to determine the
relative force required to draw a load over different kinds of surface
under similar conditions. The following is from a table compiled by
Mr. Rudolph Hering, from different authorities, the force being that
necessary to move one ton on a level grade at a speed of three miles an
hour:
KIND OF ROAD. Pounds.
Ordinary dirt road 224
Ordinary cobblestone 140
Good cobblestone 75
Common macadam 64
Very hard, smooth macadam 46
Good stone block 45
Best stone block (London) 36
Asphalt 17
Granite tramway 12½ to 13½
Iron railway 8 to 11½
The question of durability occurs next, and the different kinds of
pavement which may be considered for city streets may be rated as
follows, it being assumed that the traffic is not excessively heavy:
KIND OF PAVEMENT. Life in years.
Best granite block on concrete 30
Granite block laid on sand 20
Belgian trap 20
Cobblestone 18
Asphalt 15
Best wood--rectangular block 10
Vitrified brick 12
Macadam 8
Cedar block--round--on sand 5
No class of municipal work comes so near to the daily life of an
urban population--both the business and the home life--as the surface
improvement of city streets, and no expenditure is too great (provided
the work is skillfully and honestly done) to make them smooth, clean,
sanitary, and beautiful.
TYPICAL CRIMINALS.
BY SAMUEL G. SMITH, LL. D.
If the question of a criminal type, defined by certain marks of a
physical nature and emphasized by accompanying mental and moral
characteristics, were confined to the technical speculations of a
special craft of scientists, the public would have little interest in
the spread of the doctrines of Cesare Lombroso and his _confrères_ in
this country. When it is believed, however, that certain men and women
are committed to prison or condemned to death not on account of crimes
in any ethical sense, but because of spontaneous actions from vicious
impulses beyond their control, the subject affects the administration
of law, the theory of punishment, and the safety of society.
Lombroso and the Italian school say that they have discovered a
type of man who is born a criminal, and who may be recognized by a
Mongolian face, abnormal features, ill-shaped ears, unsymmetrical
skull, and various psychical peculiarities, which are the result of
bad organization. This doctrine is illustrated by descriptions of
criminals who have the abnormalities, and in the hands of skillful
writers the case is made very plausible. The theory is in harmony
with so much popular modern thought, which loosely interprets the
doctrine of evolution by a crass materialism, that it has infected
American prison literature, while it has never misled those men to whom
practical experience has given the most right to have an opinion on the
subject. The sense of personal responsibility is still the foundation
of social order, and if in truth there is no such thing, the world is
awake at last from its dream of morality; righteousness is resolved
into heredity, structure, and habit; living is a mere puppet show, and
the wreck of things impends. If Lombroso is right, modern scientific
methods are sure to prove him so, and we shall have at last sound
theories; but we shall have no world in which they can be used, for the
dissolution predicted by Herbert Spencer will have come.
[Illustration: Group 1, No. 1.]
[Illustration: Group 1, No. 2.]
[Illustration: Group 1, No. 3.]
Exceptional opportunities for the study of the abnormal classes in
the institutions of this country and Europe have given me a personal
interest in the question of the criminal type. I have discovered that
the criminal anthropologists do not choose for comparison with the
prison population their normal men from the ranks where the criminal
classes are recruited. Blackwell's Island has no more peculiar
inmates than abound in sections of New York near the East River; the
residents of the Whitechapel district of London may be compared with
the inmates of Pentonville, to the distinct credit of the latter; and
the man in Roquette is no worse off in body than scores whom I have
seen in certain localities south of the Seine. The fact is, no human
body exists which is not in some respects abnormal. The number of
abnormalities and their extent depend upon a variety of circumstances,
among which are food, climate, occupation, and the incidents of birth
itself, as well as the various forms of infantile disease. I will
undertake to find enough physical peculiarities, in any locality, or
among the members of any profession, to establish any physical theory
which may be propounded.
[Illustration: Group 2, No. 1 (forger).]
[Illustration: Group 2, No. 2.]
[Illustration: Group 2, No. 3.]
It occurred to me to try an experiment in a manner entirely different
from the usual criminal researches. Having been very familiar with a
certain prison for many years, I requested the warden, who is a very
able man in his profession, to send me the photographs of ten or a
dozen men whom he regarded as the most representative criminals in his
population of some five hundred persons. The warden was not informed of
the use I intended to make of the material, and supposed it was for
illustration in university class work. Later, he gave me the Bertillon
measurements of the men, with an epitome of their history. A number of
these men I have known for years. So far from this selection supporting
the modern theory of a criminal type, it confutes it in a conspicuous
manner. The abnormalities are slight, and there is as great a diversity
among the men as could be asked. It must be remembered that these cases
were selected by a shrewd and competent official, solely upon their
criminal record, and not in the interests of any theory whatever.
Of course, the men do not look well, but neither would any ordinary
company of citizens if their heads were shaved and they were put in
prison dress. I am always shocked by the changed appearance of the men
after the prison transformation. Young embezzlers of elegant figure,
who have moved in good society without a question, easily look the
rascal behind prison walls.
The first group are murderers. No. 1 murdered his daughter because she
insisted upon going to a party against his wishes. He has the head of
a philosopher. It was his first crime. It may be noted that tattooing
is supposed to be common among criminals. This man is tattooed, but
committed no crime until fifty years of age, and was a deputy sheriff
for some years. No. 2 did not kill his victim, but the assault was
murderous, and the escape from death was accidental. It is difficult
to discuss the negro in crime without entering into racial and social
questions beyond the present limits. No. 3 has a very good head, an
excellent ear, and, barring the expression, a pleasing face. He has a
life sentence for murder. He is the worst man in the prison. I have
for years believed him to be insane. His family is criminal. His
father murdered his mother in a brutal manner before the child's eyes,
when No. 3 was only eight years old. He himself has committed several
desperate assaults, growing out of his persistent mania of persecution.
No. 3 is not morally responsible, and there are usually two or three
such prisoners out of a thousand subjects.
The second group are very diverse in structure and temperament, but
have committed the same kind of crime. No. 1 is a confidence man and a
forger. He is a crafty and an habitual criminal, has served terms in
various prisons, is keen of intellect, well educated, has traveled in
many countries, and is a citizen of the world.
No. 2 is a confirmed forger, and has served several terms in prison
for the same offense. He is a skillful bookkeeper, has an attractive
manner, and as soon as he is out in the world secures employment and
plans his next crime.
No. 3 is a counterfeiter. His head is small, but of excellent shape,
and he has rather a refined physical organization. His criminal record
is bad, and he has served at least one term before for the same
offense. His imagination, temperament, and vices would select him as a
person who would be guilty of a very different and more fleshly kind
of crime. The group is formed by the correlation of crime; they have
nothing in common in physical organization.
[Illustration: Group 3, No. 1.]
[Illustration: Group 3, No. 2.]
[Illustration: Group 3, No. 3.]
The third group are thieves. No. 1 is a confirmed criminal, and has
served several terms in prison. He is the tallest man in the list.
His head is "long" and well formed, and his features are regular. His
expression indicates power of sustained thought, and his peculiar
appearance is not due to his kind of crime, but to his habit of
mind. He is a pessimist of the first rank, and hates the world, his
fellow-men, and perhaps himself most of all. He will not work when at
liberty, thinks that society is totally depraved, and that war upon it
is the only proper mission in life. He is pre-eminently the antisocial
man.
No. 2 is really a pleasing fellow. He is tender, sympathetic, and
pious. Under proper circumstances he might have made an admirable
Sunday-school superintendent. He is plausible, insinuating, and
winning. In temperament, feeling, and social habit he is the complete
antithesis to No. 1. He is a most dangerous criminal, and has a black
and varied record.
No. 3 is a man of lower grade of organization and habit, but he is a
criminal by profession. He is an idle and worthless vagabond, but he
is an accomplished thief. He makes an excellent prisoner, obedient to
the rules, industrious, and seemingly anxious to improve. In fact, the
prison furnishes his best environment, for it is only there that he is
at peace with himself and his world.
[Illustration: Contrasts, No. 1.]
[Illustration: Contrasts, No. 2.]
The last two men presented are contrasts. No. 1 is an accidental
criminal. His previous history and character give strong grounds for
the belief that, under pressure of want for the necessaries of life,
he was led astray by a man older and stronger than himself. It is not
likely that he would repeat his fault. No. 2, on the other hand, is a
sexual pervert of the worst kind, whose case seems so hopeless that
perpetual imprisonment is indicated as the only relief for him, and the
only safety for society. Apart from the expression of his eyes, caused
by an irregular focus, there is nothing marked about the face. The head
is of a pronounced "broad" type, but, on the other hand, he comes from
a province of Germany where that type is dominant.
To complete the experiment, I submitted these portraits to a number
of gentlemen, and to no two of them at the same time, for their
opinions of the cases. The informal committee represented the different
professions which might be expected to fit men for observation, for
there was a lawyer, a physician, a railway president, a criminal judge,
and a college professor. Each of them is eminent in his special field.
The committee was manifestly handicapped by the shorn head, the prison
dress, and the lack of the accessories of masculine ornamentation, such
as collars and cravats. The committee was asked to name the crimes,
and to group the men according to their criminal record. Each opinion
differed from the other, and all were wide of the mark. The shrewd
lawyer thought the accidental criminal "might be guilty of anything."
It was only the college professor, the last man of the company from
whom anything might properly be expected, who was able to select the
worst two cases with the remark, "These men are degenerates." But while
the committee was at work on the photographs the writer was at work on
the committee, and actually discovered more anomalies of organization
in these distinguished citizens than are apparent in the criminals.
After this remark it is necessary to withhold their names, though some
of them are men of national reputation.
It is time to reassert with increasing emphasis the personal
responsibility of the individual, and to insist upon the enthronement
and guidance of conscience. There are certainly social and economic
reasons for crime, some of which the writer has pointed out elsewhere,
but the chief fact in human life is the power of self-determination.
The chief causes of crime, outside of personal and moral degradation,
are psychical and not physical. The reader of history can not fail
to have noted that relation of prevalent ideas to conduct which is
so conspicuous in human affairs. The scenes of blood and desolation
characteristic of the French Revolution are directly traceable to the
doctrines which prepared the way for anarchy, but not for rational
freedom.
We have had our attention directed to the contagion of suicide which
has marked the last half decade. But Lecky tells us that suicide was
made practically unknown in the civilized world by the spread of
Christianity and its beliefs in the dignity and sanctity of man. The
present contagion will disappear not as the result of food, or raiment,
or houses, or any other material good, but by a revival of practical
faith in the human soul and its capacity, in human righteousness and
its obligation.
A CENTURY OF GEOLOGY.
BY PROF. JOSEPH LE CONTE.
[_Concluded._]
THE AGE OF THE EARTH.
Until almost the beginning of the present century the general belief in
all Christian countries was that not only the earth and man, but the
whole cosmos, began to exist about six thousand to seven thousand years
ago; furthermore, that all was made at once without natural process,
and have remained substantially unchanged ever since. This is the old
doctrine of the supernatural origin and substantial permanency of the
earth and its features. Among intelligent and especially scientific men
this doctrine, even in the eighteenth century, began to be questioned,
although not publicly; for in 1751 Buffon was compelled by the Sorbonne
to retract certain views concerning the age of the earth, published in
his Natural History in 1749.[1] Remnants of the old belief lingered
even into the early part of the present century, and may even yet be
found hiding away in some of the remote corners of civilized countries.
But with the birth of geology, and especially through the work of
Hutton in Scotland, Cuvier in France, and William Smith in England,
the much greater--the inconceivably great--antiquity of the earth and
the origin of its present forms, by gradual changes which are still
going on, was generally acknowledged. Indeed, as already said, this is
the fundamental idea of geology, without which it could not exist as a
science.
Geology has its own measures of time--in eras, periods, epochs,
ages, etc.--but it is natural and right that we should desire more
accurate estimates by familiar standards. How old, then, is the
earth, especially the inhabited earth, in years? Geologists have
attempted to answer this question by estimates based on the rates of
sedimentation and erosion, or else on the rate of changes of organic
forms by struggle for life and survival of the fittest. Physicists have
attempted to answer the same question by calculations based on known
laws of dissipation of energy in a cooling body, such as the sun or the
earth. The results of the two methods differ widely. The estimates of
the geologists are enormous, and growing ever greater as the conditions
of the problem are better understood. Nothing less than several hundred
million years will serve his purpose. The estimates of the physicists
are much more moderate, and apparently growing less with each revision.
The latest results of King and Kelvin give only twenty to thirty
millions.[2] This the geologist declares is absurdly inadequate. He can
not work freely in so narrow a space--he has not elbow room.