AS SOLID AS ROCK.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1117, 3 May 1911, Page 6

AS SOLID AS ROCK.

FLOORING THE BIG "J" SHED. The chairman of the Wellington Harbour Board (Mr. R. Fletcher), accompanied by several members of the Exhibition Committee of the Wellington' Industrial Association, paid a visit of inspection yesterday to tho big now " J " shed, which is to house half of this Coronation Exhibition to be opened here on "May 2-1 (Empire Day). The new store is not yet out of the contractor's hands, and fears have.been expressed that the time lor preparing the place for the big show is all too short. The work now being done and almost complete is the laying down of a flooring of Neuchatel asphalt on the concrete base.. The asphalt is an inch and a half in thickness, and the processes of laying it down are interesting. Two processes have been used, one for tho ground floor and tho other for tho top floor. Tho latter was laid down by tho mastic or \yet process, which means thai the asphalt, which comes to this.country from Switzerland or Sicily iu powde.r form, is inoltiirt u;ith. an admixture of bitumen, and is poured over the surface in about the consistency of thick treacle, and is levelled off as it cools. The other and the more expensive process is a dry one. The pnro asphalt is warmed up dry in a big cauldron, and is emptied over the floor in cartloads as if it were smid- In.that condition' it is tamped- into position with heated irons, made almost red hot.in. a travelling furnace. Wlicii roughly spread and tamped solid with joining irons, a heavy tool called ■ the "stamper." also heated, is .requisitioned.to. stamp'the stuff info solidity, and after that a heavy roller heated by a self-contaii:c>] colio firo is dfawii over the.surface many times. Finally hot smoothing irons are pushed over the surface, taking out the last evidences of unevonness, and giving tho floor a glazed surface, almost as'smooth as.glass. This process is costly, but after it is done the asphalt is said to form into a mass as solid as.rock, and the heavier the traffic over tiie surface the bettor. The Neuchatel Company make skating ritik floors in this manner, and are about to lay one down in Dnnedin. Now that this work is nraciically completed, exhibitors should lose nn time, in preparing their stalls. Tho Exhibition opens to-day three weeks, and it will need every effort on the part of those concerned to bo ready for that occasion. .