RUBBER PAVING.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3145, 27 November 1922, Page 7

RUBBER PAVING.

We have, says a Singapore journal, referred several times to the invention of a. rubber faced paving block by Mr Lionel Cresson, chemist, of the 'Singapore Rubber Works, and we the now able to congratulate the inventor on the marked success l of a severe test to which his blocks have been subjected. It may be remembered that the entrance pavilion of the Malaya. Borneo Exhibition was laid with Cresson rubber blocks, and that they stood the test there perfectly. But it was felt that a much more severe trial was necessary, and the Singapore Harbor Board, thanks to the interest of Mr S. A. Lane, kindly undertook to lay a large square of the I rubber blocks in front of the weigh house where all the heavy vehicles conveying goods from the harbor to the city have to pass. There is probably more heavy traffic over that spot than over any other corresponding area in Singapore. Yesterday afternoon, all being ready, Mr S. A. Lane invited a party of representative citizens to view the first tests. Those present included Mr R. J. Farrer, President, and 001. Pearson, Engineer-in-Chief Singapore Municipality; "Messrs Trimmer, Tongue, Robson, Taylor and Alford, of the Harbor Board; Mr Hinsken, manager of the: Singapore Rubber Works, Mr L. Cresson, the inventor; Messrs Makepeace and Still, the Press. The first test was a. run over the rubber area at about fifty miles an hour in a motor-car carrying four persons, and the onlookers confessed that the time for observation confessed that the time for observation was not long enough to make much impression either on them or on the paving. It demonstrated one point however, for it showed that the powerful suction of a fast travelling vehicle had no effect on the blocks. Then the big Hadbor fire engine, fully manned, thundered over the blocks, and left them as they were; A heavily loaded lorry . drew up suddenly on the test area, but again l nothing happened, and finally a big road roller moved on, hacked, advanced, and generally endeavored' to make itself objectionable to the paving. It also retired without producing any adverse effects.

So, as far as such tests can go, those made yesterday were very successful indeed, but the real etst will be a few months' subjection to the heavy traffic which daily passes oyer the selected spot. It may be explained that the blocks are laid on a foundar tion of concrete. The essential feature of Mr Cresson's patent is that only about | of an inch of pure rubber is laid on the top of the block, the body of which may be made of almost anything—sand,* ground brick and stone, even wood sawdust having been tested, and the whole may be said to be vulcanised into one uniformly cohesive mass. The advantage over any form of anchoring is obvious. Anchoring means that there is sunk in the rubber surface a piece of expanded metal or something of the same kind, and then the block is attached to a concrete foundation. Apart from the danger of tearing loos© which brings to the surface jagged points of metal, there is this inherent defect in the anchoring system, that only about half of the actual rubber is available for surface, wearing purposes, as the block is useless when the anchors become exposed. The merit of Cresson's block fs that the whole rubber can be worn off and there will yet remain a surface upon which traffic can run quite satisfactorily almost until the concrete foundation" is reached. Nothing is conclusive except a long, severe test, and that is now being given, but we can say of the Cresson system that it is the most hopeful we have ever seen and brings rubber paving within the scope of possibility.