MOLASSES PAVEMENTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIV, Issue 10786, 25 October 1895, Page 6

MOLASSES PAVEMENTS.

(Scientific American.) Perhaps the oddest pavement ever iaicl is one just completed at Chino, It is made mostly of molasses, and if it proves all of the success claimed foe it, it may point a way for the sugar planters oj the South to profitably dispose of the millions of gallons of useless molasses which they are said to have on hand. The head chemist of a sugar factory at Chino, Mr E. Turke, was led to’ make certain experiments, of which the new sidewalk, a thousand feet long, frofli the factory to the main street, is the result. The molasses used is a refuse product, hitherto believed to be of nt> value. It is simply mixed with a certain kind of sand to about the consistency ol asphalt'and laid like an asphalt pavement. The composition dries quickly and becomes quite hard and remains so. The peculiar point of it is that the sun only makes it drier and harder. Instead of softening if, as might be expected. A block of the composition, tyro feet long, a foot wide and one inch thick, Was submitted to severe tests and stood them well. Laid with an inch or so of its edges resting on supports, it withstood repeated blows of a machine hammer without showing any effects cracking or bending. •