Edward J de Smedt Patented Asphalt Pavement – May 31, 1870
On May 31, 1870 Belgian immigrant Edward J de Smedt who was at Columbia University in New York City patented asphalt pavement. So we all know what asphalt is, as we all drive on it, and have all felt that heat rising off of it in the summer! But do you know how it is made? I didn’t until I started to deal with it at my job. From Wikipedia:
Asphalt concrete (commonly called asphalt,[1] blacktop, or pavement in North America, and tarmac in Great Britain and Ireland) is a composite material commonly used to surface roads, parking lots, and airports. It consists of mineral aggregate bound together with asphalt, laid in layers, and compacted. The process was refined and enhanced by Belgian inventor and U.S. immigrant Edward de Smedt.[2] It is increasingly being used as the core of embankment dams.Read More
More about the mineral aggregate in asphalt pavement…..
Asphalt concrete pavement material is commonly composed of 5% asphalt/bitumen cement and 95% aggregates (stone, sand, and gravel). Due to its highly viscous nature, asphalt/bitumen cement must be heated so it can be mixed with the aggregates at the asphalt mixing plant. There are about 4,000 asphalt concrete mixing plants in the U.S., and a similar number in Europe Read More
E.J. de Smedt’s well-graded” maximum-density road asphalt was first used in 1872 in Battery Park and on Fifth Avenue in New York City. In 1877 it was used to pave Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington D.C.
When the environmental work got slow at Lippincott around 2010, I started helping out in the other departments within the company. One of the departments that I worked with was the Inspection Department. As part of the inspection department, I got a lot of experience with asphalt. At that time, our company was working on many repaving projects in Burlington County.
As result I worked with the inspection department as we cored newly placed asphalt.The cores were returned to our laboratory for testing., where I also helped out.In the lab,the asphalt was first placed an oven and the asphalt was baked off. The remaining aggregates were then washed and sieved through sieves to check the percentages of the sizes of the various particles. All of this was done to assure that the asphalt mix was in conformance with the specifications for the material to be used on the project.
Additionally, I observed at the plant, as the asphalt was tested while it was being made and then watched as it was loaded on the trucks. What fun! Finally, I learned how to use the Nuclear Density machine to test the density of the material when it was being placed and compacted with rollers. Even more fun standing on hot asphalt testing the density!! All in all I don’t miss that work, in any way shape or form!