The Nicolson Pavement Invented by Samuel Nicolson of Boston, Mass.
Samuel Nicolson
Boston, 1855
 
Presentation copy of the first edition of the author’s treatise on his recently invented means of roadwork. Stab-stitched in publisher’s wrappers. An excellent copy with just a few little spots at some margins, else Fine. Only 8 copies listed on OCLC, and no appearances in the sales records since Truman beat Dewey. 
 
The burgeoning young nation was in need of inventive souls and Nicolson made his contribution.
 
‘Wood block pavement was more commonly called Nicolson pavement. Samuel Nicolson was the superintendent of Boston and Roxbury Mill Corporation when he invented the process in 1848. He was trying to solve a number of problems related to early paving methods. Nicolson wanted a safe, durable, quiet, clean way to pave the streets used by the Mill Corporation. He achieved most of these objectives; the only problem with his method was durability. The first road lasted seven years before requiring replacement.
 
By 1853, Nicolson had been contracted by the city of Boston to pave a number of streets. His method made it to Chicago in November 1856…
 
The wooden blocks used for Nicolson pavement were four by five inches wide, and twelve to fifteen inches long. These were laid together loosely on the four inch side. Before laying the blocks, a sand foundation was put down, upon which boards serving as stringers were placed. The blocks are then laid on the boards, and the spaces between the blocks were filled with a mix of gravel and coal tar.
 
Chicago’s Civil Engineer in the 1850s, Samuel Greeley, was enthusiastically in favor of Nicolson pavement, writing in an 1859 Tribune article: “Wooden pavement…might have great advantages in a city, where suitable stone was scarce, where lumber was the great staple of the market, and where the foundation was new and yielding.” However, wood pavement was not long lasting on heavily trafficked streets…By the 1890s, wood pavement was considered by many to be an anachronistic failure. During this period, more durable and cost-efficient pavement methods like Macadam and Stone blocks came into use. Most notably, wood pavement was largely replaced by the Belgian blocks that in some places have lasted to this day.’(Forgotten Chicago)