Asphalt

Composition and Properties of Asphalt

Asphalt is an exceedingly complex mixture of organic (bitumen) and inorganic components which cannot be characterized by a single chemical formula. Bitumen is a mixture of organic compounds with high molecular mass and consists mainly of hydrocarbons. The mineral components also vary according to the location where the mineral was found and contain in the majority of cases aluminum silicates and carbonates and also oxides of silicon, aluminum, iron, and calcium (1). The pigment can harden on contact with oxygen in the air and visible and ultraviolet light can change the appearance of its components with conjugated double bonds in their molecules, but the sensitivity to light has not been investigated in sufficient depth to make a positive statement about this property. No agreement exists in the literature about the feasibility of mixing this pigment with other pigments.

Names

Spaltam, aspalathum, (bitumen)Natural black 6, NBk 6From Late Latin asphaltum, from Greek asphaltos “asphalt, bitumen,” often said to be from Greek a– “not” + *sphaltos “able to be thrown down,” From Online Etymology Dictionary

Preparation

Asphalt can be found in nature as a mineral. It can also be prepared industrially by the evaporating of petroleum. This product is known under the name of refined bitumen.

History of Use

The use of asphalt as pigment goes back to prehistoric times. Due to the difficulties in the identification of this pigment in paintings only two accounts of its actual identification in paintings have been published (see below). However, there are many mentions of its use in the literature (3).Examples of use

Quote

The Asphalt Jungle is a 1950 film noir about a major heist that goes off as planned, until bad luck and double crosses cause everything to unravel.

Source: The Asphalt Jungle

Jon Scott Ashjian (born 1964), commonly known as Scott Ashjian, was the candidate of the Tea Party of Nevada in the race for United States Senate in the 2010 Nevada general election. He resides in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he works as a businessman, paving contractor, and real estate investor, and is owner of an asphalt company. Ashjian filed his candidacy papers for the Tea Party, a registered minor party in Nevada, on March 2, 2010. Ashjian's U.S. Senate candidacy was challenged in court in April 2010, and Carson City, Nevada district judge James Todd Russell ruled that he could stay on the ballot. This decision was appealed, and the Nevada Supreme Court ruled in a unanimous decision on October 6, 2010 that Ashjian would remain on the November 2010 ballot for U.S. Senate.

Source: Scott Ashjian

And the wind shall say: "Here were decent godless people: Their only monument the asphalt road And a thousand lost golf balls."

Source: T. S. Eliot

What is it in man that for a long while lies unknown and unseen only one day to emerge and push him into a new land of the eye, a new region of the mind, a place he has never dreamed of? Maybe it's like the force in spores lying quietly under asphalt until the day they push a soft, bulbous mushroom head right through the pavement. There's nothing you can do to stop it. Part Four, Chapter 12

Source: William Least Heat-Moon

1 Season 1 1.1 Sex With Pudding [1.1] 1.2 Dad's Dead [1.2] 1.3 Dave Moves Out [1.3] 1.4 The Breakup [1.4] 1.5 Titus Integritous [1.5] 1.6 Red Asphalt [1.6] 1.7 Mom's Not Nuts [1.7] 1.8 Intervention [1.8] 1.9 Episode Eleven [1.9]

Source: Titus (TV series)

A great industrial nation may conquer the world in the span of a single life, but its Achilles' heel is time. Its children, what of them? The second and third generations, of what numbers and stuff will they be? How long can men thrive between walls of brick, walking on asphalt pavements, breathing the fumes of coal and of oil, growing, working, dying, with hardly a thought of wind, and sky, and fields of grain, seeing only machine-made beauty, the mineral-like quality of life. This is our modern danger — one of the waxen wings of flight. It may cause our civilization to fall unless we act quickly to counteract it, unless we realize that human character is more important than efficiency, that education consists of more than the mere accumulation of knowledge.

Source: Charles Lindbergh

The cauldron, however, full of water, is placed in the middle on the ground; and the reflection of the cyanus falling upon it, presents the appearance of heaven. But the floor also has a certain concealed aperture, on which the cauldron is laid, having been [previously] supplied with a bottom of crystal, while itself is composed of stone. Underneath, however, unnoticed [by the spectators], is a compartment, into which the accomplices assembling, appear invested with the figures of such gods and demons as the magician wishes to exhibit. Now the dupe, beholding these, becomes astonished at the knavery of the magician, and subsequently believes all things that are likely to be stated by him. But [the sorcerer] produces a burning demon, by tracing on the wall whatever figure he wishes, and then covertly smearing it with a drug mixed according to this manner, — viz. of Laconian and Zacynthian asphalt, — while next, as if under the influence in probably before the words, " These contrivances, however, I hesitated to narrate". Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Volume 6: Hippolytus, Bishop Of Rome, Volume 1 p. 103

Source: Hippolytus of Rome

And as Paul said these things to himself, a wave of sadness washed over them as though they’d been written in sand. He was understanding now that no man could live without roots—roots in a patch of desert, a red clay field, a mountain slope, a rocky coast, a city street. In black loan, in mud or sand or rock or asphalt or carpet, every man had his roots down deep—in home. Chapter 23 (p. 227)

Source: Kurt Vonnegut