Location : Ondo, Ogun, Lagos and Edo.
ORIGIN:
The history of bitumen, also known as asphalt dates started many decades ago. The Egyptians used it in the time of Pharaohs for several purposes.
Although its usage as a civil construction material began in Babylon around 625 BC, the ancient Mesopotamians have used it as waterproofs for water tanks and temple baths.
The first time of using large blocks of natural asphalt (bitumen) for road construction was in 1824 for constructing Champs-Élysées in Paris, France.
Then in 1870, Professor Edward J. de Smedt, at Columbia University, New York, discovered modern road asphalt after his emigration from Belgium.
Smedt gave it the name “sheet asphalt pavement” but it was popularly referred to as “French asphalt pavement”.
Related Posts
Its application on road continued to widespread. In 1872, it was laid on Fifth Avenue, New York as well as another residential community called Battery Park city.
Bitumen, is dense, highly viscous, petroleum-based hydrocarbon that is found in deposits such as oil sands and pitch lakes (natural bitumen) or is obtained as a residue of the distillation of crude oil (refined bitumen). It is a blackish viscous liquid which is a by-product gotten from the fractional distillation of crude oil and has a boiling point range of about 500°C – 700°C.
Bitumen can also be found naturally in tar sand where it can also be processed and refined into oil-rich bitumen. Again, it can be found as a refined product where it occurs via crude oil fractional distillation.
It relatively contains mixtures of non-volatile hydrocarbons which are flammable in nature, hence, exhibiting adhesive and waterproofing properties.
Bitumen is often called asphalt, though that name is almost universally used for the road-paving material made from a mixture of gravel, sand, and other fillers in a bituminous binder. Bitumen is also frequently called tar or pitch—though, properly speaking, tar is a byproduct of the carbonization of coal and pitch is actually obtained from the distillation of coal tar
The process of refining bitumen was pioneered in the early 1900s in the United States, giving rise to a myriad of contemporary industrial applications.
The versatility of Bitumen as a construction material is unparalleled. Having been used as an adhesive, sealant and waterproofing agent for over 8,000 years, its uses now include: the construction and maintenance of roads, airfields and all areas where asphalt is used; roofing; damp proofing; dam, reservoir and pool linings; soundproofing, pipe coatings, paints, and many others
