Macadam

Description

Pavement made with layers of crushed granite or greenstone. Macadam is usually sealed with tar or asphalt to produce a hard, smooth water-resistant roadway called tarmac. Macadam pavement was invented by John L. McAdam in 1815, a Scottish civil engineer.

Authority

• Dictionary of Building Preservation, Ward Bucher, ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York City, 1996

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998

• Encyclopedia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com Comment: "macadam" Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. [Accessed 28 Sept. 2005].

• Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, at http://www.wikipedia.com Comment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macadam (Accessed Sept. 28, 2005)