GC1NE5A Blome Away! (Multi-cache) in Tennessee, United States created by psyprofs

This cache has been archived.

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The Seanachai
Geocaching.com Volunteer Cache Reviewer for Tennessee

GC1NE5A ▼

A cache by psyprofs Message this owner

Hidden : 3/7/2009

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: small (small)

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Geocache Description:

A fairly easy multi-cache located in the Fort Sanders neighborhood of Knoxville.

FTF honors go to jodokast4!

Today’s lesson is on road paving! Most of us have seen a variety of street surfaces around Knoxville. There are brick pavers on Jackson Avenue and in Old City (perhaps a future cache?), there are concrete slabs, there is blacktop all over the place. And then there is the rather curious concrete pavement in the eastern end of the Fort Sanders neighborhood.

We first noticed the distinctive grooved concrete pavement in the east end of Fort Sanders neighborhood about the time we arrived in Knoxville in 1984. Varying one’s speed on the pavement creates a satisfying melodic hum that changes in pitch with speed. But it was only after we started the series of caches in Fort Sanders that we really paid attention to this unusual pavement. Thanks to the enigmatic brass plaque embedded in one of the intersections, we have been able to find some details on its history.

Rudolph Blome was born in Monroe, MI, in 1871, son of Joseph and Caroline Sedlaczek. After college, he moved to Chicago in 1891. In 1895, he legally changed his name to Blome, due to the difficulty so many Americans had pronouncing Sedlaczek. Starting in 1892, he worked in the company founded (1866) and operated by Joseph Stamsen, contractor for cement paving and construction. He became a partner in the company in January, 1894, and, after the death of Mr. Stamsen, bought the company from his family in 1896, renaming it the R.S. Blome Company. The Granitoid pavement system he developed was very successful, and he established offices in Chicago, New York, Birmingham, New Orleans, Spokane, and Vancouver, B.C., with various subsidiaries elsewhere. The company broadened into asphalt, as well (visit link)

A textbook on paving, available at (visit link) , says of the Blome granitoid,

“Pavements made entirely of concrete are coming more and more into general use as the true strength and worth of concrete is becoming better known and understood. One of the all-concrete pavements is known as the Blome Co. Patented Granitoid Pavement and is laid under patents owned by the Rudolph S. Blome Company of Chicago. As previously stated the Blome Co. Granitoid pavement consists of a lower layer of concrete serving as a base and an upper thinner layer of richer concrete forming a wearing surface ; the two layers being laid so as to secure a perfect union, thus forming a monolith. The upper surface is grooved to give a good foothold for horses.

Granitoid has been used successfully on 8 per cent grades at Knoxville, Tennessee…”

This source offers detailed specifications for all the phases of the Granitoid pavement, from sub-grade to finished pavement (p. 48-52). It then comments on the pavement in Knoxville,

“In Knoxville, Tenn., the same granitoid laid in accordance with methods previously described cost $1.88 per square yard in place, exclusive of the grading, which varied from 15 to 20 cents per square yard of pavement, making the total cost of finished pavement from $2.03 to $2.08 per square yard. (p. 52).”

Granitoid was laid in Knoxville from 1908 to 1912. As you will see on tracking the first stage, this pavement is very durable, as it embeds a high proportion of granite chips hence, Granitoid, (actually, some other kind of chips here) in its upper surfaces. The pavement here is a hundred years old, and, except where it has been cut into by city workers, is in excellent condition. This is in sharp contrast to our asphalt streets, which have to be repaved every twenty or so years.

Granitoid pavement in Grand Forks, N.D. was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1991 (visit link) the press release for that listing is found at (visit link) and contains a lot of historical and technical information about the paving system. It is poured onto a subgrade of gravel and sand, is reinforced with metal sheets, has a bottom layer of dense concrete 5 ½ inches thick, and a top layer of 1 ½ to 2 inches thickness. The top layer is brushed to prevent slipperiness, and then is scored in the block pattern “to give better footing for horses.” This document notes, “Keeping the streets clean was important in the days of horse and buggy travel because each horse would produce 15 to 20 pounds of waste products each day.” It adds, “The Blome company embedded numerous bronze plates in the pavement identifying themselves as the construction company…and divulging the fact that the granitoid was a patented process dating from ________.” We got a chuckle when reading this source, as it claims to be one of only two places (other is Duluth) where this pavement still lies on the surface. There was a third – which you will visit.

Your mission is to find one of the Blome plaques, at the listed coordinates, and to get the patent date off of it. These numbers will be used to compute the coordinates of the actual cache container. Be careful, as the plaque is on the street – though a fairly lightly traveled street.

Computing the final coordinates:

The date you find will be of the form

A / B / CDEF

You only have to change the last three digits of both of the original coordinates, here designated GHI and JKL. The last three digits of the new coordinates are designated MNP and QRS.

To get from this: N 35 57.GHI W 083 55.JKL
to this: N 35 57 MNP W 083 55 QRS

M = G + E
N = H + F (skipped the letter O here because it looks too much like a zero)
P = I + A + C (the letter I here, not the number one)

Q = J + C
R = F – K
S = B – 2L

The checksum is 36 (M+N+P+Q+R+S)
See! You KNEW there was a good reason to take Algebra in high school!

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Fdhner ubyr ng rlr yriry

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)

This cache has been archived.

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Blome Away! Multi-Cache

This cache has been archived.

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Geocache Description:

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