Depending on where you live, many modern Americans rarely encounter unpaved roads. When they do, the whole concept can seem a bit "ancient". (Of course, here in Massachusetts some paved roads are just as rough as unpaved ones, but I digress...)
Above is a 1908 ad for The American Car Sprinkler Company of Worcester MA. One definition of the verb "lay" is "to cause to subside or settle". And that is just what this device did, it sprayed water over roads that were either totally unpaved, or paved with cobbles or bricks, in order to settle dust, ashes, or even dry horse manure!
According to the 1912 Massachusetts Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners:
The American Car Sprinkler Company, of Worcester, operates electric sprinkler cars in the cities of Worcester, Lynn, Lowell, Lawrence, Springfield, Holyoke, Brockton, Taunton, Fall River and New Bedford and in the town of Revere, under contracts with said cities and town and the Worcester Consolidated, Boston and Northern, Springfield, Holyoke, Taunton and Pawtucket, East Taunton, Norton and Taunton, Old Colony and Union Street railway companies, operating therein.
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The 1901 ad above lists an M.J. Whittall as the company's vice-president. That was Matthew Whittall, and this is interesting, as the offices were located on Brussells Street in Worcester, which just so happened to be the location of Whittall's carpet mills. By 1917, his son M. Percival Whittall was vice president.  The ad above is from 1912 and finally gives us a more realistic view of the sprinkler equipment in action. |
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