JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post   (Part of the History of Lines series) 

This part of tonight’s entertainment comes from the unlikely source: The Highway, Street and Airport Manual, Equipment, Methods, Materials (1943), published by Public Works Magazine, and shares an ad that displays the results of various types of concrete road paving failure with the placement of joints. (And, yes, I’m sorry to say that I’m equating “lines” with “cracks”.) It is pretty interesting stuff in a similar vein of the history of painted road lines (longer and more complicated than expected), alpha-numeric utility pole designations, the design of manhole covers, the placement of cable and electrical lines on utility poles, and the like–very obvious and present things in the daily social life of organized public conveniences, but probably mostly overlooked for their constant presence.

And so, cracks in the street:

The full two pages of text: