Barber-Greene Company was a

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

founded in 1916 by American mechanical engineers Harry H. Barber and William B. Greene. It was formed to sell standardized material-handling machines to mechanize small manual tasks in an economical way. Though the company began by offering

conveyors A conveyor belt is the carrying medium of a belt conveyor system (often shortened to a belt conveyor). A belt conveyor system consists of two or more pulleys (sometimes referred to as drums), with a closed loop of carrying medium—the conveyor b ...

and bucket loaders, it is best known for its contributions to the

asphalt Asphalt most often refers to: * Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete * Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...

field. In 1959, the company went public and was sold to Astec in 1986.

History of the asphalt paver

On November 15, 1930, in

Aurora, Illinois Aurora is a city in northeastern Illinois, United States. It is located along the Fox River (Illinois River tributary), Fox River west of Chicago. It is the List of municipalities in Illinois, second-most populous city in Illinois, with a popul ...

, Harry Barber made a sketch of a new machine that became the

asphalt paver A paver (road paver finisher, asphalt finisher, road paving machine) is a piece of construction equipment used to lay asphalt concrete or Portland cement concrete on roads, bridges, parking lots and other such places. It lays the material flat a ...

. Harry asked patent attorney W.R. Chambers to examine this new machine. The patent was filed on August 20, 1932 with a publication date on December 22, 1936. This eventually became the beginning of the development of the modern asphalt paver. Today there is an entire industry that has been developed from this invention. The machine mixed and placed asphalt in a single operation. This was first exhibited at the 1931 Road Show in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

. Barber realized that the mixing and placing operations needed to be separated, and the mixing section became the line of Barber Greene asphalt plants and the placing section became the Barber Greene paver line. The early pavers used

screw conveyor A screw conveyor or auger conveyor is a mechanism that uses a rotating helical screw (simple machine), screw blade, called a "''flighting''", usually within a tube, to move liquid or granular materials. They are used in many bulk handling in ...

s to distribute the mix in front of a

screed Screed has three meanings in building construction: # A flat board (screed board, floating screed) or a purpose-made aluminium tool used to smooth and to "Wikt:true#Verb, true" materials like concrete, stucco and plaster after they have been p ...

that tamped the mix. This process meant that the asphalt was suitable for coarse-graded mixes. Dense-graded mixes that were common on city streets the machine experienced problems including surface imperfections. In 1933, Barber's son Ashley joined the company and in the same year the independent floating screed was developed. This screed, along with the tamper bar that permitted uniform material density of the finished surface were the two key features that made the machine successful. Early pavers had a

hopper Hopper or hoppers may refer to: Places * Hopper, Illinois * Hopper, West Virginia * Hopper, a mountain and valley in the Hunza–Nagar District of Pakistan * Hopper (crater), a crater on Mercury People * Hopper (surname) Insects * Hopper, the ...

which material was dumped into and spread by an

auger Auger may refer to: Engineering * Auger bit, a drill bit * Auger conveyor, a device for moving material by means of a rotating helical flighting * Auger (platform), the world's first tension leg oil rig; see ''Big, Bigger, Biggest'' * Earth auger ...

. The floating screed was supported by runners that traveled on the prepared base material. On April 10, 1936, the

U.S. Patent Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alex ...

issued the initial patent number 2,138,828 "Machine for and process of laying roads", and on December 6, 1938, this patent was granted. By 1934, production had started on the model 79 paver which featured a feeder conveyor to move the material to the auger. In 1936, the 879 model was introduced. By 1940, this machine was upgraded to the 879-A Model. This machine was the standard asphalt paver around the world until the mid-1950s. These basic features that were introduced by Barber Greene have been incorporated into most asphalt pavers in use today (1987). Other Barber Greene firsts include: *First synchronized tampers (1945) *First paver on rubber crawlers (1958) *First

hydraulic Hydraulics () is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counterpart of pneumatics, which concer ...

paver (1959) *First automatic screed control (1960) *First

hydrostatic Hydrostatics is the branch of fluid mechanics that studies fluids at hydrostatic equilibrium and "the pressure in a fluid or exerted by a fluid on an immersed body". The word "hydrostatics" is sometimes used to refer specifically to water and o ...

paver (1970) Barber-Greene also made a successful line of trenching machines, asphalt batch plants, asphalt drum mixing plants, and road recyclers called Dynaplanes.

Dissolution

Barber-Greene shut down its manufacturing plant in Aurora, Illinois in 1985 and was later purchased by Astec Industries of Chattanooga, Tennessee in late 1986. The Barber-Greene headquarters in Aurora, Illinois was then sold to Transbulk Distribution Centers, Inc. for $2.9 million in 1987. The Barber-Greene Co of DeKalb (which manufactured paving equipment) was purchased by

Caterpillar Inc. Caterpillar Inc., also known as Cat, is an American construction, mining and other engineering equipment manufacturer. The company is the world's largest manufacturer of construction equipment. In 2018, Caterpillar was ranked number 73 on the ' ...

for approximately $25 million in 1991.

Models

Barber-Greene Pavers *79, 879, 879A *873, SB30, SB41, SB50, SB110, SB111, SB121, SB131, SB140, SB170 *SA35, SA41, SA145, SA150, SA190 *BG210, BG210B, BG270 *BG220, BG240, BG260 *BG220B, BG240B, BG260B *BG225, BG245, BG265 *BG225B, BG245B, BG265B *BG610H, BG650 *BG240C, BG260C, *BG225C, BG245C, BG2455C, *700 Road Widener, 710 Road Widener Barber-Greene Profilers *RX20, RX30, RX40B, RX50, RX80, RX80B

Gallery

File:B-G.1-1345A.jpg, A Barber Greene Paver File:B-G.879.1-1457B.jpg, Barber Greene 879 paver File:B-G.SB.1-1456B.jpg, Barber Greene SB131 Paver

References

{{reflist *History and facts taken from a 1987 Barber Greene "edge" magazine no. DM187 *Model numbers taken from individual product specification sheets for each model 1916 establishments in Illinois Construction equipment manufacturers of the United States American companies established in 1916 Manufacturing companies established in 1916