So long ago as July 1839, the inventor explained to a large public meeting of noblemen and men of science, presided over by the Duke of Sussex, the principle of his discovery.  It consisted in a division of the cube, or, as he called it, the stereotomy of the cube.  After observing, that “although the cube was the most regular of all solid bodies, and the most learned men amongst the Greeks and other nations had occupied themselves to ascertain and measure its proportions, he said it had never hitherto been regarded as a body, to be anatomized or explored in its internal parts.  Some years ago, it had occurred to a French mathematician that the cube was divisible into six pyramidical forms; and it therefore had struck him, the inventor, that the natural formation of that figure was by a combination of those forms.  Having detailed to his audience a number of experiments, and shown how the results thereby obtained accorded with mathematical principles, he proceeded to explain the various purposes to which diagonal portions of the cube might be applied.  By cutting the body in half, and then dividing the half in a diagonal direction, he obtained a figure—­namely, a quarter of the cube—­in which, he observed, the whole strength or power of resistance of the entire body resided; and he showed the application of these sections of the cube to the purposes of paving by wood.”  Such is the first meagre report of the broaching of a scientific system of paving; and, with the patronage of such men of rank and eminence as took an interest in the subject, the progress was sure and rapid.

In December 1839, about 1100 square yards were laid down in Whitehall, and a triumph was never more complete; for since that period it has continued as smooth and level as when first it displaced the Macadam; it has never required repair, and has been a small basis of peace and quietness, amidst a desert of confusion and turmoil.  Since that time, about sixty thousand yards in various parts of London, being about three-fourths of all the pavement hitherto introduced, attest the public appreciation of the Metropolitan Company’s system.  It may be interesting to those who watch the progress of great changes, to particularize the operations (amounting in the aggregate to forty thousand yards) that were carried out upon this system in 1842:—­

    St Giles’s, Holborn
    Foundling Estate
    Hammersmith Bridge
    St Andrew’s, Holborn
    Jermyn Street
    Old Bailey
    Piccadilly
    Newgate Street, eastern end
    Southampton Street
    Lombard Street
    Oxford Street
    Regent Street;

besides several noblemen’s court-yards, such as the Dukes of Somerset and Sutherland’s, and a great number of stables, for which it is found peculiarly adapted.