Hi Cliff
What you have is a P.B.S. Laying machine.
P.B.S. stands for Prefabricated Bituminous Surfacing and is a material very near to Roofing-felt/Rubberoid.
" As made in the U.K., it consist of Jute Hessian cloth 40 inch wide weighting approximately 9 ounces per square yard, impregnated with arelatively soft bitumen and and subsequently coated equally on each side with a mixture of oxidized bitumen of a harder grade and a fine mineral filler.
After being lightly dusted with a mineral flour, the material is cut into 80-yard lengths and rolled up on stout timber or steel formers "
(Book = Civil engineer in war)
I have for you some more pictures and some drawings how it was used.
It is not an underlayment for runways etc. but used as surfacing material for runways,roads, (94 miles of the Tamu-Kelawa Road), "Irish Bridges"(as a mudseal in a stream crossing over the river bed), as flooring in workshops, large capacity water storage tanks, even all weather volley-ball fields and tennis courts were made, and also used to the re-soling of boots.
It could take trafic of 7.00 to 8.000 vehicles per day and could land over 250 planes per day, including Super Fortresses
If you send me your E mail, I will mail te pictures to you.
Regards
Ron Perry
ron@perry.nl
www.wheelsofvictory.com