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When it comes to residential roofing material, the most popular by far is the asphalt shingle. They are cost-effective to make, quite easy to install, and Atlanta asphalt shingles—as in most of the country—are broadly available throughout the area. Yet, one of the best reasons for its popularity is not just because they are economical to produce compared to other materials but also because asphalt roofs can last as long as 30 years! Couple that fact with the century-old history of shingle roofs and asphalt's evolution over the years toward a more durable, weather-resistant product and it's easy to see why asphalt shingle roofs are found on more residential roofs than any other material. Before the dawn of the 20th century, however, many other materials were utilized before asphalt shingles were developed. A Modest Beginning The American housing market saw a real boom in the mid-nineteenth century as the Midwest and then the West opened to new settlements and a growing population. With that growth developed a burgeoning market for new materials to cover the roofs of all of these new homes. At the time, the most promising innovation was corrugated iron, though some were experimenting with another technique that involved saturating rolled sheets of felt with a coating of fish oil or pine tar, and then covering all of this with sand or ground up shells. In 1847, two brothers, Samuel and Cyrus Warren of Cincinnati, revolutionized this process. What they discovered was that coal tar, which was then a waste product of the gas lighting business, made a perfect glue for what we refer to today as the tar and gravel or built-up roof system. In addition, gas companies paid to have someone take away the coal tar since they had no use for it. Working in the nearby growing cities of Chicago and St. Louis, as well as in Philadelphia, the brothers would cultivate a thriving business manufacturing and installing their patented roofing. A Natural Alternative Throughout the rest of the 19th century, coal tar continued to be a windfall for the roofing industry until gas companies figured out that it could be used for other purposes in a newly emergent chemical industry and they began to charge for it. Since those in the roofing business would now have to pay for coal tar instead of being compensated to remove it, the whole economics of using it completely changed. Therefore, a material that had begun to be used to waterproof roofs earlier in the 19th century—asphalt—was found to be a good and adequate alternative to coal tar. However, it would take another development to make asphalt widely available. In 1859, George Bissell and Edwin Drake drilled the first commercial oil well near Titusville, Pennsylvania and the subsequent growth of the petroleum industry made asphalt plentiful enough to support the growing roofing industry. Roll roofing, popularized by the Warren brothers, was eventually replaced by asphalt shingles. The technique of shaping rolled asphalt roofing into individual shingles is attributed to a roofing contractor and manufacturer, Henry Reynolds, from Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 1903 he experimented with cutting the rolled roofing into single shingles by hand, thus making the installation process easier and subsequently enhanced the visual appeal of the product. Many improvements in the process and the materials used in asphalt shingles have occurred over the past century, but no doubt Atlanta asphalt shingles, as well as shingles used throughout the country, are as popular as ever.
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