BRICK AS A BUILDING MATERIAL Historical Sketch Of all building materials, brick is the one that in all ages, so far as we can search historical records, has been given greatest honor for utility and durability. Indeed, the records of the very earliest times among which We search have been preserved to us on bricks of burned clay. In recent years bricks have been unearthed which are older than the oldest pyramids. In the earliest Biblical days— as far back as 2500 B. C.—the brickmakers and bricklayers had no fear of their product not standing a compression test, for they said: "Go to, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly," and "Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven." They had great faith in the strength of the brick in the bottom courses.
Seventeen hundred years before Christ, the Israelites commenced a year manual training course in the art of making brick and mortar in Pharaoh's School of Pyramidal Construction. They learned as a nation the sin of making poor brick, for they quit Egypt in a hurry when told to make brick without straw. In the tombs of Thebes may still be seen pictures of laborers tempering the clay, laying the brick to dry on the ground, and gathering them together for the burning.
The art of brickmaking varied but little in its mode of operation, until the introduction of machinery. Could we resurrect some of Pharaoh's unwilling scholars, they would not feel strange if set to work making brick in the small American band-brickyard of to-day.
According to Herodotus, the walls of Babylon were built of made from material excavated from the trenches surrounding the place. The American expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, excavating in the ruins of ancient Nippur, discovered midway in the mound of the Temple of Bel a platform of huge bricks stamped with the names of Sargon of Akkad and his son Naram-Sin, who lived in 3800 B. C.
The palaces of Nebuchadnezzar have for many years provided brick for all new buildings in their neighborhood.
The city of Hillar, with about 10,000 inhabitants, built close to the ruins of Babylon, is practically constructed in its entirety from the brick taken from them. Layard, the great French explorer, says: "To this day, there are men who have no other trade than that of gathering brick from this vast heap, and taking them for sale to neighboring towns and villages, and even to Bagdad." Many of the brick are coated with a thick enamel or glaze, whose colors have resisted the ravages of time and still retain their original brightness. An average-sized brick used in the construction of the pyramids, was 16 by 3 by inches.
The unburned brick were called "teba," which is also the word for a chest or box, and which was given to them by association with the shallow wooden boxes wherein they were made and from which they were turned out.
The (treat Wall of China, the most remarkable structural fortification ever raised by man, was built of burned and unburned brick. For ten years, millions of men were employed in its construction. It was 1,250 miles in length, and its walls averaged 22 feet in height and were wide enough for six horsemen to ride abreast. It is without doubt the biggest brick contract on record.
Burned clay bricks were not common in Greece, owing to the abundance of stone. Here, however, brick were used in many minor public edifices.
Prior to Nero's time, Rome and other Latin cities used wood as a building material in large measure. This is inferred from the quick and disastrous spread of fires. After the destruction of Rome in A. D. 64, brick were employed extensively in its rebuilding. To the Romans is credited the construction of the first brick kilns. The Roman construction was mostly concrete with a kick veneer.
After the Roman empire had passed, the art of briekmaking was almost lost to Europe, people being content to use over again the old material from monasteries and other buildings which, under the changes of stirring times, had been sacked or abandoned.