BRI. HIND., of Kulu. Desmodiurn, sp. BRIALL HIND. Colebrookia oppositifolia. BRICK. • ' Karrrad, . . . . AR. Bata, ..... MALAY.
Brique, Fa Ladrillo, . . . . SP. Ziegelstein, . . . GER. Shengal, Shengkallu, TAM. Int, . . . GUT., HIND. Itika-rai, . . TEL.
Mattone, . . . Pr.
A building material formed of clay, hardened either by the sun's rays or the heat of a furnace, the former being called sun-dried bricks, and the latter burnt bricks. The various argillaceous earths are for the most part unfit to be used alone for brickmaking. Some are almost pure clay or alumina, and are strong and exceedingly plastic, but cannot be dried without splitting ; light and sandy clays or learns are too loose to be made into bricks without the admixture of lime as a flux to bind the materials ; others, again, natural compounds of alumina and silica, if free from lime, magnesia, or metallic oxides, are exceedingly valuable clays, being, from their infusible nature, well adapted for making fireclays for lining furnaces, for making crucibles, glasshouse pots, etc. Fireclay is found in many places in India. Bricks, .burnt almost to vitrifaction, are much employed as a road material on all alluvial lands of India. Sun-dried unburnt bricks of a very large size were formerly employed in building, and they may still be seen in the basements of some of the old ruined Jain temples at Hira Tumbal in the Ceded Districts, Anagherry in the Southern Mahratta country, and in the walls of the mud forts at Gudduk, Dummul, and other localities. The bricks appear to have been usually 2- feet in length by 15 inches in breadth, and 7 or 8 inches in thickness. The seams are apparent from the effect of the weather, but the bricks cannot be separated without breaking. The basement and a good deal of the interior of the solid muntapums or pyramidal towers of these Jain temples were built with unburnt bricks ; and the masonry and carved slabs, ornaments, and pillars were erected over this foundation of earth work. This accounts for the dilapidated condition
of parts of these temples. In some of the old forts in Southern India the lower part of the walls is made of unburnt bricks and the upper part of hewn stones. The more modern forts are chiefly constructed of mud embankments, cased in large blocks of stone, very accurately fitted, but not cemented with lime or mortar. In the ancient buildings of India, brickwork does not appear to have been extensively employed, although in some of the temples we find the upper storeys made of brick, while the lower ones are of stone. The earth-walls of the Bellary district are formed of sun-dried bricks of great size.
The material used in Babylon was unburnt brick. Many of the ancient ruined cities of Persia are built of unburnt bricks, beaten up with straw or rush to make the ingredient adhere, and then baked in the sun. In the days of the Egyptian bondage, Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick as here tofore ; let them go and gather straw for them selves' (Exodus v. 7). And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar' (Genesis xi. 3). Assyria abounds with asphalt, or bitu men. Herodottts and many ancient authors affirm that the walls of Babylon were cemented with it ; and Arrian says, ' The temple of Belus, in the midst of the city of Babylon, was made of brick, cemented with asphaltus.'—.1fignan's Travels, p. 16G; Dr. Hunter in M. E. J. R.