BRICK. (Dutch, bricke.) In archi tecture, a mass of clay earth, sometimes mixed with coal ashes, chalk, and other substances, formed in a mould, and burned in a kiln or clamp. The earth used for this purpose is of two sorts.
The one a stiff clay, with little or no ex traneous mixture, which produces a hard red brick ; the other a yellowish-colored fat earth, called loam, which produces a gray-colored brick. 'Elie clay is usually tempered in a clay mill. For the sea coal ashes that are mixed with it in cities, they substitute in the country a light sandy earth. In making the paste as lit tle water should be introduced as possi ble. - In moulding them, which is done in a wooden moMd, a clever workman will mould about five thousand in fifteen hours. The kiln in which they are burnt is a large building, about 18 feet long, 10 feet 6 inches wide, and 12 feet high, fur nished with a proper furnace. Whdli otherwise burnt, the clamp, as it is called, is formed of the bricks themselves, gene rally oblong on the plan, and the founda tions made with place bricks. Each course of bricks is laid on a layer of breeze or cinders • and flues are formed, filled with coals, breeze, and wood. The burning continues from twenty to thirty days. The size of bricks, when burnt, is required in England to be 81 incheS long, 21 inches thick, and 4 inches wide. The different varieties of bricks 'are, maims, which are of a yellowish uniform color and texture ; seconds, not quite so uniform in color and texture as maims ; red stocks, the former being burnt in kilns, both of a quality rather inferior to seconds bricks or peck ings, sometimes called sandel or samel bricks, which are those furthest from the fire, and rarely well burnt,—these should never be used in a building where dura bility is required ; burrs or clinkers, which are masses of several bricks run together in the elamp or kiln from the violent action of the fire ; fire bricks of a red color, about 9 inches long, 41 inches broad, and an inch and a half thick,— they are made for use in furnaces to re sist the action of the fire, and from having' been formerly manufactured in the neigh borhood of Windsor, they are sometimes called Windsor bricks; paving •bricks, made for the purpose their name ; compass bricks, are 'circular on the plan, chiefly used in Walling wells and the like ; Dutch clinkers or Flemish bricks, chiefly used in stables ; the Dutch clinkers inches long, o inches broad, and 1 inch thick.
The moulding of bricks in this country is altogether perfbrmed by machinery ; one of the latest improvements in which is the invention of J. Z. A. Wagner, of Philadelphia, of which the annexed is an illustration.
This machine consists of a large re volving metal wheel, which has a num ber of boxes in its periphery, of the form of the brick to be moulded, and which constitute the moulds. In the inside of these moulds are which recede to allow the clay to come in for mould-, ing, but when they come to an endless apron below, a cam acts upon the said plungers, and they push out the bricks, delivering them on the endless apron to be carried away. This is an outline of
its main working features. A is the me tal base of the machine ; B is the frame C is a pullv on the shaft of the mould wheel, E. rims of the mould wheel are made of toothed gearing, and gear into wheels, F (one on each side), of a pressure metal roller, which works close up against the face of the mould wheel, excepting that part opposite the moulds, which is a little recessed all around, leav ing a space between the two ; D is a pul ley to drive the drum 0 (fig. 2), of the endless apron, J. G is the hopper to re ceive theprepared clay. This hopper is supported by screw rods or posts, M (one on each side). The hopper has a rim which fits snugly into recesses in the mould wheel, and the pressure roller, F, to keep the clay from getting between the teeth of the wheels. In ease, how ever, that the moulded brick might stick to the end of the plunger, Mr. Wagner has attached a lever on each side, secured to the inside of the frame, B, under the mould wheel and above the apron, and the end of these lovers are touched by cams on each side of the mould wheel (one cam for each mould) when the lever immediately pushes the moulded brick from contact with the mould wheel, and it drops on the carrying apron. The first roller, F, acts like a feed roller to pack the moulds with the clay, but leaving a little clay projecting out, and then the second pressure roller, by being placed closer to the face of the moulds, presses the clay solidly into the moulds, and smooths the face of the brick. This is a rotary brick moulding machine.
Mr. II. Roberts, of Hyde Park, London, has lately taken out a patent for a new kind of bricks, which are so made that there will be no vertical joints in the wall which may be built of them, as are now made by the headers, where the English and Flemish bonds are used. The bricks are made hollow to be lighter. They are made so that one side of the brick is inclined to the top or the bottom, or the one part projecting beyond the other, so that one brick being laid the other is to be reversed, so that the pro jecting sides of the bricks will fit into one another, to bond the work, using only stretchers to avoid vertical joints.
Mr. Legros has taken out a patent in London for machines to mould bricks, tiles, and other articles, by which supe rior produce is obtained at less cost. In one of his inventions Mr. L. has adapted the principle of motion on a small rail way to the performance of the several steps of the manufacture. For this pur pose rails arc laid down so as to traverse on the same level all the buildings in which the various parts of the machin ery arc erected. One machine will turn out 66 bricks in a minute, or 40,000 in a day, at an economy of one dollar per thousand.