THE HISTORY OF BRICK.
THERE is little doubt that clay, in combination with such There is little doubt that clay, in combination with such materials as would bind it together in a compact mass, was employed in the structure of the primitive human dwelling. In course of time this method of construction was superseded by the use of the same plastic substance, moulded either with or without other ingredients into suitable forms, which were afterward dried or burned—the result being the production of the article known as "brick." In the words of Bishop Berkeley : " Westward the course of empire takes its way," and in order to trace the history of Art we must backward follow its course to the far East, to the dreary delta of the Nile, and there, among the mounds of the arid wastes which cover the palaces of kings, the monuments of an extinct faith and the graves of dead nations, trace so far as we can its early history and development.
In Egypt the art of pottery is credited to the inventive genius of the gods. It is to Num, the oldest of created beings, that the earliest practice of the potter's art is attributed, and it is this god who is credited with having moulded the human race on his potter's wheel ; the heavens and the earth, the air, the mountains, hills and streams, had previously been made by Num, who then suspended the sun and moon between the earth and the heavens, and after having made man, whom he formed out of the black Nilotic clay, he then breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. This attribution of the invention of the art of pottery to the gods is unequivocal corroborative proof of the statement that this art was employed prior to the historical period.
Brick have been employed from the earliest times in the execution of many undertakings of grandeur and magnitude. A complete history of brickmaking would be analogous to that of civilization with its advances and declines, for the authentic record of this branch of pottery is older than that of any other ceramic production, extending through forty-one centuries ; the descendants of the sons of Noah, who journeyed from the East and located on the plains of Shinar, being the first potters of whom we have positive attestation.
In our own times structures of great altitude have been pro ected ; but the Washington Monument and similar undertak ings appear insignificant when compared to the stupendous conceptions of those bold men, who, in 2247 B. C., said : " Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly." And they
said : " Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven." * The story of the manner in which this proposed monopoly of that portion of space between earth and heaven defeated by confusion of the tongues of the builders, is too familiar for repetition here. But that something was accomplished will appear from the speech of Moses to the Israelites, delivered seven hundred and ninety-six years later, in which cities in the land of Canaan are referred to as being great and walled up to heaven.t In tracing development in the art of brick-making we find that progress has often been slow and uncertain ; it has flour ished in ages of prosperity with other arts, and like them it has been lost in ages of darkness ; but as with them it awoke with the Renaissance, and is steadily improving with the progress of time and the spread of knowledge.
Machinery is doing much to lighten labor, but in all ages the work required to make brick has been of the hardest kind, and many have been faint with toil in their production, in modern as well as in ancient times.
My observation leads me to say that the old manual method of brick-making has destroyed many a man in the prime of life, and has undermined the constitutions and wrecked the systems of the most robust natures.
The children of Israel, as early as 1706 B. C., were made to serve the Egyptians with rigor, and their lives were made bitter with hard bondage in mortar and in brick ; and Pharaoh, in 1491 B. C., in order to increase the burdens and labor of the Israelites, commanded the task-masters, saying, "Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore ; let them go and gather straw for themselves, and the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them." Pictures illustrating the above passages are still preserved on tombs in Thebes, in which some of the laborers are represented carrying water in large pots to temper the clay ; others carry .on their shoulders large masses of clay to the moulder, while others still are bearing off the brick, and laying them out on the ground to dry, the dried brick being carried in yokes sus pended from the shoulders of bowed and weary laborers. Task-masters, who were personally responsible for the labor of their gangs, are plentifully represented, observing that there was no shirking of the labor or slighting of the work.