Brick-work became common in this country in the early part of the eighteenth century, and until the trouble between the colonies and the mother country, brick were imported mostly from England. There was not much inducement to produce home-made brick previous to this time, as vessels sailing with light cargoes for the colonies would finish out with brick, which commanded ready sales at moderate prices, rather than with stone ballast, which would have to be thrown overboard before receiving their heavy return cargoes of tobacco and other ex ports of the colonies.
In this way a number of brick buildings were constructed on the tide waters of the Atlantic coast, in the times which pre ceded the troublesome period of the Revolution. At the time immediately following this war, there was but little done in the line of building ; the generally distressed condition of the in dustries and the finances of the country was a bar to any im provements except such as were in the nature of repairs neces sary to make buildings habitable.
The condition of things after the adoption of the Constitu tion gradually changed ; churches and other buildings of a public character, which had remained in an unfinished state during the entire period of the war, were completed, and a few houses of a substantial character were erected in some portions of the country, home-made brick being generally employed when they could be obtained, and the character of the build ings admitted, which was but seldom, as wood and stone en tered largely into the construction of the great proportion of all buildings.
The inventive genius of the new nation was not much stimu lated to improving on the manner of the mother country in the production of brick. In fact, those which we then made were poorly moulded and burned, and compared unfavorably with the common building brick of English and Dutch manufac ture. But at the present time, both for quantity and quality, we have no equal in any nation of the world, and for this we are largely indebted to the American patent system, which greatly fosters and encourages development in this line, as in other and kindred arts.
Improvements in modes or machines for manufacturing com mon brick received but little attention until about t835; pre viously they were more remarkable for being unique in some special point, of but small importance, than for any generally good achievements ; that is, no attention was paid to the re sulting brick after it came from the kiln ; the whole idea seemed to be to shape or mould it in some manner. For instance, one machine was made like a box now used by plasterers to run off their lime ; it was elevated slightly, and the mud, which was mixed in the box, allowed to pass through a grate into a large framework having sides about three inches high, and di vided by wires stretched lengthwise and across it, which lay upon the bottom, and when the clay in the shallow box was somewhat hardened, the wires were raised and the brick thereby cut and formed into shape. The box, when emptied of the
clay, could be easily moved on wheels running on a plank gangway to the next shallow mould-box, and so on. But the slush stock made in this way was very inferior ; it would dry unequally, be full of cracks, and was subjected to no packing as in the pug-mill, or pressure as by machines of to-day, or a blow as is done by the hand-moulder, who dashes the tempered and packed clay into the mould with great force, and again drives it down and closer together with the hands and plane. When the brick came from the kiln they were light, very open or porous, therefore absorbed water readily, and were entirely unfit for building purposes.
The mode of manufacturing brick has been revolutionized during the past twenty years, and it seems almost like a mira cle when we note the present development of this art and then recall that the first crude brick machine which was made in this country was invented in 1835 by Nathaniel Adams, who died at Cornwall, N. Y. The machine was simply a hand moulder ; but he afterwards, about 1840, invented a power machine. It proved quite successful, and a few of them are still in use. Mr. Adams was also the first to invent and use the iron tempering-wheel. The model of his brick machine may still be seen in the patent office at our National Capital. It is related that in the 40's, Mr. Adams undertook to establish a brickyard at Philadelphia, and built a power (horse-power, we presume) machine, but he was not allowed to start it, as a mob destroyed the machine and drove Mr. Adams and his family from the city. They took refuge in Camden, where they remained two weeks or more, until the workmen had quieted down and it was safe for them to return. In the year 1840, many of the people in Philadelphia could not get work at any price, and they did not like to recognize anything which they thought would take the physical labor out of their own hands. From such beginnings has our business grown, until now (1895) there are annually consumed in the leading cities of this coun try the following mentioned enormous quantities of brick : Brick-making in the South, and especially in the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida, and also in Califor nia, Oregon, and Washington, has within the past ten years not compared favorably with other sections of our country, the reason being mainly owing to the railroads developing immense tracts of the very choicest timber lands, thereby en couraging the establishment of a large number of saw-mills, thus affording not only a lighter and cheaper building material for the great masses, but one also better adapted f6r the climate. But this tendency to frame construction is liable at any time cause enormous loss fromfirsasil§aitzu5corjagratiol_atis e likely to occur at it uz.,,Q1ur Orleans or in which used as a building material.