Modern Brick Making
It is a long cry from the primitive method of mixing and molding brick by hand and drying them in the sun, to the modern technical methods and power machinery used by the American manufacturer. Determined by the kind of material, whether surface clay, fire clay or shale, and the kind of brick wanted, there are three chief methods of manufacture, slop-mold, wire-cut, and dry-press.
By the first method, the clay, in a soft condition, is pressed by the machine into molds which have been flushed with water—hence the term slop-mold—or sprinkled with sand, in which case the brick are called sand-mold. By the second method, the clay or shale is ground and tempered into the consistency of a stiff mud which is forced by an auger machine through a die, in the form of a stiff mud ribbon, having the cross section of a brick. This stiff mud ribbon is carried by a belt to a steel table under a series of piano wires strung on a frame which is revolved by the machine at proper intervals, cutting the clay ribbon into the desired sizes. These stiff mud machines will turn out as many as 100,000 face brick a day, and in some common brick plants they are built for a 250,000 to 300,000 daily output. The dry-press method reduces the clay to a fine granular form which is then, in nearly a dry condition, forced under immense pressure into the proper sized molds.
The brick as they come from the machines are known as “green” and require, except in the case of the best dry-press brick, a certain period of drying before being set in the kilns where, for from five to ten days, depending on the quality of the ware and the general conditions, they are subjected to a process of burning before they are ready to be built into the wall.
Burning the Brick
This process of burning passes through three main stages which require very skillful attention on the part of the burner. First, the water chemically combined with the material must be driven off; then the various impurities of the clay must be burnt out or oxidized; and finally, the ware, except in case of fire clays, must be brought to the point of incipient vitrification. Throughout the whole process there is danger of distortion or discoloration in the ware unless the fires are skilfully handled. Properly done, the brick come out of the kiln in their beautiful, natural colors, due to the constitution of the clay or the various metallic oxides contained in it. To enhance these effects, different clays are sometimes mixed in going through the machines, certain ores may be added to modify the color, the brick surfaces may be scored in various ways, or the ware may be set in the kiln so as to avoid or get the flash of the fire. So that when you specify a fine face brick, you are getting a product which Nature has taken long to create and to which man has devoted his best scientific knowledge and inventive art.
The American manufacturer of face brick has far outstripped the rest of the world in the wide range of color tones and textures he offers. So that the prospective builder has before him the possibility of giving to the exterior wall surface an enduring color scheme of monochrome uniformity or polychrome blending, as his taste may dictate. The whole sweep of color, in smooth or rough textures, is at his command from the pure, severe tones of pearl grays or creams, through buff, golden, and bronze tints to a descending scale of reds, down to purples, maroons, and even gun metal blacks. Thus, instead of building for your client a house of a dull, insubstantial, unattractive appearance, you can, by the use of face brick, build a substantial, enduring house that presents to the eye a veritable symphony in color, at once a satisfaction to yourself as well as to him, and a cause of appreciative remark by his neighbors or the casual passersby. It will always stand to the credit of your art as a builder.
Growing Demand for Brick Houses
You represent the best work that can be done in your community. People come to you when they want to build because they know you as an able designer and one capable not only of giving them sound advice but of carrying the work through to a successful termination. Why then confine yourself to one type of building such as frame or stucco?
More and more people are going to ask you about a brick house, and for very good reasons which we intend shortly to give you. Why not tell them you can build a brick house as easily as you can one of frame or stucco; and what is more, why not tell them the fact, viz., that it is a better house in every way, safer, more enduring, more comfortable, more attractive, and in the end more economical!
You will thus greatly enlarge your field of action, increase your profits, and gain a much higher standing in the community as an all-around builder. If you hesitate about taking up building in brick, it is doubtless because you share the common erroneous belief that it costs your client too much, or because you think it outside of your building practice, presenting difficulties you do not care to face. But we are very sure that a careful reading of this Manual will convince you of the pre-eminent value of the face brick house for your client, and of your complete competence to build it for him.
Then we want you to read this Manual because, as a citizen, you owe something to the community in which you live. And as a builder you can discharge that obligation in no better way than in building more enduring and more beautiful houses, as you can by building in brick. By doing so, your dividends will be not only in material rewards but in a higher standing among your fellow citizens. You owe it to yourself to make the most of your noble craft and thus take the place in the community to which it entitles you.