The Boy's Book of Industrial InformationNoyce, Elisha
General
The Boy's Book of Industrial Information
Noyce, Elisha
Industrial arts -- Juvenile literature; Technology -- Juvenile literature
Bricks are made of clay mixed with sand or ashes. The brick-field is
first covered with either of these to the depth of an inch or two,
and is well dug in and turned about during several weeks; when the
bricks are to be made, the mixture is put into a “pug mill;” this is
a large tub having an upright iron bar passing up from the bottom,
and having several broad iron blades fixed to its sides at the part
which is in the tub; at the top there is a cross-bar of wood, to
which a horse is harnessed; the horse, when driven round in a circle,
turns the upright iron bar and consequently the iron blades. Into
this tub the clay and ashes are now put, a little at a time, and as
the horse goes round they are thoroughly mixed together; a man takes
pieces of this clay of the proper size, and hands them to another
who stands before a table in the shed, and has a mould before him;
this consists of a piece of wood with sides of the size of the brick,
which is always ten inches long, five broad, and three thick, before
burning. The sides of this mould can be turned up and down; they are
now put up, and the piece of clay forced into the mould and scraped
off even at the top, the sides are put down, and the brick placed
carefully on a barrow, which when filled is wheeled off by another
man, and its contents arranged on the ground in long lines having a
small space between each brick, that they may not stick together and
the air may dry them. Long rows of these bricks are formed one on
the top of the other, for four or five deep, and are changed in their
position from time to time till they are quite dry and hard; they
are now ready to be burnt. This is done made by placing the bricks in
long rows, with narrow spaces between each row which are filled with
straw or twigs of wood and cinders (these cinders are got from the
ashes when they are sifted before mixing with the clay); the spaces
being filled they are covered with other bricks, and then the straw,
&c., is lighted. Layer after layer of bricks are next built up around
the fire, so that the heat shall be well kept in, and in this way the
bricks are gradually baked till they are quite hard and fit for use.
Illustration: BURNING BRICKS.
Tiles are the same as bricks, but of a different form, being flat,
and having two holes in them to receive nails. These are used to form
the roofs of houses, and are nailed on to the rafters, each layer
overlapping the one below it, so that the rain falling on the sloping
roof shall run from the top to the bottom without coming through.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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