An attempt is here made to furnish some information of an elementary character on a special branch of technical education which has been seriously neglected in this country. But the reader will understand that it is only an elementary treatise. Its publication in serial form, where each article must, more or less, be complete in itself, has to a large extent determined the method of handling the subject, and I am fully cognisant of the drawbacks of the work in that respect. At the same time, it is hoped that the book will be useful to the more advanced class of brickmakers and clayworkers generally, many of whom have expressed a desire to see the articles in this form. GEO. F. HARRIS. Birkbeck Institution, Bream’s Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C. 1st February, 1897. CONTENTS. CHAPTER. PAGE. I. FLUVIATILE BRICK-EARTHS 1 II. LACUSTRINE AND FLUVIATILE BRICK-EARTHS 17 III. MARINE BRICK-EARTHS 22 IV. THE MINERAL CONSTITUTION OF BRICK-EARTHS 28 V. MINERALS: THEIR BEHAVIOUR IN THE KILN 39 VI. MINERALS: THEIR BEHAVIOUR IN THE KILN (_Contd_) 49 VII. THE CHEMISTRY OF BRICK-EARTHS 58 VIII. THE CHEMISTRY OF BRICK-EARTHS (_Continued_) 75 IX. DRYING AND BURNING 94 X. THE DURABILITY OF BRICKS 103 XI. THE MICRO-STRUCTURE OF BRICKS 118 XII. THE MICRO-STRUCTURE OF BRICKS (_Continued_) 128 XIII. ABSORPTION 132 XIV. STRENGTH OF BRICKS 136 XV. ABRASION, SPECIFIC GRAVITY 146 THE SCIENCE OF BRICKMAKING. CHAPTER I. FLUVIATILE BRICK-EARTHS.