Now it will be obvious, what with the difference in the shape and the various modes of experimenting, that the results are by no means comparative unless the precise facts are given; and when they are, it is but rarely that you can find more than half-a-dozen or so kinds of bricks of each category that offer all the elements necessary for comparison. So that, with all the wealth of information, we are by no means laden with much that is of actual comparative value, and if the experiments and their results are not comparative, of what use are they? So long as experimenters are each allowed a different method of research, and so long as makers will have partial or whole “frogs,” will stamp their names or initials, or will produce plain bricks only, so long will it be impossible to arrive at the best results that are really attainable. What we want is a government testing station as they have in Germany; or, at least, the mode of experimenting should be under some central control. The experimenter, further, should select the samples to be crushed, and should be at liberty to publish all results obtained. At present, if the brickmaker does not like the results arrived at, he, of course, does not publish them. And, if he has had a number of experiments carried out from time to time, he will, usually, quote only the highest results on his bricks. That is perfectly natural, and would be understood as “business.” All brickmakers may not do that, and a few may publish every or average results (we do not mean of one set of experiments, on say six bricks) of different experiments, but we fancy they are very rare. Therefore, in a matter so important to the architect and the engineer, and indeed to the general public, from the point of view of safety, we maintain that the whole thing should be carried out under some central control, as on the continent. And now to proceed with the description of results on a few typical bricks. Glancing at table I, we may say that the strength of bricks as a whole is often quoted as here given, and has done duty for many years as the average strength of bricks. These bricks were crushed in a Clayton machine, and all were bedded upon a thickness of felt and laid upon an iron faced plate, and the experiments were conducted by the Metropolitan Board of Works. STRENGTH OF BRICKS.--I. ------------------------------------------------- Description. | Pressure in tons to +----------+--------- | Crack. | Crush. ----------------------------+----------+--------- Four white bricks, each | 16.25 | 41.00 Three „ „ „ | 17.05 | 41.05 Red bricks, ordinary | 13.00 | 26.25 Red bricks, not well burned | 13.75 | 25.05 Best Paviours | 14.00 | 23.00 Grey Stocks, London | 12.00 | 14.00 ----------------------------+----------+---------