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No. LVI. 



Observations on the foregoing communications, by B. Henry La- 

 trobe, Surveyor of the public buildings of the United States, and 

 one of the Committee to whom it was rej erred by the Society. 



Copying the English standard, the bricks of the United 

 States are very generally made 8-i inches long, 4.1. inches 

 broad, and 2i- inches thick; so that in the wall with the joint, 

 they shall take up nine inches in length, and half as much, 

 viz. 41, in breadth; but the various degrees in which different 

 sorts of clay shrink in drying and burning, occasion here, as 

 well as every where else, variety in the size of the bricks ; and 

 I have scarcely ever known bricks, from two different kilns 

 in the same city to work correctly together. The cupidity of 

 the brick-makers contributes also to the diminution of the size 

 of bricks in Philadelphia; a wall two bricks thick seldom mea- 

 sures, with the joint, more than 17 inches; a brick-and-half wall, 

 barely 13 inches, and 5 courses in heighth, with the joints, 

 measure one foot. — This gradual diminution in the size of 

 bricks is rather encouraged, than counteracted, by the interest 

 of the bricklayers : — for, as it is the general practice for indivi- 

 duals, as well as public bodies, to find all their materials, and to 

 pay the mechanic only for the labour, and as it is a very gene- 

 ral practice to pay the bricklayer by the 1000 bricks, accord- 

 ing tot he brick-maker's account ; or to count them on the out- 

 side of the wall, where they all pass for whole bricks and lie 

 closest, it follows that in a given mass of wall, the small bricks, 

 upon the whole, tell better than the large ones ; and in both 

 cases, especially the first, the bricklayer is not interested against 

 admitting small bricks to be made. 



On the other hand, the brick-maker in burning his bricks as 

 well as in selling them by count, is benefitted; for small bricks 

 can be burned at less expense of fuel than large bricks, and are 

 less liable to warp and break. I am of opinion that great 

 advantages would result from making our bricks larger than 



