cheaper and firmer Buildings, ^c. \ 5 



They will be fmmd useful in cities or large towns by be- 

 ipg placed in partition walls instead of lath and plaster, and 

 be a check to the ravages of fire. 



7 hey will be useful in preventing the passase of rats and 

 mice, and the disagreeable smell occasioned wb.en thev die 

 betwixt lath and plaster or wainscot. 



They will also answer for draining land, and will form 

 cheaper small drains from houses than any other method. 



They may be cut in other forms or directions for narti- 

 cular purposes according to the uses for which they are in- 

 tended. 



The additional expfnse of dividing them by the wire is 

 about two shillings per thousand ; it is generally done after 

 they have been moulded one or two days, according to the 

 dryness of the season. 



I flatter myself that, if this communication meets with 

 the a])probHtion of the Society, it will render a benefit to 

 the public. 



I am, sir, with much esteem, 



Your most obedient servant, 



Reading, October 31, I8I0. JOHN ST£PHENS. 



To C. Taylor, M.D. Sec. 



Dear Sir, — On inquiry from builders, I am informed, 

 that the saving by the use of the bricks I have invented, wili 

 be from two-and-half to nearly live per cent, in a five- 

 window house in brick work and labour, in a front of forty 

 feet with or without piers. 



In ornamental brick piers for gateways, I think the sav- 

 ing of bricks by means of cutting mavbe very cor-siderable, 

 and in the labour still more, besides the work being done 

 more sound and substantial. 



I am usnig a few of them in an eleven-inch brick-wall, 

 (a system hiiherto entirely new,) in a westernly aspect, as 

 a preventative or eunrd against the efftcls of weather, and 

 it will, in point ot dryness, be equal to a fourteen-inch wall. 

 I have inclosed a letter from Benjamin Garroway, a brick- 

 layer, who has requested me to let hioi have all the bricks 

 I have of this kind, and to bespeak more for him. 1 have 

 also sent a certificate from Mr. Robert VV^right, who is ex- 

 tensively engaged in buildings. 



'j'he drains Tor agricultural purposes might be done by 

 women or children, except the digging of the drains, espe- 

 cially two-inch drains. With respect to longer drains, if 

 they are required of four inches, and to be covered with 



brick, 



