FICTILE MANUFACTURES. 



WE employ the term fictile (fingo, to make, 

 or fashion) to designate the art of forming 

 objects of use or ornament from plastic earthy 

 materials. It applies to bricks and earthenware, 

 whether sun-dried or burned by fire, to glass of 

 all kinds, and. in a limited sense, to cement-work ; 

 for the beautiful imitations of ivory carvings pro- 

 duced by plaster of Paris and wax are known as 

 Fictile Ivory. 



EARTHENWARE. 



In all probability, the first step taken by man 

 in adapting the plastic character of clay to his 

 wants was that of coating his rude hut of wattled 

 branches with it, to exclude the wind and rain. 

 The hardness such a covering would acquire by 

 the drying effect of the sun, and still more, when 

 it was, either by accident or design, brought into 

 contact with fire, would soon teach him to extend 

 its application, and employ it in the form of bricks 

 and tiles, which we may therefore place first in 

 our description of earthenware manufactures. 



Bricks Tiles Drain-tubes. 



Bricks formed of tempered clay, and artificially 

 hardened by heat, have been used for building 

 purposes from a very early period in the world's 

 history. Anciently, bricks were of two kinds 

 sun-dried and fire-burned. The former were much 

 used in the buildings of Egypt and Babylon 

 they are still used in the East. The humid climate 

 of other countries, however, requires a more care- 

 ful and certain hardening than that which the sun 

 gives ; hence the use of fire for this purpose. 

 Bricks and other forms of moulded clay fire- 

 burned are the terra-cotta of the Italians, and 

 this name is rapidly becoming common in this 

 country. Thus, a terra-cotta building is under- 

 stood to be a brick structure with mouldings and 

 other ornaments of burned clay. It was not till 

 after the Norman Conquest that bricks were much 

 used in this country. It was, however, in the 

 reign of Henry VIII. that brick as a building 

 material attained a high repute. Its use was 

 mostly confined to the erection of large buildings, 

 and in these a great amount of decorative effect 

 was often produced. Mr Dobson, in his excellent 

 treatise on Bricks and Tiles (London : Wcale), 

 refers particularly to the decorative details of 

 the manor-house at East Barsham, and of the 

 parsonage-house at Great Snoring as worthy of 

 notice. He also gives an illustration of ornamental 

 brick-work as exemplified in a house, No. 43 St 

 Martin's Lane, London. Up to the period of the 

 Great Fire in London, the dwelling-houses were 

 chiefly composed of wood ; after that event, the 

 danger arising from this cause was obviated in 

 some measure by the compulsory use of bricks, 

 not only for the walls, but for the ornamental 

 parts of the house. From this cause may be 

 traced the erection of many fine specimens of 

 brick -work throughout the metropolis. The 

 23 



minute tracery-work which abounds in many 

 specimens, appears to have been executed by 

 tools after the erection of the walls. 



Up to the close of the last century, bricks were 

 untrammelled by the Excise ; by the 24 Geo. III. 

 c. 24, a duty of 2s. 6d. per thousand was imposed 

 on bricks of all kinds. This and other acts of 

 parliament, which greatly restricted the manufac- 

 ture of bricks in England and Scotland, and from 

 which Ireland alone was exempt, were repealed in 

 May 1850; since which time brick-making has 

 progressed enormously, and they have been made 

 of all sizes and shapes convenient for the builder. 



The common superficial clay, which is so liber- 

 ally spread over our island, must be familiar to 

 every one. It is of various colours yellow, red, 

 or bluish, according to the amount of iron oxide 

 which it contains is more or less mixed up with 

 sand and fragments of rock, and when softened, 

 becomes plastic and tenacious. What is chiefly 

 necessary is a due admixture of alumina and silica 

 that is, clay and sand ; for though pure clay 

 may be made into extremely hard bricks, they 

 are apt to shrink and crack in the burning ; while 

 too much sand renders them brittle and friable. 

 As to the presence of a little lime, magnesia, or 

 oxide of iron, it is rather liked than otherwise, 

 these materials giving agreeable colours to the 

 finished article. For bricks, slabs, crucibles, &c. 

 which have to resist the action of fire, some of the 

 coal-measure or stratified clays are generally had 

 recourse to ; these, from their greater purity, and 

 a certain percentage of silica, being susceptible 

 of a more thorough baking. In England, the 

 Windsor, Stourbridge, and Welsh fire-clays are 

 esteemed the best yielding those bricks of vari- 

 ous shapes and sizes employed in the construction 

 of drying-kilns, smelting furnaces, and other struc- 

 tures intended to resist intense heat. 



From the process of brick-making varying in 

 different localities, our space compels us to give 

 merely a general notion of the manufacture. Bricks 

 are of different qualities. Thus, the marls or 

 malms of the London bricklayer are of a yellowish 

 uniform colour and texture, prepared by an ad- 

 mixture of ground chalk ; seconds are those less 

 uniform in colour and texture ; cutters are those 

 made so soft as to be cut into form for arches of 

 windows ; yfr<?-bricks are prepared to withstand 

 the heat of fires and furnaces, and of such there 

 are varieties known as Stourbridge clinkers, 

 Welsh lumps, Windsors, &c. ; Raving-bricks, 

 made for the purpose their name implies ; com- 

 fiass-bricks, of a circular shape, for lining walls 

 and chimneys ; Dutch clinkers, at one time im- 

 ported from Holland, but now made in England, 

 a compact variety often used in stables, about six 

 inches long, three broad, and only one in thick- 

 ness. 



After having decided on the locality of the 

 brick-field, the first process is the removal of the 

 earth-covering. The clay or brick-earth is then 

 dug up, and placed in heaps, and turned over, to 



