No. 11. 



Brick Making. — How to make Ho7nmony. 



349 



have grown three inches, and not a single 

 failure, except when a blossom bud, instead 

 of a leaf bud, was used. Those who possess 

 the luxury of an ice-house, could preserve 

 scions in it. This I conceive a great im- 

 provement on the usual method of burying 

 in the earth. 



I have now fulfilled my engagement, and 

 it will always afford me pleasure to contri- 

 bute my mite to a department to which the 

 Cabinet is willing to allot so large a space 

 as the last number indicates. J. K. E. 



May 24th, 1847. 



Brick 3IakiDg. 



Of all the arts and handicrafts of man, 

 none has manifested less improvement than 

 the art of making bricks. To convert clay 

 into mud, form it into shape, expose it in the 

 sun, and then bake the bricks in the kiln, 

 seems to have been the mode all the world 

 over, since the days of the patriarchs. True, 

 we have seen several labour saving brick 

 machines, but they operate upon the clay in 

 its wet state, either tempering it to proper 

 consistency, or moulding it into bricks. Not 

 much, however, is gained by this, as all the 

 more laborious parts of the process remain 

 the same. Still the manipulations to and 

 from the drying yard ; packing under sheds 

 and thence to the kiln ; still the same expo- 

 sure and risk of the weather and dependance 

 upon the same. 



It is to Mr. Nathan Sawyer, of this city, 

 that we are indebted, as the originator of the 

 plan of making bricks by pressure from dry 

 clay, to the perfecting of which he has de- 

 voted many years of his life and a large ex- 

 penditure of money. His first attempt was 

 in 1833, his first patent in 1835, and the first 

 machine was built in Washington, moved by 

 horse-power. Rude and imperfect as it was, 

 it yet demonstrated the principle and estab- 

 lished the fact that bricks might be made 

 from dry clay by pressure. This led to the 

 construction of the present machine in Wash- 

 ington, driven by steam power, which has 

 been in successful operation for eight years, 

 and supplied many millions of bricks to the 

 different public buildings, the navy-yard and 

 elsewhere. 



The Steam Brick Press in this city, be- 

 longing to Mr. F. H. Smith, is the fourth of 

 Mr. Sawyer's invention, each being an im- 

 provement upon its predecessor. Ilis first 

 attempt began with a pressure of four tons — 

 this last gives 120 tons to each brick, turn- 

 ing out about 2000 bricks per hour. 



Mr. Sawyer's fertile genius has been again 

 at work, and the result has far eclipsed all 



former efforts. For simplicity, cheapness, 

 and efficiency, it is all that can be desired. 

 The pressure is given upon an entire new 

 principle, dispensing with cams, levers, tog- 

 gle, joints, and the ordinary appliances for 

 such purposes. It employs only the upper 

 piston, and yet presents a brick perfect in 

 shape and pressed infinitely harder than by 

 any former machine. The motion is rotary; 

 occupies a space of only six feet in diame- 

 ter; is comprised of but few pieces, not the 

 tenth in number of those contained in Mr. 

 Smith's, has no complicated small contriv- 

 ances liable to disorder, and when worked 

 at the slowest motion, makes 3000 bricks in 

 an hour! To crown all, the cost of the ma- 

 chine is about one-fourth of that just men- 

 tioned and requires but half the power! 



The prejudice that has existed here against 

 the steam pressed bricks, is now nearly if 

 not quite removed. The late report of 

 Messrs. Long and Latrobe; the recent expe- 

 riments by the Government oflScers in Wash- 

 ington, and subsequently also at the navy 

 yard, Norfolk, establish the fact that they 

 are strong and durable. All new inventions 

 and innovations upon old habits and long es- 

 tablished principles encounter strong oppo- 

 sition, and have a host of prejudices to over- 

 come — witness cut nails, chain cables, dressed 

 flooring, and hundreds of others that may be 

 mentioned. But steam power will ever tri- 

 umph, and the day is not far distant when in 

 all our large cities, bricks will be made only 

 by machinery. — Baltimore Patriot. 



How TO MAKE HoMMONY. — Wash a pint 

 of grits — particles of flint-corn ground to 

 one-fourth the size of a grain of mustard, 

 with the finer parts of the flour separated 

 by a sieve — in two or three waters, taking 

 care each time to let them settle. When 

 you pour off the water, the grits must be 

 well rubbed with the hands in order to sepa- 

 rate them from the finer particles of flour. 

 Then put them into a saucepan with a pint 

 of water slightly salted, and let them boil 

 slowly for nearly half an hour, occasionally 

 stirring the mixture as soon as it begins to 

 boil. 



Hommony may be boiled to any consist- 

 ency that may be preferred, from that of 

 mush to the dryness of rice. 



Excellent Hommony Bread. — Break two 

 eggs into a bowl and beat them from five to 

 ten minutes. Add, by continually stirring, 

 a salt-spoon of table salt, four or five table- 

 spoonfuls of hot hommony reduced nearly to 

 the consistency of thick gruel with hot milk, 

 one large spoonful of butter, and a pint of 

 scalded Indian meal squeezed dry. Make 



