154 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Trautwine states that cracking and splitting usually com- 

 mences under about one half the crushing load. 



Front brick 



tip to a few years ago in order to obtain a smooth, sharp-edged 

 brick such as could be used for the outside of walls, the roofing 

 of archways and other conspicuous places, the brick was first 

 molded in an ordinary soft mud machine, or what was considered 

 better, molded by hand. This green brick was then allowed to 

 dry for a few hours and then put in a repressing machine. At 

 the present day a smooth and sharp-edged " front " brick can be 

 molded and made of sufficiently good appearance in one opera- 

 tion. The modern dry clay brick machine will do this. Repress- 

 ing machines, however, are still extensively used. They are 

 operated by hand power and one brick is treated at a time. 

 Repressing machines run by steam power have recently been 

 introduced and will undoubtedly be found to be more economical 

 for those who have much use for this class of machines and work 

 quicker than the hand power ones. As far as the writer is 

 aware only one firm in this state, the Corning Brick Co., is at 

 present using steam power repressing machines. Hand represses 

 are in use at several localities. At the yard of T. B. Campbell 

 at ISTewfield, near Ithaca, the bricks are first made on a wire cut 

 machine and then repressed. W. W. Parry of Rome, I*^. Y., uses 

 a similar method. The Hornellsville Brick Co. repress their pav- 

 ing brick. Some firms make a front brick on a soft mud machine 

 and do not repress them. These latter machines do not, how- 

 ever, always exert sufficient pressure to produce a dense brick 

 such as is required for fronts of buildings. 



As stated above, a repressed brick should have smooth faces, 

 sharp edges and square corners. For this class of product a clay 

 is needed which will burn to a hard brick, having a good color 

 and one which will also retain its shape and size fairly well in 

 burning. The clay should be thoroughly pugged before molding, 

 and very often better results are obtained by mixing two or more 

 clays. Pressed brick usually take a longer time to burn and on 

 account of their greater density have to be dried very slowly and 

 carefully. 



