20 NE\¥ YORK STATE MUSEUM 



tempering. Five yards use the open method of drying, three are 

 equipped with pallets and two with covered yards. Circular tem- 

 pering pits are in use on two yards, the others using the rectangular 

 pit exclusively. The total available kiln capacity is approximately 

 2000 arches, or about 70,000,000 brick. Coal is used for fuel in 

 six yards. 



Long Island and Staten Island. The common brick industry in 

 the Long Island and Staten Island section depends upon the use 

 of glacial clays found along the coast. The soft mud process is 

 usually employed. On account of the low elevation most of the 

 clay is mined from pits and the working face is usually not over 

 10 or 12 feet. Gravel and boulders are intermixed with the clay 

 to an extent that sorting and crushing are necessary before the 

 material is put in the soak pits. The sandy Cretaceous clays that 

 occur here are employed to some extent for common brick ; they 

 require very little preparation and in some cases are used without 

 any addition of sand. Four of the operators have pallet yards, 

 one employs a combination pallet and open yard, one has a steam 

 tunnel, and one a direct-heat tunnel. The fuel is chiefly wood. 

 The production in 1913 was 59,004,000 brick valued at $331,071. 

 The total available machine capacity is about 387,000 a day. The 

 product is marketed locally and in the New England States. 



Erie county. The district around Buffalo made an output of 

 56,899,000 common brick in 1913, considerably more than in 1912. 

 The soft mud process was used for more than half of the product. 

 The clays are found in shallow beds and the methods of treatment 

 are similar to those employed in the Hudson valley. The market 

 is entirely local. 



FRONT BRTCK 



Front brick include four grades and are made by two dififerent 

 processes. The ordinary red front brick are simply a graded 

 common brick, made by the stifif mud process under practically the 

 same conditions as those obtaining in the manufacture of the 

 common variety. Greater care, however, is exercised in burning, 

 and the product is carefully sorted as to color. The crude materials 

 should be of uniform composition. Bufif front brick are made in 

 the same way from clays that burn white or bluff. Richmond 

 county affords the only output of such brick. Rough- faced, tapestry 

 or corduroy brick are made by the producers of paving brick and 

 are burned to vitrification along with the latter materials. This 

 grade occupies from two to six courses at the bottom of the kiln 



