CLAY WORKING INDUSTRIES. 205 



direct line of the draft and, five per cent, is likely to be hard bricks, 

 twisted or cracked in burning. If the bottom of the kiln had been set 

 with five or six courses of plain side cut or end cut brick, and on top of 

 these nineteen or twenty courses of paving material of special design 

 the loss of the material in the kiln would have been confined to the five 

 per cent, of damaged ware. 



This simultaneous production of two grades of ware has been tried 

 in many places; it is a much more sensible plan than by trying by the 

 expenditure of large amounts of coal and extra pains in the construction of 

 the kilns, and setting, to force the heat to every part of the kiln. Especially 

 desirable is this plan in the beginning of the business; in this case fifty 

 per cent of common material is better than twenty per cent, and more 

 profitable. There is no trouble in reducing the courses of common brick 

 at any time that the success in burning paving brick seems to justify it. 



The cost of production of paving material is various; the location of the 

 factory ; its natural advantages as to crude supplies and the equipment of 

 machinery have everything to do with it. In many old factories, which 

 have taken up the manufacture of paving material as a new lease of life, 

 the cost is much too high and they will find themselves overtaken again 

 in the race of competition. 



In a modern, new factory, provided with the best appliances in every 

 department, and situated where coal, clay and shale and water supply can 

 all be obtained at the first cost of production, the actual cost of manu- 

 facture and burning and putting the ware in cars, wagons or yards, can 

 be reduced to about $4.00 per thousand; $5.00 per thousand is still a 

 low price; $6.00 is too much for the manufacturing cost. To these prices 

 must be added the losses by inferior grades of goods produced ; cost of 

 extra handling of product in the times of dull trade; interest on the in- 

 vestment; insurance; taxes; cost of maintaining the office and salesman; 

 and all other items of general expense which are common- to all business 

 interests. 



Where blocks are produced, the increased amount of coal and clay 

 used, with a slight increase on the labor, will cause an additional cost of 

 fifty cents or seventy cents per thousand. The total expense per thous- 

 and, then, on a modern plant, located and equipped as described, ought 

 not to exceed $7.00 per thousand at the factory. 



The price which material has been bringing has been much higher 

 than this. It began, for all points in central Ohio where the freight 

 would not exceed $2.00 or $3.00 per thousand; at about $20.00. The 

 price has dropped every year as the confidence of the manufacturers to • 

 produce the required article grew stronger. The sales of 1892 were 

 largely on a scale of $14.00 per thousand; and $10.00 per thousand for 

 repressed common brick sizes. Every indication points to a still large 

 cut in prices this year. A number of new factories are now ready to 

 market their output, which have in the past season merely been getting 

 ready for operation and "learning the trade". 



