BRICK. 



frpanitcd. At Utica, therefore, the laws allow no bricks to 

 be ufcJ before they have lain to dry five years. 



Vitruvius proceeds to dcfcribc tlie dilfcrcnt kinds ot 

 b-icks, which were of tlirce li/es ; tlic fnft, ciWed diilonn, 

 were in general life amonj; the Romans ; tliey were a foot 

 loiiR, and liatf a foot broad. 'I'lie otlicr two forts were iifed 

 bv'the Gvtcks; one called telr.iJoroii, whicli were on every 

 lide four palms, or one foot ; the other />fii!.uloron, five palms, 

 or fifteen inches evei-y way : the fnil were ufed iii private, 

 and the latter in public edifices. They had aUo hall bricks 

 of each fort ; and in bnildin;;, the whole bricks were laid in 

 one coiirfe, and the half in the next. 



At Pitane in Alia, at Calentiini in Spain, and at Mar- 

 fcillcs, they had bricks fo lijclit as to fwim on water, the 

 earth of which they were made being of the nature of pumice 



Wore. 



\Vhen Vitruvius mentions bricks, it appears that he means 

 fun-dried bricks; for he obfcives, that bric-ks could not be 

 ufed by the "RoT-ans within the city ; as to fave room in fo 

 crowded a town, the laws did not permit any walls in public 

 places to be made thicker than one foot and a half, v.hile 

 brick walls of that thicknefs would not fiippi)it more than 

 one (lory. Accordingly, the walls were built with hewn 

 Uone, lijlnciout fuljlanccs (ftniauris te(laceis), or rubble. 

 That ihefe tellaceous fubftances were tiles, is evident, for he 

 obferves, that it could not be known at fuft whether they 

 were of good loam and well burnt, 1nit that they fhouldte 

 laid in a roof during a winter and fummer before they were 

 ufed in a wall. 



Auguftus boafted that he had found Rome of brick, and 

 left it of marble. It could be only fun-dried bricks that he 

 referred to, for baked bricks were ufed in the mod fumptuous 

 edifices : the temple of Teace, the Pantheon, and all the 

 Thcrmx were of this m,-itenal. 



Whatever may be the precife time of the introduction of 

 baked bricks in the edifices of Rome, they appear to have 

 been always fquare. M. C^uatremere de Q^uincy, in the En- 

 cyclopcdie Methodique, obferves, that in his refearchcs 

 among the antique buildings of Rome, he has found bricks of 

 three fizes. The lead were 7^ inches fquare, and li thick ; 

 the medium ones 16^ inches fquare, and from 18 to 20 lines 

 in thicknefs ; and the larger ones 22 inches fquare, by 21 or 

 or 22 lines thick. The fmaller bricks were employed to 

 face walls of rubble work ; and to make a better bond with 

 the wall, they were cut diagonally into two triangles, the 

 longer fide was placed on the outfide, and the point towards 

 the interior of the work. To tie moreeffeftualiy the facing 

 with the rubble, they placed at every four feet in height one 

 or two courffs of the large fqnare bricks. The large bricks 

 were alfo ufed in the arches of openings or difcharge, which 

 were necefTaiy in the building. 



No long bricks, fnch as arc ufed at prefent, are found in 

 antique conftrui!\ions. 



In modern times, bricks have been ufed in all countries. 

 Chardin thu? defcribcs the mnnufafture of bricks in Perfia. 

 The material of Perfian buildings is brick, either dried in the 

 foil cr binnt in the fire. The tiles or bricks of earth are 

 made in thin wooden moulds, of S inches long, 6 v^-ide, and 

 2! inches thick. Tlie labourers temper with their feet the 

 earth, which is generally mixed with llraw cut very fmall, to 

 give it more confillence, and that the bricks may lad longer 

 and not break. They pafs the hands over the bricks to 

 fnioolh them, after having dipped them in a vcfiel of water 

 mixed with draw, Hill finer than was at firll ufed. Then 

 taking off the mould they leave the bricks to dry fur two or 

 three hours, after which they are ranged over one another, 

 where they remain till the drying is completed. 



The baked bricks are made of two parts of earth and one 

 of cinders, well tempered together, in moulds larger than for 

 the others. They leave them to dry in the fun for feveral 

 days, then place them in a large furnace, ranged one over the 

 other, at fome diftancc, -winch they fill ^vith plader. They 

 clofe the furnace and light the fire, which is kept up for 

 tiiree days and nights. 



Bricks have feveral advantages over done as building ma- 

 tci ials. From their porous drufturc they unite better with 

 the cement ufed : they are lighter than done, and not fub- 

 je^it to attra6t damps and inoilUire. 



The earth proper for the u-.anufafture of bricks is a clayey 

 loam, neicher abonnding too much in faiid, which renders 

 the wave heavy and '.-rittle, nor yet with too large a propor- 

 tion of argillaceous nutter, which caufes it to fhrink and 

 crack in drying. 



The general procefs of the manufacture is as follows : 

 The earth ftiould be dug in the autumn ; it diould lie during 

 the whok of the winter expofed to the frod, as the adtion 

 ofthe air, in penetrating and dividing theparticles of theearth, 

 facilitates the fubfequent operations of mixing and temper- 

 ing. During this time the earth (hould be repeatedly turned 

 and worked with the fpade. In the fpring the clay is broken 

 in pieces, and thrown into diallow pits, where it is watered 

 and fudercd to remain foaking for feveral days. The next 

 dep is that of tempering the clay, which is generally per- 

 formed by the treading of men or oxen. In the neighbour- 

 hood of London, however, this operation is performed by 

 means of a horfe-mill. The tempering of the clay is the 

 mod laborious part of the procefs, and that on which the per- 

 fection ofthe manufacture effentially depends. It is to negledt 

 in this part, that we are chiefly to attribute the bad quality of 

 modern bricks, in compariton with the ancient. All the 

 dones diould be removed, and the clay brought to a per- 

 feftly homogeneous pade, ufing the lead pofliblc quantity 

 of water. 



The following experiment, made by M. Gallon, merits 

 attention. He took a certain quantity of the earth, pre- 

 pared for the making of bricks ; he let it remain for feven 

 hours, then caufcd it to be moidened and beate.i during the 

 fpace of thirty minutes : the next morning the fame opera- 

 tion was repeated, and the earth was beaten for thirty mi- 

 nutes : in tlie afternoon it was again beaten for fifteen mi- 

 nutes. Thus this earth had only been worked for an hour 

 and a quarter longer than ufnal, but at three different times. 

 The material had acquired a greater denfity by this prepara- 

 tion ; for a brick made with this earth weighed five pounds 

 eleven ounces, while another brick, made in the fame mould, 

 of the earth that had not received this preparation, weighed 

 only five pounds feven ounces. Then having dried thefe 

 bricks in the air, during the fpace of thirteen days, and hav- 

 ing burnt them along with others, without any particular pre- 

 cautions, they were examined when taken from the kiln, and 

 it was found that the bricks made of the earth which had 

 been the mod worked dill weighed four ounces more than 

 the others, each having lod ^\sc ounces by the evaporation 

 of the moidure. But their ilrength was very difterent ; for 

 OB placing them with the centre on a fliarp edge, and load- 

 ing the two ends, the bricks formed with the well-tempered 

 earth, were broken with n weight at each end of 6- pounds 

 or J 50 pounds in all, while the others were broken with Jj 

 pounds at each end, or 70 pounds in the whole. 



The earth, being fufliciently prepared in the pits, is 

 brought to the bench of the moulder, who works the cl?y 

 into the brick-moulds, and drikes off the fupcrlluous earth. 

 The bricks are delivered from the mould and ranged on the 

 ground ; and \vhcn they have acquired a fufficieul hardncfs 



to 



