Bricks . 
155 
the heads of each brick. In fine weather a few days are sufficient 
to make them dry enough to be shifted ; which is done by turn* 
ing them, and resetting them more open and in six or eight days 
more they are ready for the fire.. 
Bricks in this country are generally baked either in a clamp or 
in a kiln. The latter is the more preferable method, as less waste 
arises, less fuel is consumed, and the bricks are sooner burnt. 
The kiln is usually 13 feet long, by 10 J feet widfe, and about 12 
feet in height. The walls are one foot two inches thick, carried 
up a little out of the perpendicular, inclining towards each other at 
the top. The bricks are placed on fiat arches, having holes left 
in ti'em resembling lattice-work; the kiln is then covered with 
pieces of tiles and bricks, and some wood put in,, to dry them with 
a gentle fire. This continues two or three days before they are 
ready for burning, which is known by the smoke turning from a 
darkish colour to transparent. The mouth or mouths of the kiln 
are now dammed up with a shining, which is pieces of brick piled 
one upon another, and closed with wet brick earth, leaving above 
it just room sufficient to receive a faggot. The faggots are made 
of furze, heath, brake, fern, &c. and the kiln is supplied with these 
until its arches look white, and the fire appears at the top; upon 
which the fire is slackened for an hour and the kiln allowed gra= 
dually to cool. This heating and cooling is repeated until the 
bricks are thoroughly burnt, which is generally done in 48 hours. 
One of these kilns will hold about 20,000 bricks. 
Clamps are also in common use. They are made of the bricks 
themselves, and generally of an oblong form. The foundation is 
laid with place bricks or the driest of those just made, and then 
the bricks to be burnt are built up, tier upon tier, as high as the 
clamp is meant to be, with two or three inches of breeze or cinders 
strewed between each layer of bricks, and the whole covered with 
a thick strata of breeze. The fire-place is perpendicular about 
three feet high, and generally placed at the west end ; and the 
fiUes are formed by gathering or arching the bricks over, so as to 
leave a space between each of nearly a brick wide. The fines 
run straight through the clamp, and are filled with wood, coals, 
and breeze, pressed closely together. If the bricks are to be burnt 
off quickly, which may be done in 20 or 30 days, according as the 
weather may suit, the flues should be only at about six feet dis- 
tance ; but if there be no immediate hurry, they may be placed 
nine feet asunder, and the clamp left to burn off slowly. Coke has 
been recommended as a more suitable fuel than either coal or wood. 
