Brick Making

Essay by jonnycrackcorn69University, Bachelor'sA-, April 2010

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Brick Making

Aric McCoy

Section 01

Brick Making

Brick is one of the oldest manufactured building materials. Ancient records and excavations show that brick construction dates back more than 5000 years. Brick making was a highly respected skill in early civilizations. Many old masonry walls bore evidence of royal support for the craftsman who made the bricks. Royal seals and the names of kings were stamped in some of the bricks.

One of the earliest types of brick was adobe brick. These brick contained straw for greater strength, just as reinforcing wire is used in concrete to give it strength in modern construction.� After the adobe brick were molded into shape, they were placed in the sun to dry. Adobe brick are still used in a few countries today.

After the sun-dried adobe brick had been in use for some time, it was discovered that a brick subjected to fire in a closed area such as a kiln, or oven, for a definite period of time became very hard and highly fire resistant.

The fired brick resisted weather and the passage of time far better than unfired bricks. Some of the brick were coated with a thick enamel or glaze. The glazes were commonly red, yellow, green or a combination of these colors. When subjected to heat in the kiln, the color hardened and possessed a glass-like finish. Some of these glazed brick, recovered from old buildings, still retain their original color after 2000 years. Glazed brick are made today but have limited use since they are costly to manufacture.

In the past, the mason usually made the brick he was later to lay in the wall. Many of the brick made in ancient times had a recessed panel known as a frog. When mortar was forced into the...