The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1866-10-19


Brick Company, whose extensive steam
works for the manufacture Of pressed brick
have been in successful operation below
Rockets for some months past, have just
secured from Baltimore parties contract
for making ave million bricks, the Bsltt-
more contractors to take the bricks from
the kilns here. The Virginia Brick Com
pany turn out bricks at the rate Of thirty
thousand per day, and expect to fll this
contract In six months. They have now
six hundred thousand bricks ready for
delivery.
Lest some may suppose that the compa-
ny, In consequence Of this large contract,
are unable to flll further orders, we men.
tion that the capital and enterprise Of the
gentlemen composing 1t are adequate to
supply many such demands as this from
Baltimore. New machines will be added
from time to time as the business requires
il. Fh
The works Of the company are well
worth visit. The grounds cover nearly
or quite ten acres. Upon one side an ex-
tensive clay bank presents itself, and
ranged along the other arc the fine large
drying sheds, one hundred feet by twenty
six. These are provided upon either side
with movable Stats, so that the rain may be
excluded at moments notice, while in
another the air may have, almost uninter-
ruptedly, action over the whole space.
But the most novel and Interesting fea-
ture is the operation Of the Gregg patent
brick machine in the almost miraculous
labor of making thirty three thousand six
hundred beautiful stock bricks, equal in all
respects to the handmade bricks Of Balti.
more, in the space Of ten hours.
The clay used is tempered by On almost
instantaneous action, whereby the compo-
nent particles of the mass are so tho
roughly. amalgamated that the atoms are
allied with all the natural tenacity Of the
clay in its original state. II is not passed
through the enervating process Of super
fluous and frequent manipulations, but it
is tempered thoroughly, being passed
through two revolving discs or rollers, the
one running at the rate Of four hundred
and the other two hundred revolutions per
minute. Passing through these rollers, it is
carried by series Of bands to the reser-
voir, some twenty feet above the distrihu-
ting chamber, on its way to the moulds.
Here it is again subjected to further
tempering process, and falls into the cham
ber over the moulds, and thence into the
moulds themselves. BY its weight 1t de-
scends, and in the hopper receives two
separate pressures; and passing beneath a
repressure plate, the nearly formed bricks,
seven in number, are raised to receive the
third and finishing pressure, securing in
the consecutive operations no less than
three hundred tons pressure upon each
brick-an enormous power-which, how
ever, no single operation could readily
impart.
1t becomes in all such machines ne
cessity to apply oil to the moulds, and in
this machine the oiling, cleansing, and de-
livering processes are well performed and
efficiently effected. A dry brush revolves
in advance of the oiling brush, which oils
the top of the ejecting followers, and thus
ut the same moment two distinct opera
tions are performed, while for the delivery
Of brick, after completion, nice adjust
ment is made by crank with q movable
centre; and at either side Of the hopper,
alternately, seven bricks are delivered,
perfectly finished, and so.compressed that
they weigh nearly eight pounds as they are
borne to be " stacked"
In the anticipation of various tempera-
lures and qualities Of clay, a steam-box is
placed just above the hopper over the
moulds, SO that when clay is too dry or too
sticky, or perhaps we might say muddy,
jet may. be forced through it, and thus the
whole body permeated, as required, with
either heat or moisture.
Taken all in all, the premises of the
Virginia Brick Company are truly in ad-
vance of any in the country in conve-
niences, and we hope they may soon be-
come as extensive in area and production
as the celebrated yards Of Messrs. Hub
bell s Abbotts, the largest in the world.