The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1885-06-12
A IIonfsstnMn industry.

to his integrity That he has brick i'll his
hat indicates that he has tarricd long at
the wine or cheap Woodstown whskey,
and to come down on man like a thous-
and Of brick indicates disaster complete
and overwhelming. SO that the hOmely
brick, with its large family Of bats, oc-
cupies prominent position among the
conversational bric-a-brac of this genera
ton, all of which is Introductory to the
question did you ever see a brick made 80
We never did till the other day when We
visited the brick yard of Isaac Conover, at
Fenwick, and followed a Specimen brick
through all the stages of manufacture as
presented to the mind by the lucid descrip-
ton of friend Conover who has been in
the brick business all his life and his
father and grandfather before him.
The appliances of a brick yard are few
and simple. The first thing is to locate
the yard at or near a deposit Of clay of
suitable quality. That at Fenwiek is close
to the surface and is of light loamy tex
ture, making good quality of brick. The
clay is dug out and carted to the mill,
about II cart loads, which will make
about 1000 bricks, being dumped into
shallow pit beside the mill and allowed to
become thoroughly saturated with water
with which the pit is flooded. The mill it.
self is an upright box about 2. feet square
and 3 feet high through which runs
vertical shaft armed with knives and con-
nected with sweep or lever to which a
horse is attached walking around the mill
and giving a circular motion to the knives.
The mill is filled with the clay, which is
thoroughly mixed by the action of the
knives, and is forced out of an aperture in
the bottom into trough, whence is is con-
veyed, i'll barrow, to the yard which is
Hat surface OF smooth hard clay kept dry
by bitches being dug all round it. There
are two of these yards, each about 80 by
100 feet III size, one on each side of the long
drying shed in which the unbumed bricks
are stored. Here the clay is piled in conven-
lent quantity upon the moulder's table,
which is about three or four feet square
and little higher than an ordinary table.
On it is a trough of water. The meulder
has an iron frame or mould on the table in
front OF him which resembles a long mar
row box, without top or bottom, and is
little larger in length breadth and depth
than finished brick. Soaking this in water
he coats the inside of it with finely sifted
yellow sand and taking good-sized lump
of clay from the mass on the table before
him gives it a roll or two on the table as
housewife kneads a mass of dough and
dashes it with deXterous throw into the
mould, which it fills completely. Selling
the ''strike. which is an instrument like a
mason's smoothing trowel and which
is kept constantly wet in the trough
of water, by a rapid motion he
removes the surplus clay. ing the mold
evenly and smoothly filled. The mould with
the newly formed brick, is seized by boy
and its contents neatly turned out on the
hard clay surface of the yard to dry in
long rows of its fellows. while the moulder
seiZes an empty mould and repeats the
process keeping three boys busy clearing
off as it is termed. When the surface OF
the yard is covered the tables are removed
to the other yard. while the first-made
bricks are removed to the drying shed,
which is after they have laid out about a
day and half in fair weather They are
first turned on edge and allowed to remain
in that position three or four hours and are
carried into the shed where they are piled
up. Should a shower of rain set in while
they are on the yard and nearly dry, they
will be spoiled and have to be broken up
and ground over again, but the freshly
moulded brick are not injured. About
$500 brick is considered a days work of the
two moulders at this yard. They begin at
o'clock a. IN. and have the requisite
number made by ten o'clock or there
abouts, the rest of the day being devoted
to carrying i'll the dried brick preparing
clay and other duties.
When a sufficient number of bricks are
moulded and dried to build kiln (about
100000 the burning commences. The
kiln is formed by an outer wall of brick
about two feet thick at the bottom and mar
rowing toward the top. forming a hol-
low square about % feet ON side and open
bo ic oa1 IaH fho n,,
two opposite sides, at the bottom this wall
is pierced with seven holes or arches about
two feet high, each one being directly oppo-
site a similar one in the other side. The
green bricks are wheeled in barrows to the
case and the kiln is commenced by piing
the bricks on edge and closely together in
regular layers to form what is called the
benches" formed of six layers of brick
with passages between them, corresponding
with the holes in the case. Then j layers
of brick, 50 placed at to roof over these pas
sages in arch shape, and called ''over-hang-
ers,' are laid, and above these about -
courses are piled by threes until the kiln is
completed. The work of building, or set
ting" as it is called, is commenced at the
back of the kiln and finished as it proceeds
toward the front. The process requires
about three days and eight men are needed
for the work. ) 'setters, who place the
brick in position, 4 ''throwers. who wheel
them from the drying shed to the case and
hand or throw them to the settlers, and
'loaders, who place them on the barrows
i'm the shed. The finished kiln presents
the appearance of solid mass of unbuined
bricks with seven passages or arches run
ming through it at the bottom from one side
to the other The kiln is now closed and
fires started at each end of each arch and
as the wood is consumed the Goals are
pushed in toward the centre of the kiln
from each side until the whole arch is full
of the burning material and the heat evenly
distributed through the entire kiln. 1t re-
quires or ) days and nights to burn one
kiln, during which time the fires must be
constantly watched and attended to. The
process of burning at first renders the bricks
softer than when they are placed in the kiln.
after which they commence to harden and
as the process approaches completion the
whole kiln settles down at the top into
dish shape to the depth of about inches i'll
the centre, and the bricks parting with the
water in the clay, shrink evenly i'll each di-
mension, so that finished brick, placed in
the mould in which it was made, will not
fill it by about an inch in length, half an
inch in breadth and a quarter inch in thick
ness If the clay is of the right quality and
uniform. the bricks will be of uniform size
when burned their shrinkage depending
largely on the kind of clay used and its
proper preparation. When the burning is
I