Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-05-18
SIXTY BRICKS A MINUTE.
GIGANTIC MANDATORY In THE
SUBURBS OF SACRAMENTO.
Sixty Million Bricks Turned Out
Misunderstanding Up of the
New Process Yesterday.

Five miles south of this city, short dis
lance beyond the end of the Riverside
road and along the east bank of the Sacra-
mento river, is located one of the most i'm
portant manufacturing enterprises on the
Pacific coast. 1t has grown I'D silently
! from a small beginning and very few of
our people have any knowledge of its ex-
istence. Fewer still have any conception
of the Importance of the work going on at
! this comparatively secluded spot. People
driving along the road, which runs some
distance from the works, have noticed an
immense brick chimney rising one hun
bred and thirty feet into the air. without
knowing that it was connected with the most
perfect and complete brick mandatory
west of Omaha. The works belong to the
Sacramento Transportation Company, of
which Captain Thomas Dwyer is the Presi-
| dent and Captain ]. H. Roberts is the Sec
rotary. James O'Neal is the Manager, re-
| sides at the works and superintends the
whole business. The plant in its present
state has capacity for making 10000
| brick per day, or 3,380,000 per month of
twenty-siX working days. This amounts
to an annual output of 40,560, 900 brick per
| annum from two machines, to say nothing
of about 10000 per day or q 900, 900 per an
mum, made by hand. Employment is given
to about 80 men, for whom neat white'cot-
| tages have been built on the grounds, Civ
ing the works the appearance OF thriving
little manufacturing town.
The site occupied contains $50 acres of
land lOpafpd dirppflu ha aac ho,l- of
the Sacramento river at point where the
channel runs on that side, giving deep
water and splendid shipping facilities
Barges lay along the leyee and gangs of
men are at work unloading wood and coal
or loading them with brick for shipment to
market. Just back of the leyee stand i'm
mense piles of cord-wood to be used in
burning the handmade brick in the num-
erous kilns that line the river bank. Next
comes broad level space some two thou
! sand feet in length and three or four hun
bred feet in width, upon which the hand
made bricks are laid out to dry before
being placed in the kilns. Beyond this
level space is long row of cottages, while
some distance eastward lie the clay grounds
All these were part of the brick-making
business which has been conducted at this
point for the past five years, but yesterday
saw the commencement of new era in the
business. Some time since the company
purchased of Colonel McNasser large
piece of land just north of the old works,
and upon this ground have been erected
the necessary buildings to make brick by
patent process not used before on this
coast. There is q San Francisco company
making patent brick with the Hoffman
kiln, but the one started up yesterday by
Mr.. o Meal is said to be an improvement
on the Hoffman.
These buildings consist, first, of two
brick making machines, each of which
will turn out sixty bricks per minute, or
an average of $4,000 per day. The clay is
brought in on cars which run upon iron
tracks leading from the clay fields to the
works. As the car approaches the build
| ing in which is located the first machine, it
runs up an inclined plane to plat
form directly over the machine. Un-
der the old process the clay would
have 10 be soaked over night, but
this is not necessary under the method now
| in operation. The clay is simply dumped
into the pug mill, which is run by sixty
horse power engine in an adjoining build
| ing Here one man can handle the clay
for from 60, 600 to $4,000 brick per day
| On the ground floor men are at work
operating the brick-makiDg machine,
which is fed from the pug mill above. The
process is most interesting one and the
bricks are turned out with astonishing IA
| pidity. One man operates All ingeniously
constructed sand box, which sands the
molds that he places in the machine
to receive the ground clay. An
other man receives the molds as
they come from the machine,
smoothing off the upper surface an d passing
the mold, containing six bricks, to a third
man at the dump table, who turns them
out upon pallet. The pallets are packed
up ten high, placed upon spring truck
and run out upon the level space beyond,
where they are stacked in rows until the
brick are dry, when they are removed to
the kiln upon large trucks carrying 400
| each. A preeocious four-year-old, after
watching the process with open eyes and
mouth for about five minutes, exclaimed !:
Well, amt that funny way TO make
mud pies "
The second machine is situated some two
hundred feet north of the first and the clay
is carried TO it over an elevated railroad
running from the first machine. The
machinery in these mills is said
to be the latest improvement in
patent brick making, and unquestion-
ably turns out very fine bricks. Each
one comes out perfect, and retains its form
much better by being dried upon the pallet,
| lDSleSu VI iIl6 SIOuHu, DIS INC Vi the
latter is always more or less uneven. 1t is
not the purpose of this article to attempt
any detailed description either of the ma
chinery or the new process of brick-making,
but to give the reader general idea of the
work that is going on at the place.
| The most important feature of the works
is new kiln which will burn bricks con-
tinuously, the fires never going out 1t is
located on the level ground, between the
brick machines and the river. The build
ing is Of brick, elliptical in form, 154 feet
long by 40 feet in width. The walls are
90 feet high and o feet thick at the base
There are openings through this wall, II
feet apart, all the way round the building,
through which the brick are to be taken to
be piled in the chamber where they will be
burned. Each compartment will hold 25,-
600 brick. When a section is full the fires
can be started up, being fed with small
quantity of coal, through small pipes,
from the trop of the building. The
compartments can be worked separately
without loss of heat so that the work OF
putting bricks into one part of the chamber
and taking them out of another can be kept
up continuously. In the center of the
building is q smoke chamber, through
which run numerous fues connecting the
drying chamber with an immense chin
ney, 100 feet in hight, which stands few
feet south of the kiln. The draft is regu-
lated by levers on the top of the building
One of the most important features of this
process, it is claimed, is the very small
quantity of fuel consumed.
In addition to the buildings already
erected two sheds are to be constructed along.
side the kiln for the purpose of storing
enough pressed bricks to burn through the
winter months when the work of making
the brick cannot be carried on. These
shed. will be 154 feet long by sixty feet
wide and covered with iron roofs. The
top of the kiln will be bricked over and
then covered with iron the same as the
sheds. A tramwsy will be constructed
upon which to run the bricks from the
kiln TO the barges for shipment.
Throughout the grounds thousands o.
feet of water pipes have been laid and
water is pumped into every building The
whole place shows enterprise and energy
and is a credit to Sacramento county.
Police Court Notes.
In the Police Court Yesterday mornipl