Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1889-05-15
THE MANNER OF MAKING 1T.

Brick. Pavement and Its Varied and
Successful Use-.-HOw the Work 10
Done and the Cost of the same.
A recent number of New York scien>
tific paper contains an interesting article
on the subject of brick pavement, that so
fully covers the matter of material and
construction that it is worth condensing,
as being of general interest to our city at
the present time. The writer says:
There are perhaps fifty cities in the
United States using brick pavement.
Some have had them over fifteen years.
In Decatur, H.. they have been in use
for six years. All brick psvements have
not given satisfaction. especially when
common building brick have been used.
They show wear in very short time. but
good, hard brick give satisfaction. There
is no pavement equal to hard brick ex-
cepting granite blocks, and it is doubtful
If they would last as long as small bricks.
Suitable clay for paving brick does not
exist everywhere, but twenty samples
from different parts of Illinois have been
successfully tried at Decatur. though
some are better than others. Over five
miles of brick pavement have been laid
down in Decatur The clay used by the
tile company is called the yellow joint
clay. having a large percentage of silicate
of iron. 1t is tempered or soaked for
twenty>four hours before using, then car
ried to a stone separator and crushed. 1t
Is dropped from the cIusher to an eleva>
tor and fed to the brick machine. From
this machine il is forced in three streams
and is cut by wire forming bricks of or
binary size. That is to say. of the ordinary
size before burning, 81 inches in length by
in with and Ok in thickness. They
are then carried to the drying room,
heated by steam, or set up over the burn
ing kilns. When they are dry they are
set "skintling," or at angles across one
another to allow the heat to pass be-
tween. them in the down-draught kilns.
Experience has proved that good paving
bricks cannot be burned in open draught
kilns. While some clay will stand fire
long enough to burn as hard as rock in
open kilns, vet even then the bricks
would be much better in shape and
quality If burned in close kilns. "The
bricks are burned from six To seven days,
the first three or four days very slowly,
then heated so as to partially melt, or
vitrify them, which must be very care.
fully DONE
MANY clays are worthless or only
worked with much trouble on account OF
the gravel they contain" With proper
ly prepared clay of suitable quality, ma
chine bricks are much better than hand
made. The stiff-clay machine-msde
bribks are used for paving, bridges. tun-
nels, and docks, where great strength il
required.
The pavement should be constructed
in the following manner: "The foun-
dation being brought to the proper grade
there is spread over il six inches of gravel
or sand, which is struck of with broad
gauge fitted to the grade of the street. A
course of brick is laid on the fiat surface
running lengtnwise of the street. Over
this there is spread an inch OF
erly smoothed off. The top course
is laid with bricks on their edge length
wise across the street, care being taken to
break joints in both courses. The whole
is covered with an inch of screened sand
which is swept into the crevices. After
this roller. weighing five or six tons, is
passed over the pavement several times
II the street is properly rolled it will be
as smooth as a wooden pavement and al
most as neiseless.
The street should be thoroughly
drained, as the lasting qualities of the
pavement depends much on the drainage
Water weakens brick very much. Drain
tile and open cutters along the side are
recommended. THE upper course of
brick should be very hard and vitrified. "
In Decatur whole blocks are paved with
brick as smooth as glass and hard as flint,
and no brick of that description show
any sign of wear. The bricks are harder
than steel, for a file will not scratch them.
Horses do not slip or fall on these brick
pavements owing to the small surface
between the seams.
Another advantage is that they do not
soak water. If water keeps out they are
not injured by frost and are almost indie
structible. The Decatur Tile company
laid a block of brick four years ago
agreeing to make all repairs for five years
free of charge. So far the street has
needed no repairs whatever, and prom
ises to remain so for the next twenty
years. The first cost of such pavement
in Decatur is from $1.25 to $3.50 per
square yard" The article applies prin-
cipally to the brick made by the Decatur
Tile company, but the same machinery
and the same methods are used in various
other places, Bloomington among them.