Los Angeles herald., 1891-01-27
A BIG UNDERTAKING.
Mr.. John Whyte's Chino Brickyard
in Active Operation.


Chino brickyard Thursday morning, in
company with Mr.. John Whyte, the
contractor for the two and a half million
brick for the sugar factory. Mr.. Whyte
received the contract from Mr.. Oxnard
on Christmas eve, and in less than
twenty-four hours afterward had force
of men at work leveling the yard and
preparing for the work. Mr.. Whyte's
contract calls for the delivering of the
two and half million brick by April
9Th. 1t is now four weeks since the con-
tract was signed, and he has the work
well under way, and will be ready to
FIRE the first kiln of 200, 900 in about q
week.
To get anything like an intelligent
idea Of the contract MI. Whyte has un-
dertaken, one must needs visit the yard
and see the work Of preparation which
has engaged his attention and his large
force Of employees since Christmas. In
the first place the yard had to be made
and leveled, brick machines manufac-
tured, and the buildings, which were
unsuited for his purposes, rebuilt and
refitted. To obtain water, Mr.. Whyte
had damned one OF the ravines back OF
the yard IA stupendous undertaking.
and now has supply OF hundreds OF
thousands of gallons. The water is four
teen feet deep at the dam. and the back
water reaches fully quarter OF mile
and forms quite lake. To provide
against any accident by the dam break
ing and losing the water, thereby delay
ing the work of brick making, Mr..
Whyte has constructed two smaller res
ervoirs on the line of the ditch running
from the big reservoir to the yard, and
which, in case Of accident, will sup
ply the brick yard a week or ten
days. All these precautions he
considers necessary because he has
not day to spare, and to fulfill
his contract must keep constantly at
work. He now has eight brick ma
chimes in operation, with four gangs OF
Cinnamon to operate them. Each gang
turns out about 5000 brick per day. This
forcefs soon to be increased to ten gangs,
and the combined force will then be able
to mold $4,000 per day. Mr.. Whyte has
contracted for 1000 cords Of wood, which
in order to reach the yard in time, must
be delivered at the rate of IL cords per
day, Sunday included. The first two
kilns burned will contain about 200, 900
brick apiece, but after the firsttwo burn
ings 4O0, 900 will constitute kiln. The
force of men employed now is
"a, but this number is to be increased to
about 100. Mr.. Whyte contracts to fur
nish 80 per cent. of hard brick, but he
has subjet the contract of burning to a
San Bernardino contractor, who guaran-
tees 9S per cent. of hard brick. He now
has on the ground and in Pomona 2500
feet of corrugated iron, to be used to
protect the unDurnt kilns from rain, and
5000 feet of lumber to be used also for
like purpose. Some little idea of the
magnitude of the business may be gained
| by the statement that Mr.. Whyte has in
in use 5000 lineal feet Of 2x8 timbers
used for no other purpose than to run
the wheel-barrows on from the yard to
the kilns. His expenditure in fixing up
the yard before a solitary brick was
made, was about $500.
One of the most unique engineering
schemes connected with the business, is
Mr.. Whyte's telephone running from
the yard to Pomona, distance CT six
miles. This line, which promised
at one time to cost him over $500,
has been built, including the
rent of the instruments for six
months, for less than SIS, and the way
it was accomplished is this: A line Of
posts, with wire attached, is run from
the yard at Chino to the wire fence along
the Chino road; connection is then
made with one of the barbed wires, and
an insulator consisting of piece of rub
ber hose acts as perfect non-conductor
at every post. The line runs along the
Chino fence to the western line of the
Chino ranch, then connects with an
other wire on Louis Phillips's fence and
runs down to point opposite Mr..
Whythe's dwelling in Pomona, where
another short line of posts and wires
conveys the electric current into the
kitchen of his house on Ninth street. 1t
makes perfect telephone.-Pomona
Times.