Omaha daily bee., 1896-08-02
TESTS THE PAVING BRICK
Samples Tumbled with Rough Castings in a
Foundry Rattle Box"
HOME MADE ARTICLE SHOWS UP BETTEF
severe shaking Up Demoiishes Some
Foreign Specimens, but the Coun-
ell Bluns Bricks Come out
All Right.

Council Bluffs paving brick have been
entered in several trying contests with for
eign-made brick, and in each instance the
properly made and we'll burned home brick
have proven their superiority. They were
equally successful in the latest and most
trying ordeals that any have so far been
subjected to. A batch of about twenty paw
ing bricks, the majority of them selected
from the samples sent to the city engineers
office, were placed inside the tumbling box
used to clean castings at the Sprague iron
foundry. Among the samples were some
of the best that were sent here from Des
Moines, st. Joseph, Galesburg and other
places. All of the samples of Council Bluffs
brick were selected at random from those
TO be used by Contractor Wickham as the
foundation of the Pearl street paving. The
bricks were placed in the tumbling box with
200 pounds Of new wrought castings and
turned without stopping for one and a hair
hours. Before going in each brick was
weighed accurately and marked with cold
chisel. Some of them went to pieces and
disappeared un Ter the severe test, and others
were pounded out of all sembiancc of origi-
nal form. There were four Council Bluffs
bricks. One of them was fractured when
1t was put in and broke in two pieces. They
all came out in better shape than any
of the others. Only the corners and edges
were rounded off and their surface polished
a little. They had lost only the smallest
trifle of their weight and bulk. The Des
Moines brick that Wickham is using for the
top course on Pearl street stood next best,
an. the Galesburg was third. Some Of the
other bricks were worn down to almost half
of their original size and were clipped and
cracked badly.
The test is not yet completed. 1t is the
intention of the city engineer to weigh each
brick and compare 1t with the original
weight to ascertain how much was lost by
the grinding and pounding. After this has
been done all of the samples will be soaked
in water for twenty-four hours and again
carefully weighed to ascertain the amount
of water that each will absorb. City En-
gineer Tostevin estimates that the severe
test given the bricks is equal to ten years
wear on the streets.
The test is of a good deal of Importance
to the people of Council Bluffs, for it DEM
onstrates the fact that the very best paving
material in the brick line that can be OBJ
tanned is that made from native clay. The
price asked by contractors for covering the
streets with home made brick is a great
deal less than when foreign bricks are used.
When home made material is used every
dollar of the cost of paving is kept at home
and every class of business benefited by the
expenditure of the money. The only part
of the problem to be looked after is the
burning of the brick. Burned until they are
vitritied they make a pavement that APP
proaches granite in density and durability,
and while not as smooth perhaps at the
start costs less and will wear longer than
IL made of any foreign brick yet sent to
the city.