The age-herald., 1899-08-13
QUESTION OF STREET PAVING
Vitrifred Brick Better Than Asphalt,
 Cobble Stone or Macadam

As the Birmingham public and property owners are vitally interested in the paving question, which has been brought into prominence by the proposed paving of Second avenue and South Twentieth street, and the agitation of permanent pavements on various streets of the city, The Age Herald, in order to give correct informa- ton on the matters, decided to send one Of it's reporters to Coaldale and see and write up vitritied brick in all stages of its manufacture
 On his arrival at Coaldale the reporter was cordially greeted by W. l.. Sibley the superintendent in charge of the works and upon making known the object of his visit, was shown over the entire factory.
 Very few people are aware of the ex- istence of such large manufacturing in- dustry of this class of product within the borders of Jefferson county.
 It would, perhaps, be well to state at the outset that the term "vitrifed" is not used here in it's primitive sense-meaning of the nature of glass or glassy which carries with it the idea of brittleness, a characteristic not permissible in a genu- finely vitrified brick. By vitrfication is meant the perfect blending of the con- stituent parts into homogeneous mass, and thoroughly annealed, so as to obtain the maximum degree of hardness and toughness. together with the minimum ten- dency to absorption of water.
 Vitrfied brick have been made from shades, bastard fire clay, and pipe clays Those made at Coaldale are made from shale.
 Shale, it's name implies, is a hard clay, or rock. that shells off into layers or cubes when mined or exposed to the action of the clements. It lies in strata from four to seventy-five feet In thickness and is usually found above the coal measures Its main components are silica. alumina and iron. The alumina fuxes at lower temperature than the others, in burning, and consequently acts as binder to unite those very hard clements in the brick The shale is mined after the usual manner of a rock quarry, blasted with dynamite, load ed into tram-cars and conveyed to the stock or grinding shed. It is there fed into heavy grinders or dry-pans, where it is rapidly reduced to powder of such fineness as the nature of the case demands. The ground clay is then carried to the top story of the factory by means of cup and chain elevator, and passes over a travelling screen where all of the coarser particles are removed and returned to the dry-pan in the form of tailings to be re- ground,
 The fine clay then falls into chute and is delivered to tine pug mill, or temperng box, where the proper amount of water is added. The revolving knives cut the mud up and temper same, passing 1t automati- cally to another chute, where it is conveyed to the mOupD or me DTlch HdCNTHe Oi liie ground floor. Here there are more knives to give additional plugging, and then the clay is taken by an auger and pressed through the die, emerging in a stream or olumn, which is forced out on the cutting table, where wires separated at equal dis tance, cut the column into blocks Cor gluts, as better known to clay workers). trav- cling belt conveys the gluts to the repress, where they are dropped into molds and heavy pressure put upon them. Corners are rounded and lettering stamped upon them. Another traveiing belt takes them from the repress and they are placed upon wooden pallets, loaded upon iron cars and taken to the dry house, where they are cooked or baked by hot air until the mois- ture is removed. Them they are set in spatented down-draft kilns and burned and annealed as desired.
 After having been thoroughly burned they are to be cooled slowly, so as to be tempered to the maximum degree of hard- ness. The entire, process from the shale pit to the railroad car occupies some twenty-one days for kiln of brick.
 For long time granite or belgian blocks were considered the only successful pave- ment, and they had the one characteristic oe durability to recommend them, but they soon become polished and slippery, and after five or six years traffic the corners become rounded off, and the pavement as rough as cobble stones, as Is the case with