Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1901-05-07
A GROWING INDUSTRY.

etc. Notwithstanding, an excellent
brick in the sun, using surface clay,
quality has been turned out, to the num-
Der of / 900, 900 yearly, which have gone
into the best buildings of Wausau and
other cities. Last year the members OF
the company made up their minds 10
make the business permanent ana
growing one of our county, being justl-
fled in so doing by the superior clay at
hand They therefore tore down sheds
and erected solid brick buildings, and
in these and machinery, $4,000 was
expended.
They put in boiler and engine with
a capacity of 125 horse power Inc
power house is at present constructed
so as to simply protect the machinery
from the elements, but later on it Will
be built of solid brick.
Close to the power house is build
ing in which there is a Potts soft mud
machine, crusher, pulverizer, and pulp
mill The clay is taken from an eXca-
walton twelve to fifteen feet deep, about
twenty rods from the plant; it is hauled
up an incline, by friction power, into
the upper story of the machine
house, and is run through the crush
er and rollers into the soft mud
machine below, which is now turn
ing out 10000 brick per day
The brick are moulded in brick-dust,
which is made by running burned brick
through pulverizer. The spoiled ana
broken brick are utilized for this pnr-
pose. When the brick come out of the
machine land they come out about as
rapidly as a crew of half dozen expert
men can handle them) they look as
slick and pretty as the very best speci-
men of pressed red brick. They are
carefully but quickly handled,
placed on an iron car and by friction
power hauled up u slight incline to the
dryer.
The dryer is a six-tunnel Standard
dryer, with capacity of 96 cars con-
tanning 432 brick each. The cars are
all iron and are run on iron rails;
when a car is destined for the dry room
it is run up the incline and on the top
of another car, which is even with the
tracks, and is then pushed along to any
of the six or eight tracks which run
fengthwise of the building. The dryer
is large one-story, solid brick build
ing, with up-anddown sliding doors
across each end. 1t is heated in the
day time by exhaust steam, and by
night by steam direct from the boiler.
At the north emo where cars are first
run in, the temperature runs up to 12O
degrees Fahrenheit, and is arranged so
that there is the necessary amount OF
humidity to keep the brick from crack
ing; the temperature inci eases as the
brick are pushed along towards the
south end, at which point the thermom-
eter registers 170 above. 1t takes about
forty-eight hours to dry ont brick, and
therefore, each day, 10000 are run into
the dryer at the north end and 10000
taken out of the south end. The latter
are run INTO the kiln which is about
thirty feet away. 1t is proposed to
crowd the dryer by raising the heat
and attempt to turn out from 10000 to
5000 brick per day instead of 10000.
The company have three kilns of
5000 capacity each. The brick are
run into the kilns from the dryer on
the cars, and unloaded, the same being
quite closely piled to the height of about
twenty feet. When filled the opening
is closed up and fires set in the fur
naces. These three large kilns are con-
structed of solid brick The company
will finish burning their first kiln of
brick 100000 by the lst of June. This
year the company will manufacture
100000 of the very best common brick
that can be found in the world.
1t is now as certain as that the sun
will rise on the morrow, that The Clay
Lumber Co.'S brick manufacturing
plant is to become one of the most per-
manent industries in Marathon county.
The right kind of clay is there, and it is
there in inexhaustible quantities, and
the right kind of men are back of it to
push the enterprise to success.