The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-12-03
HOTEL LOBBY GLEANINGS
JAMES W. swEETsER TALKS OF IN
NOvATIONs IN BRICK MAKING.
An Indiana Plant Which Turns Out
go, Bricks Annually, and
Cannot Fill It's Orders.

James V. sweetser. of Marion, was in
the city yesterday, stopping at the Eng
lish. en- route to Danville. III. Mr.. Sweetser
is a leading banker of Marion, but he is
also largely interested in other business
enterprises. and he was going to Danville
to attend the meeting of the directors of
the Western Brick Company, in which he
is one of the principal stockholders.
The Western Brick Company is an In
diana concern. Marion and Muncie cap
italists owning practically all the stock.
f. b. Butterworth. a former Marion man,
is the manager of the company. The fac
tory is one of the largest in the United
States.
I'VE have doubled the capacity of the
plant within the past year." said Mr..
Sweetser, in speaking of the factory, land
we now have an establishment that can
turn out o 100000 brick annually. That is
a good many, but since the factory has
been In operation we have never been able
to meet the demand. and 1 believe that the
present capacity is none too large"
The company, which manufactures both
building and paving brick, as we'll as fancy
pressed brick. was attracted to Danville
by the superior quality of shale found
there. The shale had never been utilized
for ~brickmaking, but Mr.. Butterworth, who
was at that time interested with the same
ompan in conducting a brick factory at
Montezuma, Ind, believed that it could
be used to an advantage. He went over
to the Illinois town, made a quiet investi-
cation, secured options on several hundred
acres Of land and shipped several carloads
of the shale to MonteZuma to be tested
before the Danville people discovered that
he had been 'in their midst" The test of
the shale proved satisfactory, and the OPP
tons on the land were closed.
One strong inducement that led the COM
pany to establish a factory in Danville
was the fact that underlying the vein of
shale on the land they purchased is a thick
vein of coal, and hence all they have to
do to get all the fuel they require is to
strip eff the shale. The company esti-
mates that it has enough shale and coal in
sight to run the factory at its full capacity
for the next hundred years., and beyond
that they are inclined to let the future
take care of itself.
Two innovations in ~rickmakin were
lately introduced at the plant of the West
ern Brick Company that have proved de-
eldedly successful. One was a system of
hydraulic stripping of the shale, and the
other consists of the utilization of heat
from the cooling kilns in the drying of the
bricks in preparing them for the kilns. The
Shale Is covered by soil to a depth of from
five TO fifteen feet, and when the company
first started the plant this soil was removed
by huge steam shovels. This process was
found both slow and expensive and another
plan was sought, with the result that Man
ager Butterworth decided to adopt the
same process that is used in hydraulic
mining in the West. He went to Marion
and purchased the engine and force pump
that had been outgrown by the waterworks
system of that city and installed his plant
on the bank of the river near the brick
Factory. A half mile of ten-inch mains
was put In and in two months Mr.. Butter
worth had a hydraulic plant with a pres
sure OF 100 pounds to the square inch at
the nozzle of the pipe. With this system
half a dozen men can strip more shale in
a day than three times their number with
steam shovels, and at a third the expense.
The heat from the cooling kilns is utilized
In the drying room by means of a series
or tunnels, connecting the kilns and the
drying room, in which huge fans are oper-
ated, drawing the heat from the kilns. The
kilns are heated to a temperature of several
hundred degrees while the brick are being
burned, and, of course, a vast amount of
heat is stored up in them; so much, in fact.
that 1T requires from five to seven days
for a kiln to cool.
The great problem in brickmaking is the
cost OF production, as a factory's market
is limited by this item. The freight rates
1all alike on all companies, so that the
company that can reduce the cost of pro-
duction a fraction has widened it's market
just that much. Mr.. Sweetser is one of
the most widely-traveled men in Indiana.
Accompanied by Mrs. Sweetser and his
daughter Delight, now Mrs. George w.
Prentiss, OF Cleveland, Mr.. Sweetser has
made two or three trips around the world.
His daughter has told the story of these
journeys in a volume entitled Zone Wav
Round the World" published by Bowen
Merrill. Mr.. Sweetser is now contemplate
ing a trip into Old Mexico for the near
future. 1t has been several years since
ne was In that country and he is curious
to note the changes that have been made
there by the influx of American capital and
American ideas and energy.