The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1909-10-12
HOW TO MAKE A
PAVING BLOCK
CONTINUED FROM FIRST PAGE

from the trestle at the factory into
the huge shale bins and is carried by
conveyors to the grinding pans (recep-
tacles that resemble huge pans) that
revolYe rapidly while great wheels
crush the shale to powder. 1t then
leaves the rolls and pans and passes to
screen where the material already
ground is screened and the coarse por-
tions are again returned for grinding.
The fine mixture is then delivered by
conveyors TO the pug-mill, where it is
again thoroughly mixed and under
goes treatment that resembles the
kneading of dough in the making
of bread. From here it travels
out to what is termed a stiff
mud machine and is there forced in
to long beams Of plastic composition.
This compression must be so perfectly
adjusted that it shall be dense and
compact. Special machinery is used
in this company's factories that is
said to not have their equal in the
brick making world in point of
strength and compactness, and in pro-
ducing uniformity of product AS the
endless beam, eight and one-half
inches wide and four inches deep,
passes to the misunderstanding table,
dividing arrangement slices the COL
umn into fifteen separate pieces at
each stroke, each forming either a
brick or block as may be required.
These brick march along, like row
of soldiers, to men standing ready to
receive them and take them off the
table two at a time. Each feeder
places the two brick in his REFRESHING
machine and the remaining brick
march on to other men. Each of
whom feeds his machine likewise.
This portion of the work requires
great professional skill in the adjust
ment of the machines, for an excess
of pressure will destroy the bond that
was created when the material went
through the specials heretofore de-
scribed insufficient pressure would be
equally faulty. When the brick, now
thoroughly depressed, EN- erges, it's
edges are perfectly rounded and on
one side are the words Metropolitan
Block in raised letters, and smaller
letters, depressed, form Canton, o.
in the center. These, to all appear
ances, completed blocks are placed on
cars and trailing along one after an
other, also propelled by gravity, are.
run into the dryer, so called. Here is
another novel arrangement. The heat
that burns the brick in the kilns is
forced by huge fans, after it has done
its work Of turning the shale cement
into stone, back to the dryers. In
other words the waste heat from the
kilns is used to give the brick it's first
hardening process. We are then
rushed into big kiln where the now
almost white block, after having been
treated for forty-eight hours, are be-
ing piled up, tier upon tier, until the
entire space has been filed. Some of
these hold 175,000 brick. The open
ings are closed and cemented and the
fires lighted
" We wonder how anything framed
by man can stand the awful heat that
this pulverized shale must undergo for
seven or eight days. In the adjoining
kilns a peek-hole shows fiery furnace
in which steel and stone and iron
would soon succumb. There day and
night burning necessarily. this fire
must be kept at gradually increasing
temperature. How anything of any
nature can retain its shape or increase
it's strength of fiber almost passes be-
lief.
THE fuel used is Of the highest
grade bituminous coal that can be
found in the market. Two hundred
tons are used by this company every
day.
" Nearby in some other kilns the
fires have been withdrawn and the
brick and kilns slowly cool. The big
brick blocks weighing ten pounds each
are found to be fully vitrified. The
absorption Of water is about two per
cent. If so vitrified that they will
take no water, the superintendent
tellsus, they will be too brittle but
averaging as low as one and one-half
to two and one-half per cent, the Pc
culiar quality of this Canton material
Is such as to be tougher at a less alb
sorption of water than any other brick
in the world. In other words it will
stand the hammering of horses shoes
and the abrasion of truck wheels at
the high point of vitridcation. The
color which was a yellowish white, is
now deep chocolate.
Loaded on wheelbarrows whose
legs resemble sleigh runners, the now
finished blocks are placed In railroad
cars, the switches of several trunk line
roads directly facing the kilns. Here,
too, the gravity scheme of the men
who projected these plants Is again
apparent.
Across the tracks of the big yards
millions OF block are stored during the
winter months waiting for the orders
which will In early spring and summer
place them on the streets of the vari-
GUS cities and towns that are not
a in epH Ice c.sn.@ ,t,.ee