Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-11
MEETING OF CLAY WORKERS
Bv Frederic J. Haskin

abreast the tide of competition.
One sometimes reads of the finding
of toads encased in solid stone. 1t is
a mystery how they got there, and,
more particularly, how they managed
to resist the tremendous pressure to
which they were subjected. re-
markable experiment of this kind was
made recently at a brick machine plant
at BucYrus, Ohio. At the instance of
a society of physical research a toad
was encased in d piece of clay which
was placed in a brick-making machine
and subjected to the remarkable pres
sure of 1000 pounds to the square
inch. When the brick was taken out
and opened it was found that his toad
ship was still very much alive and
none the worse for the tremendous
squeezing. He was able Immediately
thereafter to pose for his photograph,
sitting contentedly on top of the brick
in which he had been incased. What
was it that enabled him to resist such
a pressure?
The largest chimney in the world is
made of brick. 1t stands at Great
Falls, Mont, and was built for a big
smelling company. 1t is SOC feet high
as high as the windows of the Wash
tngton monument. For the first TWEEN
ty-five feet the chimney is octagonal
in shape and thereafter circular. Its
inside diameter is seventy-five feet at
the base, tapering to fifty feet at the
top. 1t is connected with the furnaces
by a tunnel 1900 feet long. The bricks
were made especially for it. If they
had been common bricks nearly six
millions would have been required.
The weight of the chimney is equiva-
lent to that of a battleship like the
Virginia.
One of the most interesting cases
that has come before the interstate
commerce commission in recent years
was brought there by the brick manu-
facturers of Cleveland, Ohio. The rail-
roads made one rate for one kind of
brick and another rate for another
kind. The brick manufacturers
claimed that a brick is a brick when
it goes to rate-making, and that it
costs no more to haul a vitrified or a
pressed brick than it does to transport
one of the common everyday variety.
The railroads answered that their rates
were made in accordance with the
value of the thing hauled, and that the
tariff on high-priced brick was really
lower in proportion than the rate on
common kind. The interstate COM
merce commission could not see how
it costs more to haul one kind than
another, so it decided in favor of the
VI i'm Observation-Disclosures. Ih0 1GSulI Will
be the saving of four cents hundred
pounds on the shipment of brick from
Cleveland to New York.
The annual output of common brick
in the United States amounts to ap-
proXimately ten billion. In addition to
these there are made 500, 900, 900 front
brick 100000 900 vitrified paving brick
and others in proportion. The total
clay products made in the United States
each year are worth about $160,000000,
of which $30,000,000 represents pottery
values. The first bricks ever made in
the United States were burned in
Virginia kiln in 1912, and some of
these are still in use. Before this time
all such building material was imported
from England, and there are dozens of
old houses still standing that have i'm
ported brick in them.
The geological survey has made
careful test of all the building ma
terials now in use in the United States,
and has decided that no other material
has the fire resisting qualities of brick.
In Europe a vastly larger proportion of
buildings are of brick than in the
United States, and all building laws
there are extremely stringent. The re-
suit is that while in the United States
the annual fire tax amounts to about
$3.50 per capita in Europe it is held
down to 33 cents per capita. Emperor
William owns a pottery which nets him
$4,000 a year, and many of the German
buildings are decorated with terra Gotta
pieces from his plant. He himself has
some forty homes, hunting lodges and
estates, and is a great believer in
brick as building material
advance, thus wheat would bring 81
beginning to pay. In New York there
were approximately one-fourth more
brick houses built last year than the
year before, and the value represented
by them increased in like ratio. This
applies to fiat buildings as well as to
residences. The same is true of other
cities. OF course a part of this came
about by reason of the letup of the
financial stringency, but not all of 1t
can be explained this way, as the ratio
of increase was larger in the case of
brick houses than of those built of
other material.
The contractors say the fashion in
brick construction is changing. Here
tofore it has been the custom for walls
to be made of brick of uniform size
and color, with the smallest possible
mortar Joints. Now the tendency in
the finer tyes of buildings is to have
the bricks of irregular sizes and shapes.
A western house was built recently so
that by the difference in the color of
the brick a beautiful tree was por-
trayed in one of the walls, while in an
other an old-time court scene was rep
resented If this becomes a universal
fashion the houses of the future may
have as much art on the outside as on
the inside.
Tonorrow-Moving Pictures.