The Caucasian., 1910-12-01
WOMAN CHANCES
BRICK INDUSTRY
PLAYHOUSE Of Childhood Furnish
es Necessary Inspiration.
PROCESS TAKES 200 MINUTES

Forced to Earn Living For Children,
Revolutionizes the Business-Auto-
matte Manufacture Saves Time, La
Dor and Material.
A woman has revolutionized the In
dustry of brickmaking. Her name is
Mrs. Frances D. Shaw Of Chicago, and
after eight years of invention and dis
covery she is ready to give to the
world a brick mixture and kiln
where it takes 200 minutes to dry,
burn and cool bricks as against be-
tween four and five weeks In the old
way; where brick enters one end Of
a 200 foot kiln and comes out cool
enough to pack into the freight car for
shipping, handled once in that time,
instead of eighteen times. as In the old
way.
Moreover, she has invented an enam-
cling machine which feeds, uniformly
distributes the enamel and brushes the
sides of the brick on the same journey.
She has perfected kiln wherein the
most delicate pottery may be fired in
the open fire, producing the most beau
tiful Of shades and reducing the cost
of production to 10 per cent of the old
expense.
The makers of bricks have come to
look upon Mrs. Shaw as one Of the
wonders, but the country at large Is
going to be immensely interested in a
little mother whose inventions were
born of necessity.
The story dates back to Mrs Shaw's
playhouse days-back when she was a
girl of twelve and as Frances, daugh-
ter of Edward Dowdell, she played in
the back yard of the family's residence
in Iowa Falls, Ia. Frances had a min
iature residence In the garden which
left only one thing to be desired in the
mind of its young mistress-its floor
was of soft coal cinders.
Playhouse Furnishes Idea.
One day pair Of garden vases came
as gift from an old chemist friend.
To prevent the play Of the weather
upon the two lawn ornaments the old
chemist treated the outside to a coat
ing of solution of silicate of soda, 9TH
erwise known as liquid glass.
The proceeding was Of much interest
to young Frances. She noticed that
when bit of the mixture dropped
upon the ground it hardened And
then bright thought came to her.
This new mixture was the thing for
playhouse floor, and it was decided
that the vases were to have weather
coat of less thickness that the cinder
floor of the tiny residence also might
be covered. The mixture OF the liquid
glass with the coal ashes produced
flooring the like Of which no play
house ever before boasted.
But three years later little Miss
Frances" left the playhouse to take
charge Of home of her own-at fif-
teen-and with the family cooking, the
making Of clothes for the children who
came and the general homemaking
all else was forgotten until decade
ago, when she left Iowa to make her
way for herself and her younger chill
dren in Chicago.
Mrs. Shaw cast about for something
to do and began bringing fresh butter
and eggs in from the country and sell
ing them. But one winter the butter
In the storage house spoiled.
Discovery an Accident.
TT came to me-" says Mrs. Shaw,
that hundreds of thousands OF dollars
must be wasted in this way every year
and that there should be some manner
Of treating the tubs to prevent the de-
struction Of the produce. II at once
my mind Travelled back to my play
house floor. I made some of the So
lution, applying it hot to the cold tubs.
But my butter was bleached perfectly
white to the depth Of about two inche
all around, and it tasted like soda
biscuit
Il began studying the concoction of
some mixture whereby the deleterious
elements might be eliminated and
sought our good family friend, the late
s. s. Kimbell. who was In the brick
business in Porter, Ind. wanted suf-
deient heat and pressure from his ma
chinery to drive the new mixture into
the wood Of the tub.
That should be good to apply to
brick said Mr.. Kimbell, but I know
it could not be DONE It gave me the
idea, however, and kept experiment
Ing untI in sheer accident one day /
ehanced upon the thing which made
the brick itself. knew had dnd
and set to work to perfect 1t. That was
eight years ago, and I've been working
ever since"
AS to the whole system. the green
bricks are placed on q car and run
through the drying end of the kiln un-
I'll they reach the warming, heating and
upper chamber. There they are passed
on to the center of the fusing part Of
the kiln, where they are held at the
temperature required for the various
kinds Of brick The train travels at
the rate of foot a minute ana carries
the brick right through to the fireboxes
and cooling chamber The car makes
It's exit through the rear of the sheds.
its brick cooled and ready for ship
ment.