What is a sun-dried brick called? | Reference.com What is a sun-dried brick called? A: Quick Answer A sun-dried brick is called an adobe brick. Adobe bricks are made from a mixture of clay, sand and straw formed in wooden molds and left to cure in the sun. Modern adobe bricks can be mixed with an asphalt solution that protects them from moisture damage. Full Answer Structures that are built out of adobe bricks are called adobes. Adobe bricks are a popular construction medium in hot, dry climates, such as the American Southwest. The thick density of adobe bricks works as an insulator, naturally cooling and heating buildings year round. A properly maintained adobe structure in a reasonably arid climate lasts indefinitely. brick and tile | building material | Britannica.com building material adobe Brick and tile, structural clay products, manufactured as standard units, used in building construction.

The brick, first produced in a sun-dried form at least 6,000 years ago and the forerunner of a wide range of structural clay products used today, is a small building unit in the form of a rectangular block, formed from clay or shale or mixtures and burned (fired) in a kiln, or oven, to produce strength, hardness, and heat resistance. The original concept of ancient brickmakers was that the unit should not be larger than what one man could easily handle; today, brick size varies from country to country, and every nation’s brickmaking industry produces a range of sizes that may run into the hundreds. The majority of bricks for most construction purposes have dimensions of approximately 5.5 × 9.5 × 20 centimetres (21/4 × 33/4 × 8 inches). Structural clay tile , also called terra-cotta , is a larger building unit, containing many hollow spaces (cells), and is used mainly as backup for brick facing or for plastered partitions. Structural clay-facing tile is often glazed for use as an exposed finish. Wall and floor tile is a thin material of fireclay with a natural or glazed finish.

Quarry tile is a dense pressed fireclay product for floors, patios, and industrial installations in which great resistance to abrasion or acids is required. Fireclay brick is used in incinerators, boilers, industrial and home furnaces, and fireplaces. Sewer pipe is fired and glazed for use in sewage-disposal systems, industrial waste systems, and general drainage. Drain tile is porous, round, and sometimes perforated and is used mainly for agricultural drainage. Roofing tile is made in the form of half-round (Spanish tile) and various flat tiles made to resemble slate or cedar shakes; it is used extensively in the Mediterranean countries. Similar Topics magnetic ceramics There are also many products made from cement and aggregates that substitute for, and generally perform the same functions as, the structural clay products listed above. These nonclay brick and tile products are described briefly at the end of the article. The main subject of this article, however, is the brick and tile produced from fireclay. Fireclay brick and tile are two of the most important products within the field of industrial ceramics .

For background information on the nature of ceramic materials, see the articles presented in Industrial Ceramics: Outline of Coverage, particularly the articles on traditional ceramics . For lengthy treatment of the principal application of fireclay brick and tile, see the article building construction . History of brickmaking Mud brick , dried in the sun, was one of the first building materials. It is conceivable that on the Nile, Euphrates, or Tigris rivers, following floods, the deposited mud or silt cracked and formed cakes that could be shaped into crude building units to build huts for protection from the weather. In the ancient city of Ur , in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), the first true arch of sun-baked brick was made about 4000 bc. The arch itself has not survived, but a description of it includes the first known reference to mortars other than mud. A bitumen slime was used to bind the bricks together. Mayan brick pyramid at Comalcalco archaeological site, Tabasco, Mexico. Dennis Jarvis (CC-BY-2.0) (A Britannica Publishing Partner) Burned brick, no doubt, had already been produced simply by containing a fire with mud bricks.

In Ur the potters discovered the principle of the closed kiln, in which heat could be controlled. The ziggurat at Ur is an example of early monumental brickwork perhaps built of sun-dried brick; the steps were replaced after 2,500 years (about 1500 bc) by burned brick. Building Blocks of Everyday Objects As civilization spread eastward and westward from the Middle East , so did the manufacture and use of brick. The Great Wall of China (210 bc) was built of both burned and sun-dried bricks. Early examples of brickwork in Rome were the reconstruction of the Pantheon (ad 123) with an unprecedented brick and concrete dome, 43 metres (142 feet) in diameter and height, and the Baths of Hadrian, where pillars of terra-cotta were used to support floors heated by roaring fires. Britannica Stories Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent Enameling, or glazing , of brick and tile was known to the Babylonians and Assyrians as early as 600 bc, again stemming from the potter’s art.

The great mosques of Jerusalem (Dome of the Rock), Isfahan (in Iran), and Tehrān are excellent examples of glazed tile used as mosaics. Some of the blues found in these glazes cannot be reproduced by present manufacturing processes. Western Europe probably exploited brick as a building and architectural unit more than any other area in the world. It was particularly important in combating the disastrous fires that chronically affected medieval cities. After the Great Fire of 1666, London changed from being a city of wood and became one of brick, solely to gain protection from fire. Bricks and brick construction were taken to the New World by the earliest European settlers. The Coptic descendants of the ancient Egyptians on the upper Nile River called their technique of making mud brick tōbe. The Arabs transmitted the name to the Spaniards, who, in turn, brought the art of adobe brickmaking to the southern portion of North America . In the north the Dutch West India Company built the first brick building on Manhattan Island in 1633. Modern brick production Basically, the process of brickmaking has not changed since the first fired bricks were produced some thousands of years ago. The steps used then are used today, but with refinements.

The various phases of manufacture are as follows: securing the clay , beneficiation, mixing and forming, drying, firing, and cooling. Securing the clay Clays used today are more varied than those used by the first brickmakers. Digging, mining, and various methods of grinding enable the modern manufacturer to utilize many raw materials. Clays used in brickmaking represent a wide range of materials that include varying percentages of silica and alumina. They may be grouped in three classes: (1) surface clays found near or on the surface of the Earth , typically in river bottoms; (2) shales , clays subjected to high geologic pressures and varying in hardness from a slate to a form of partially decomposed rock; and (3) fireclays , found deeper under the surface and requiring mining. Fireclays have a more uniform chemical composition than surface clays or shale. Connect with Britannica Surface clays are typically recovered by means of power shovels, bulldozers with scraper blades, and dragline operations. Shales are recovered by blasting and power shovels. Fireclays are mined by conventional techniques. Beneficiation Raw clays are often blended to obtain a more uniform consistency.

In many cases the material is ground to reduce large rocks or clumps of clay to usable size and is placed in storage sheds. As additional material is stored, samples are blended from a cross section of the storage pile. The material is then transferred to secondary grinders and screens (if necessary) to secure the optimum particle size for mixing with water. In certain processes (e.g., soft-mud) the clay is transferred directly to the mixing area, eliminating all grinding, screening, and blending. Mixing and forming All clays must be mixed with water to form the finished product. The amount of water added will depend on the nature of the clays and their plasticity. This water is removed during drying and firing, which causes shrinkage of the units; to compensate for this shrinkage the molds are made larger than the desired finished products. Three basic processes are used in the forming and mixing phase. In the stiff-mud process the clay is mixed with water to render it plastic, after which it is forced through a die that extrudes a column of clay like the toothpaste squeezed from a tube (see the Figure ). The column gives two dimensions of the unit being manufactured; it is cut to give the third dimension.

All structural clay tile is made by this process, as is a great percentage of brick. Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies In the older method of forming bricks, the soft-mud process , much more water is used, and the mix is placed in wooden molds to form the size unit desired. To keep the clay from sticking, the molds are lubricated with sand or water; after they are filled, excess clay is struck from the top of the mold. It is from this process that the terms wood-mold, sand-struck, or water-struck brick were derived. Clays with very low plasticity are used in the dry-press process . A minimum of water is added, the material is placed in steel molds, and pressures up to 1,500 pounds per square inch (10,000 kilopascals) are applied. Drying After the bricks are formed, they must be dried to remove as much free water as possible. (They could literally explode if subjected to fire without drying.) Drying, apart from sun drying, is done in drier kilns with controlled temperature, draft, and humidity.

Firing and cooling Bricks are fired and cooled in a kiln , an oven-type chamber capable of producing temperatures of 870° to 1,100° C (1,600° to more than 2,000° F), depending on the type of raw material. There are two general types of kilns, periodic and continuous. The earliest type of kiln, the scove, is merely a pile of dried bricks with tunnels at the bottom allowing heat from fires to pass through and upward in the pile of bricks. The walls and top are plastered with a mixture of sand, clay, and water to retain the heat; at the top the bricks are placed close together and vented for circulation to pull the heat up through the brick. The clamp kiln is an improvement over the scove kiln in that the exterior walls are permanent, with openings at the bottom to permit firing of the tunnels. A further refinement of the scove kiln, round or rectangular in form, is designated as updraft or downdraft, indicating the direction of heat flow. In these kilns the walls and crown are permanent, and there are firing ports around the exterior.

In so-called periodic kilns the bricks are placed with sufficient air space to allow the heat from the fires to reach all surfaces. They are placed directly from the drier, and heat is gradually increased until the optimum firing temperature is reached. When they are sufficiently fired, the heat is reduced, and they are allowed to cool gradually before removal from the kiln. Trending Topics Eyjafjallajökull volcano The periodic kiln was improved in efficiency by placing several kilns in line with connecting passages. The first chamber is fired first and the excess heat passed to the next chamber to start heating. Successively, the various chambers are brought to optimum firing and cooling temperatures, until all bricks have been fired and cooled. This arrangement is known as the moving fire zone. In the more modern fixed fire zone, dried bricks are placed on cars carrying as many as 3,000 or more bricks; the cars start at the cool end of a long tunnel kiln and move slowly forward through gradually increasing temperatures to the firing zone, pass through it, and emerge through decreasing heat zones until cooled. Automation Since the development of the tunnel kiln, brickmakers have sought to increase automation in their plants.

Handling of the finished product has been automated to the point that bricks emerging from the kiln are now automatically stacked in packages of approximately 500, strapped with metal bands, and stored, shipped, and delivered by mechanical equipment. In some plants bricks are taken from the cutter machine, placed in the drier or on drier cars by mechanical means, placed on kiln cars by mechanical fingers, removed from the kiln cars mechanically, stacked, strapped, and prepared for shipment without being touched by hand. Colouring and texturing of brick and tile Colour The colour of structural clay products may be natural or applied. Natural and applied colouring are described below. Natural colours These depend on the type of clay used in the production processes. They range from whites through grays, buffs, light to dark reds, and into the purple range. Fireclays are associated with the lighter colours such as the grays and buffs. Ordinary clays and shales are associated with the red ranges. By regulating the oxidizing conditions in the kiln, browns, purples, and blacks can be obtained.

The process is known as flashing, and in general the change of colour of the bricks is only on the surface, the body of the unit retaining its natural colour. Some metals, such as manganese, are mixed with the clays to develop special colours. Applied colours Colours are applied to many structural clay products, particularly structural glazed tile, wall and floor tile, and brick. Ceramic glazes are applied to units before or after the firing and cooling stage. If after, the units must be refired. These glazes provide almost all of the basic colours plus some special colours used for accent in the design of a wall. The glazes become an integral part of the face of the units since they are burned to the same degree of heat as the units. Finishes and colours other than ceramic glazes are applied to the units either fired or unfired and are surface coatings that conceal the natural colour of the burned unit. In some countries a demand for old brick has led to application of mixtures of cement or lime and sand and many other combinations to give brick an aged appearance. Texture The texture of structural clay products is directly associated with the manufacturing processes.

The soft-mud process produces either a sand- or water-struck finish in a nonuniform texture, which gives the brick (only bricks are made under this process) the appearance of handmade or antique brick. The dry-press process , using steel molds, gives a smooth texture only. This process is seldom used in modern-day brick production but is used in the manufacture of quarry tile as well as floor and wall tile. The stiff-mud process offers the most possibilities for texturing brick. As the prepared clay is extruded through the die, the pressure produces a smooth surface similar to that of concrete when smoothed with a steel trowel. This surface is called the die skin; its removal and further treatment produce other textures. In wire cutting, for instance, a wire placed in front of the column of clay as it comes from the die removes the die skin, creating a semi-rough surface. In sand finishing, sand is applied to the column of clay by various means to give a very even surface of sand, which is fired into the unit. The desired texture is similar to a wood-mold brick except that the unit is much more uniform in size and in finish. Colour also may be changed by the type of sand used.

Scored finishing is used mostly on tile where the surface of the tile is grooved to give a better bond between the unit and plaster . This is also true of a roughened or combed finish produced by wire brushing or scratching. Roughened finishing is used when the die skin is removed by various means. In one method the material cut in removing the die skin may be rolled back into the face of the unit. Other finishes are applied by rollers on the column to give certain effects such as bark, log, or emblems. Terra-cotta for architectural decoration is both machine-extruded and handmade (molded or pressed). It is distinguished from other clay products by the generally larger size of the units. It may be hand-carved and used mostly in murals as bas-relief. Both natural and glazed finishes are produced. Uses of brick and tile By far the largest use of brick and tile products is, as it always has been, in building construction . Another significant application is in drainage systems. Both applications are described in this section. Building construction It may be roughly accurate to say that about 65 percent of all the brick in the world goes into dwellings, and 35 percent goes into commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings.

Construction techniques change yearly and from country to country, but basically most brick and tile are used in walls , with lesser use in roofs and floors. Walls Walls may be classified in three general categories: load-bearing, non-load-bearing, and veneer. Load-bearing walls A load-bearing wall supports the loads of a structure, such as floors, equipment, furniture, and people. At one time buildings were constructed with very thick brick walls carrying all floor and other loads. Design of these walls was not based on engineering data but only on well-intentioned but unscientific building codes. As buildings grew taller, the building code requirements for thickness of a brick wall became economically prohibitive. The last truly high-rise, load-bearing brick structure built under older codes was the Monadnock Building in Chicago (1889–91), 16 stories tall with the brick walls 2 metres (6 feet) thick at the base, tapering to 30 centimetres (12 inches) at the top story. The arrival of structural steel on the building scene put a temporary end to the brick bearing-wall skyscraper, but research conducted in the 20th century has led to a resurgence.

Thinner walls can be designed for high-rise buildings and built safely at a reasonable cost. Apartment buildings in Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, England, and other countries have risen 15 or more stories supported by brick bearing walls no more than 30 centimetres thick. The use of reinforced brickwork (a combination of brick, reinforcing steel, mortar , and cement grout) permits even thinner walls. Bearing walls may be classified into five general groups: (1) brick, including brick tied together with cross brick (headers) or with metal ties; (2) composite walls of brick and tile tied together with headers or metal ties; (3) cavity walls, in which the inner and outer wythes (tiers) of units are tied together with metal ties but separated by an air space usually two or more inches in width; (4) reinforced walls, similar to cavity walls except that steel is placed in the cavity and the cavity filled with a soupy mortar (grout); (5) single unit walls, using a unit of necessary thickness to meet design requirements. Non-load-bearing walls Non-load-bearing walls carry only their own weight and may be any one of the types discussed under load-bearing walls.

This type of wall is used to close in a steel or concrete frame building. It is usually carried by supports, normally steel shelf angles at each floor, and is called a panel wall. When the wall is supported at the base only, it is called a curtain wall . Veneer walls Veneer walls are similar to non-load-bearing walls in that they carry no weight except their own. The brick or tile is fastened to a backing, but it does not exert a common action with the backing. Perhaps the most common use is brick veneer on wood frame dwellings. Other examples are architectural terra-cotta and thin ceramic veneer on monumental buildings. Roofs Tile roofs are popular in the Mediterranean area and in the Low Countries of western Europe. In Italy craftsmen have developed an art of using relatively thin tile to form self-supporting arches. Tile roofs in many other areas, particularly on residences, have been used extensively in the past, but economic considerations limit their use now; in addition to the cost of the tile is the cost of roof framing to support the heavier weight of the tile. Miscellaneous Miscellaneous uses in building construction include retaining walls , brick floors, patios, and walks. Most of these uses are decorative as well as utilitarian.

The retaining wall of reinforced brick provides an economical means of restraining earth movement and at the same time maintains a continuity of architectural effect, particularly if the adjoining structure is built of brick. Brick floors , patios , and walks utilize the physical properties of brick, such as resistance to abrasion and to the elements. Paving brick, per se, is practically nonexistent, except for replacement where roads and streets were brick-paved long ago. Industrial floor brick, however, supplies many industries whose manufacturing and handling processes require floors that resist acids and provide a high degree of resistance to abrasion. Brick floors and patios, besides providing a long-lasting, low-maintenance material, offer the designer a medium for developing architectural effects in both colours and patterns. Structural clay drainage products Sewer pipe plays an important part in the world’s ecology. An almost impervious material because of its firing, denseness, and glazing, it can carry highly corrosive waste materials that few other products can handle economically. Drain tile performs a service that ensures a higher yield in farm production of food throughout the world. Many farming areas are plagued with too much water at the wrong times.

Drain tile reduces the water level during these times, thereby allowing the root growth of plants to penetrate deeper into the soil , which, in turn, permits them later to resist hot dry weather. Nonclay brick and tile Following the introduction of portland cement in the 19th century, a growing number of products have appeared that resemble clay products in size and intended use. In some countries the production of them, if reduced to brick equivalents, exceeds that of clay products. A brief review of these products, the material used, and the manufacturing processes may serve to suggest the interrelation between these and clay products. Concrete block Concrete block is a large unit, usually 8 inches high, 16 inches long, and of various thicknesses, made from a mixture of cement and an aggregate , which may be cinders, limestone, or expanded clay or shale (burned in a rotary kiln). The mixture of cement, aggregate , and a minimum of water is placed in steel molds and vibrated to compact the mixture. The formed units are removed from the molds and cured either in air, steam, or under autoclaving processes (steam under pressure).

Concrete brick Concrete brick is a mixture of cement and aggregate, usually sand, formed in molds and cured. Certain mineral colours are added to produce a concrete brick resembling clay. Concrete pipe is made of cement and aggregate and cured as above. Used as a substitute for clay sewer pipe, it does not have as much resistance to the corrosive action of certain acids. Concrete drain tile and concrete roofing tile are produced similarly. Sand-lime brick Sand-lime brick is a product that uses lime instead of cement. It is usually a white brick made of lime and selected sands, cast in molds and cured. Production is limited, with greater use in the United States and Germany. Additional Media Index: Vogel Appendix (Listing of Buffalo Brickyards) Scope This work is intended as a practical examination of brickwork, with a particular emphasis on the use of brick during the historical period in Western New York State. To provide context for this examination, and to enhance its usefulness and interest for the archaeologist or preservationist, an overview of the history of bricks and brick-making also has been provided. Topics covered in this study also include brick technology, uses, manufacture, typology, manufacturing, brands, documentation, bricklaying techniques and patterns, dating and conservation.

Context Introduction They said to one another, 'Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire.' They used bricks or stone and bitumen for mortar. - Genesis 11:3 Brick is, in its simplest form, burned clay, It is also the oldest building material manufactured by man, and its usage dates back at least six millennia The Bible, for example, not only cites brickmaking near the start of the Book, of Genesis, in a story of the Tower of Babel that is linked to the ziggurats of ancient Babylonia, but also notes that a dispute over brickmaking led directly to the Plagues of Egypt and ultimately to the exodus of the Israelites from the land of the Pharaoh. The link is more than religious; it has technical aspects as well, and serves to illustrate a commonality that has endured, brick-like, through all those millennia The Book of Exodus records an ancient labor dispute, sparked by the Israelites' demands for time to worship their God. The governmental response was harsh: "That very day Pharaoh gave the taskmasters and foremen of the people the order: 'You shall no longer supply the people with straw for their brickmaking as you have previously done.

Let them gather straw themselves! Yet you shall levy upon them the same quota of bricks as they have previously made. Do not reduce it.' " (Exodus 5:6-8) The implications of the theological history of this dictum is beyond the scope of this study, but the technology is not. The Bible goes on to point out that this placed a time-consuming burden on the Israelites, whose prime occupation in Egypt was brick-making. This in turn caused the foremen to complain bitterly to Moses, and Exodus records his subsequent appeal to God in the story of the plagues and the withdrawal from Egypt. But the sequel, from a technological standpoint, was played out in the 19th Century amid the brickyards of the clay-rich Hudson River Valley, source of the building blocks of booming New York- City. James Wood and culm: There, in 1828, brickmaker James Wood found himself wondering just why the Israelites needed straw to make brick, anyway.

While one answer may be that the straw was used as a binder in sun-dried rather than fired brick, Woods came to the conclusion that the only possible use in fired brick would be to facilitate the burning of the bricks, and he began experimenting with fuel additives mixed with the basic clay. Woods eventually settled on culm, the fine coal dust being wasted by coal mines and coal yards; added to the brick mixture, the coal dust inspired by the Biblical account allowed brick to be burned with less than half the normal amount of cord wood. Kiln firing was reduced from fourteen days to just seven, causing a revolution in the brick industry. From the dawn of time to the modem era, brickmakers have a common bond. Foundations in Prehistory and Ancient History Brickmaking and brick usage generally is believed to have originated in the "Fertile Crescent," stretching from the Levant to the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the Middle East. The technology, primitive as it was, seems also to have evolved independently in other regions of the world. The Levant: Permanent communities first began to appear in the Levant between 9,000 and 7,000 B C . in the Neolithic period.

Settlements have been excavated in the Jordan Valley, western Iran, Iraq, Syria and Eastern Turkey. "These early settlements often began as-often began as small hamlets of circular or oval pithouses, and eventually grew into substantial communities of rectangular, one-story, mud-brick houses, with several hundred inhabitants," one source notes. A monopoly on obsidian sources for sharp-edged tools led to an early town at Catal Huyuk, in southern Turkey. Around 6,000 B.C., the town featured a dense concentration of adjoining structures of sun-dried mud brick, set around small courtyards. Eridu, the earliest known settlement in Lower Mesopotamia, was a small mud-brick village dating to 5,300 B. C. Babylonians / sun-dried bricks: Babylonians used bricks as building materials 6,000 years ago, drawing on the plentiful supply of thick clays and muds deposited by the rivers.

The earliest bricks were sun-dried, and some anthropologists see this as a simple extension of the natural process that occurred as silt flats were deposited in annual floods, then dried and cracked by the sun into small blocks that could be shaped into crude building units. "Puddled clay": Early archaeologists working the tells, or mounds, that marked the world's oldest city sites in Mesopotamia logged "puddled clay" in their excavations but -- in an era focusing more on artifact recovery than site analysis -- paid little attention to the seemingly worthless discovery. Later generations of archaeologists would see in this clay evidence of brick walls and structures, the last stage of sun-dried brick returning to the earth once more The entire site of the city of Babylon has been described as "little more than a huge mound of dirt created by the breakdown of sun-dried brick from which the huts and houses were made." Ziggurats / bitumins: Perhaps the earliest monumental structures made by man, the pyramidal ziggurats of the Babylonian civilization, were built "of sun-dried brick faced with kiln-burned glazed brick of many colors," another source notes.

"The bricks were held together with bitumins (naturally occurring tars). Ur: A reference to the first true arch of sun-dried brick, erected in the ancient city of Ur about 4,000 B.C., also contains the first reference to a mortar other than mud -- bitumen slime, used as a binder. The Sumerians, also about 4.000 B.C., developed the residential interior courtyard using walls of mud brick. Mesopotamian domestic architecture developed with the growth of cities, and by the Isin-Larsa period in Ur (2025-1763 B.C.) two-story houses featured wood balconies, paved central courts, and staircases of mud brick. Egypt: Ancient Egypt also used brick, as noted above. By 3,500 B.C. rectangular mud-brick houses were "quite common" in predynastic Hierakonopolis in southern Egypt, and Late Predynastic mud-brick burial chambers gave way to painted mud-brick panels in the mastabas, or burial palaces of Early, Dynastic/Old Kingdom times.

Kiln-fired brick: Kiln-fired brick, using bricks arranged around a fire, provided more deterioration-resistant building material than sun-dried brick and gradually, gained greater usage, especially after potters in Ur discovered the principle of the closed kiln which allowed control of the heating; the steps of sun-dried brick in Ur's ziggurat were replaced, in about 1500 B.C., with steps of burned brick. The Great Ziggurat also had conical bricks set in its walls, as decorative elements. India: Brick-lined burials also have been found in the Harappan civilization of ancient India, contemporary with the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Greece and Rome: Bricks and tiles also were made in ancient Greece and Rome. Rome may have gained its brick technology from the precursor Etruscans, believed to have come to central Italy from Asia Minor. Romans formed radial bricks and added a new mortar mixture of lime and volcanic ash, called pozzolana. Roman water and sewer systems used fired-clay pipe, and tile and terra cotta were used for decorative as well as construction elements.

The Baths of Hadrian used terra cotta floor-support pillars, and the Pantheon reconstruction in 123 A.D. featured a brick and concrete dome. Ottoman Turks: The popularity of brick then retraced its journey, passed by the Romans to the Byzantines and, through them, to the Seljuq and Ottoman Turks of Asia Minor. China: Half a world away, the Great Wall of China (210 B.C.) found expression in sun-dried and burned brick. Chinese brickmaking dates to at least the Lung-shan cultures of the Yellow River Valley, 3,000 B.C. to 1766 B.C. Adobe: Adobe brick, which combines clay and straw or chopped reeds in a sun-dried mixture, is still used in hot dry regions of the Middle East and Mexico; highly-eroded remains of structures that used millions of sun-dried bricks mark the pre-Inca civilizations of Peru, in a desert region where rain erosion is infrequent and is tied to the occasional El Nino warming of the Pacific.

Adobe in North America: Adobe usage in North America dates back as far as early colonial ruins in the American southwest (the word adobe comes via Spanish from the Arabic at-tub, "the brick," in turn borrowed from to be, the name given by Coptic descendants of the ancient Egyptians to the technique of making mud bricks). The Spaniards learned the technique from invading Saracens who brought it from the Mideast, and adobe construction became a feature of Spanish colonial architecture. Europe: Europe, however, used brick more extensively than any other region as history unfolded. As the Roman Empire declined, so did brick technology and usage -- until it was revived with a vengeance in the late Middle Ages, with the help of Byzantine and Italian artisans who had preserved brickmaking skills through the intervening centuries. The Historic Period The widespread use of brick as a building material is linked in part to regional abundance of clays and paucity of other building materials such as wood. There are other factors in its adoption and use, however, and fireproofing is one of the most important of these factors. Medieval Western Europe: Medieval Western European cities were especially vulnerable to fires, and wholesale destruction of wooden residential and shop districts often led to rebuilding with more durable materials.

London, after the Great Fire of 1666, became a city of brick instead of wood, in a reconstruction process that would be echoed not only in other European cities but also in the New World. There had been a marked development of brick architecture in Lombardy in the 11th Century, with Byzantine buildings in Italy as early models, The use of bricks spread northward and westward and brickmaking became a major industry in northern Germany, Denmark, the Low Countries and parts of England. Germans especially developed a tradition as Europe's brickmakers. The New World: When Dutch and English explorers opened the New World to colonization, the trade traveled with the earliest colonists, In North America, one historian noted, "brick was a major building material from the start," as 17th Century colonists from Holland and Britain included brickmakers and brick layers. 1612 Virginia: Bricks were made in Virginia as early as 1612, and bricks became a favorite building material in England's early Virginia colonies while the New England colonies at first used the abundant local wood and stone.

1633 New Amsterdam: The first brick building in New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island was built by the Dutch West India Company in 1633. Brick kilns had been established there in 1628, producing "small, yellow, and black brick called Holland brick to distinguish them from the larger British variety. Mid 17th Century New England: By the mid 17th Century, there was a brickmaking center in Medford, New England. In 1722, Boston switched to brick and stone for domestic buildings after three major fires. 18th Century Hudson River Valley: In the 18th Century, the glacially-deposited clays of the Hudson River Valley combined with the growing needs of New York City to spur development of a brickmaking industry that eventually numbered more than 300 yards; the yards at Haverstraw, where one Jacob VanDyck first made some Dutch-style narrow, yellowish brick in 1771, would make the little town a world leader in brick production with 148 different brands of brick. In 1810, total U. S.

brick production stood at about 95 million; in the single year of 1883, 300 million bricks would be shipped from Haverstraw Bay by 41 brickyards, Brick presses: As machines supplanted handwork in the production of brick, the industry boomed in the 18th Century. Presses were used to squeeze clay into molds, allowing more uniformity in brick shapes as well as greater production. "To be sure," one archaeological study notes, "hand manufacture of bricks was common during the 17th and l8th centuries in European colonies north of Mexico.

Early patents for brick-making devices were issued during the late 18th Century, and by the 1860s numerous, high-volume, and reliable brick-making machines had been developed in the United States as well as in Western European colonies." The Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876 featured brickmaking machines from Canada, England and the United States 1892-93 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago: Perhaps the oddest use of brick in American public building -- and undoubtedly the ultimate use of brick as a ballast material for ships -- was reserved to the World's Columbian Exposition of 1892-93 in Chicago, Illinois. For that event, held in a transformed swamp at the edge of Lake Michigan, the U.S. Navy faced a dilemma; it wanted to exhibit one of its new battleships, but couldn't bring one from the ocean to the Great Lakes. The solution was the Illinois, a full-sized, 348-foot battlewagon that mounted the same armament -- four 13-inch guns, eight 6-inch guns, assorted smaller naval guns and six torpedo tubes -- as the oceangoing Massachusetts, Indiana and Oregon.

Manned by a crew and treated for more than a year as a real vessel moored alongside a special pier extending into the lake, the Illinois was, in reality, a brick building. Most of the fittings eventually went to sea on real ships, but the Illinois had a hull of brick, clad in armor plating and resting on a heavy timber foundation. Bricks in Buffalo Native peoples of the Western New York region relied on wood for construction of longhouses and other structures. The earliest construction materials used by European settlers in this area included both wood and stone; initial construction by the French, from the fortified storehouse known as Fort Conti in 1679 to Louis-Thomas Chabert de Joncaire's trading post at the Niagara portage in 1720, were wooden and the Iroquois stipulated that no structures were to be built of stone. The "French Castle": Spurred by conflicts with the British, however, the French brought stone from the St. Lawrence River area in 1726 to construct the "French Castle" that still stands at Fort Niagara.

The fort at the mouth of the Niagara, the first major European intrusion in Western New York, continued to grow under French and then English rule, but always in stone and wooden buildings and renovations through the 17th Century. The date of the first use of brick in the old stone house was not documented, but historian Brian Leigh Dunnigan notes that "by 1800, at least part of the ground floor appears to have been paved in brick." Buffalo itself, in 1796, boasted five houses, a tavern and a store -- all of them wooden. Wood, plentiful in this area, would remain the dominant construction material but other materials soon would come into use for public buildings and prominent residences. Hodge residence VS. Juba Storrs & Co.: Brick usage in Buffalo architecture apparently started in 1806. Buffalo architectural historian John D. Randall, in a privately-published survey, variously notes that "the first brick building was the William Hodge residence, 1358 Main St.," and "the first brick building was Juba Storrs & Co. , west side of Main Street between Court and Eagle Streets," citing different sources.

The Hodge residence seems to have the better claim, as a 19th Century historian dates the two-story brick store to 1810-1811 but further confuses the issue by explaining that "this was not, as has been sometimes stated, the first brick building erected here. But it was without question the second one, and by all odds the largest. The first one, the date of erection of which I do not know, was a small building, just south of what is now Court Street, still standing in 1813. It was owned by a Mr. Atwater of Canandaigua, and when Townsend & Coit came to Buffalo, in 1811, they at first occupied it for their business, before they secured better accommodations on the southwest corner of Main and Swan Streets. " The conflict may be resolved by noting that the Hodge residence was not in the Village of Buffalo proper, standing at some distance along the road to Williamsville and Batavia.

Hull-Peterson House: The historic Hull-Peterson House , built in Lancaster by Revolutionary War veteran Warren Hull in 1810, was constructed of stone but has an early brick, beehive-type baking oven next to the basement fireplace where meals were prepared. War of 1812: With the exception of the 1810 stone jail , the wooden Margaret St. John cottage and some small structures, all of the village buildings were burned by the British at the end of 1813. About 200 houses were lost in the War of 1812 conflagration, but rebuilding started immediately. While wood was the expedient material for much of the early rebuilding, Buffalo was soon to become a substantial city.

1825: In 1825, the year the Erie Canal opened, there was a population of 2,412 and a building inventory that included 232 residences, 11 inns, 5 churches, 6 schools, a courthouse, a library, a theater, a Masonic Hall and 50 shops; six years later, the population had soared 314 percent to 10,000, with a corresponding increase in construction. A strong recovery from the national financial depression of 1819 helped fuel the building boom from the late 1820s to the Financial Panic of 1837. 1832: By 1832 there were 40 factories in the village, which was incorporated as a city that year. The 1835 Directory for the City of Buffalo lists a freight forwarding firm in the "brick store-house, Prime foot of Dayton," and a teacher in the "brick house" on Washington near Scott streets. The predominance of wood structures, though, made the frontier city vulnerable; fire swept through a business district bounded by Exchange, Seneca, Pearl, Main and Washington streets on Nov.

14, 1832, destroying 50 buildings at a loss estimated at $2,000,000. Cost: Brick was a much more fireproof material, but it was also more expensive. In 1840, brick cost $2.75 per thousand -- nearly three times the daily wage of a skilled worker -- while lumber sold at $4 to $8 per 1,000 feet. In 1851 and 1853, though, two major fires that ravaged the waterfront Canal District , leveling more than 500 businesses, warehouses and wooden tenements, emphasized the need for fireproofing. The district was rebuilt in brick described by newspapers of the time as "of the poorest quality," although most of the structures would stand until demolished for the building of apartment complexes and a city auditorium nearly a century later. Clay tile: Clay tile, a close relation to brick, also brought fireproofing qualities to the city's grain elevators (1869), and brick posted more gains as a construction material when the first hydraulic passenger elevator ended the six-story "walkup" limitation in 1870.

Other materials also appeared: As outlined in the discussion of brick history, there may also be a technological classification, Sun-dried brick: Sun-dried brick, also known as adobe brick, is simply dried without any firing. Kiln-burned brick: Kiln-burned brick is fired by any of several methods, to produce a harder and more weather-resistant building block. Pressure-molded brick: Pressure-molded brick is formed by using presses to compress clay or other material into a brick- shape, which is then cured rather than fired. Classification according to material While clays are most commonly used in brick production, there is enough variety to warrant additional classifications, Clay brick: Clay brick, the most common category, uses a natural material largely composed of hydrated silicates of aluminum, with oxide or carbonate of iron or other substances. Silicates, in the form of sand, are added to the mix if not naturally present. There are three basic types of brickmaking clays: Surface clays found in surface deposits or"lenses" or on river bottoms Shales or clays subjected to geologic pressures that harden them in a range from slate to partially decomposed rock, and Uniform fireclays that require mining from deep deposits.

Sand-lime (calcium silicate) brick is brick formed by compressing rather than firing material other than clay. Terra cotta , which dates back to 1400 B.C., is a form of structural clay tile fired in kilns and commonly used either as a decorative facing tile or as a block pierced by rectangular holes. Terra cotta or clay tile blocks offered excellent insulation qualities, and often were used in the construction of ice houses designed to preserve cut ice blocks for usage through Western New York summers in the days before refrigeration. Terra cotta became popular in England early in the 19th Century, and by the last half of the century was in use in many of England's large public buildings, The Dun Building in Buffalo is an excellent example of a mix of decorative terra cotta elements, face brick and common brick. Concrete also can be cast into block form, as one of several materials that can be either molded or pressed into building blocks and then cured instead of fired. Cinder blocks and, more recently, industrial flyash blocks provide other examples. Brick Manufacture The making of brick has varied only in the details, since its earliest times.

While much of the process is now automated, brick-making itself is simple and basic. There are three processes used in making bricks, varying primarily in the amount of water mixed with the clay. In the stiff-mud process, used for most building bricks, only enough water is added to the clay to make it into a stiff paste that can be extruded through a die into a long ribbon or column of clay. The clay is sliced into brick-sized chunks by a brick cutter, a machine with a series of cutting wires. A vacuum pump may be used to remove air from the clay to make it stronger and easier to handle. In the soft-mud process, more water is used to make a soft paste of clay. Molds are dipped in sand or water to prevent sticking, and the paste is pressed into place and allowed to dry. This method is used for all hand-made bricks. In the dry-press process, the clay mix is only dampened. The clay is then compressed under high pressure into molds, This method is used for face and refractory brick. Since there is little water in the mix, the bricks can be fired without long drying periods.

Steps in brickmaking, from start to finished product, include Securing or winning the clay, by surface or deep mining Preparation, involving grinding to remove large clumps and blending and screening clays to increase uniformity and fineness Mixing and forming to add water and reach the desired plasticity Drying to remove water from formed bricks and prevent explosions while firing Firing in kilns to desired temperatures between 1,600 and 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (870 - 1,100 degrees C) Cooling. Colors Brick colors can vary based on natural materials, additives to the clay mixture, or surface applications. The Victorian period in architecture spurred a demand for varied texture and color, toward the end of the 19th Century, Most bricks turn red in an oxidizing atmosphere at 900 to 1,000 degrees Centigrade. At higher temperatures they, turn plum to purple in color At 1,200 degrees C they turn brown to grey. In reducing atmospheres, commonly-used clays would turn purple or blue with black cores. The red color assumes an iron content in the clay, a common occurrence.

But natural clays can range from whites through greys and buffs to reds and purples, Fireclays tend toward the lighter greys and buffs, while ordinary clay-shale mixes tend toward the reds, By regulating the oxidizing conditions in the kiln, and creating sudden temperature increases in a process known as flashing, dark hues up to black can be obtained. Common constituents added to the clay mixture to produce colors include high percentages of lime with iron traces (white) low percentages of lime with iron traces (grey) low percentages of chalk (cream) up to 2 percent iron oxide (buff) iron oxide at 900 degrees in a reducing atmosphere (brown) iron oxide at 900 degrees in an oxidizing atmosphere (bright salmon) iron oxide at 1,100 degrees in a reducing atmosphere (red), 7 to 10 percent iron oxide (blue) 7 to 10 percent iron oxide with manganese oxide (black) Vegetable materials also will produce black coloration with a sudden temperature increase. Materials also may be sprinkled on the surface of the brick before firing, to produce colors.

Common elements used in this method include manganese (brown), chromium (pink), antimony (yellow), cobalt and manganese (black), copper (green), and cobalt (blue). Brick Brands As brickmaking became an industry in North America in the mid-1800s, brickyards proliferated near population centers. As noted above, the Hudson River Valley yards led the U. S, in production early in the 20th Century, turning out about 20 percent of the nation's bricks, By World War I, though, Midwestern yards in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio were equaling New York production, a mid-continent industry had developed from Kansas City to Coffeyville, Kansas, and western states were being supplied by yards in California. Brick production reached 12.8 billion in 1925, before the Great Depression and then World War II slowed domestic production and dropped the 1945 tally below 3 billion. Since the war, bricks have had to compete with newer building materials and both economics and transportation changes have restructured the industry. During the heyday of brick production, though, there were hundreds of yards turning out bricks.

Competition was fierce, and that fostered a need for advertising. Brickyards developed the concept of brands. Brands are markings on a face of the brick, impressed or scraped into the wet clay before firing. Not all bricks carry brands, but the archaeologist should be aware that the practice marks a time period stretching from the 1860s to about 1950. "In the 1860s they started to mark brick," Frank Clement noted. "They knew it was a kind of advertising." Brands on bricks can be used to determine the regional origin of manufacture and patterns of distribution, but catalogs are not yet complete. The International Brick Collectors Association, which publishes a journal, is an excellent source of information. A continually-updated data base, "Brick Manufacturers in the US" is maintained for the association by Jim Graves; 35 Buffalo-area brands are listed. Development of brick brands is best described by third-generation Hudson River Valley brickmaker and brick historian Daniel deNoyelles: About 1835 a shop in the "flats" of the Hudson River near James Woods' brickyard at Haverstraw ran aground.

The crew, awaiting flood tide, rowed ashore to visit the brickyard, One of the crew, who had worked on a brickyard across the river at Tarrytown, showed Mr. Wood how to make a mould with a bottom and a "vent." With the bottoms or panels in the moulds and the vents perfected, some unknown enterprising brickmaker scratched his name in the panel of his moulds a short time after 1850, This would tell the world that he made these bricks, These early moulds had no "frog," an indentation in the panel which in later years held the brand, so the brands were sometimes burned into the wood and sometimes cut with a knife. Many times the letters were carved every which way! Many manufacturers continued to produce plain brick, i.e., with no frog until ca. 1870s when central brick markets came into existence in New York City. With the branding of brick the buyers of cargoes would know whence their purchases came. It was then that certain brands were known for their quality and the manufacturer for his honesty when the building material dealers wanted excellence to govern their patronage.

In the 1880s manufacturers and mouldmakers decided that a template could be made so that the brands in the moulds could be made uniformly. This insured a well-balanced and well-proportioned brand name cut into the bottom of the mould, but no manufacturer discerned the importance of the "frog." The "frog," which dates at least to 1690 in England, was indeed important, for a number of reasons. This indentation on the bottom of the brick not only provided a place for the brand, it also saved material and provided a "key" for the mortar, insuring a better bond during bricklaying. DeNoyelles adds that the brickmakers of the Hudson Valley eventually caught on, and began using deeper and deeper frogs. "When making billions of brick, the 'frog' saved much raw material," he noted. Use of brands varied from region to region, however.

Roger and Marsha Kelly, in a rare archaeological study of bricks and brickmaking, note that "not every brick bore an impressed mark; in fact in some geographical regions, common or fire brick were impressed but paving brick were not, yet in the Kansas area, street and sidewalk paving brick were impressed but construction brick were not." Collectors: Brands could come in a variety of styles, including words and symbols, The variety has sparked a hobby, the collection and trading of brand bricks, and collectors can be a source of information for the archaeologist. Frank and Jane Clement : Clement's home at 6291 Milestrip Road in Orchard Park has a driveway that, in 1995, featured 12,000 "name" bricks from across the country. He and his wife, Jane, both have headed the International Brick Collectors Association, and are joined on their collecting trips by their son, Jim. Clement notes that the symbols used to mark brands include bisons, arrowheads, good-luck horseshoes, and stars.

A garage in North Boston, he said, is made largely of "star" brick, which was popular among children for another reason; the star-shaped indentations, filled with molten fishing-sinker lead and backed with a pin, made sheriffs badges for generations of pint-sized cowboys. There was a Star Brick Co. in Lancaster. Very early brands were hand-drawn in the clay, and Clement notes that the literacy of laborers is sometimes evident in misspellings or reversed 'N's and 'S's. Later brands were mass-produced using wood or metal dies inserted in the brick molds; occasionally the screws holding the die to the backing panel of the mold also will be reproduced in the finished brick. Kelly and Kelly characterize brand types in several categories: Family names of plant owners (Patton, Brush, etc.) Initials of company names, especially yards with multiple owners (DFjr&Co) Place names (Angola, Attica, Gallup, Alamo, etc.) Trade names or nicknames (Trojan, Keystone, etc.) Combinations of symbols or logo designs (e.g.

letters within a crescent or oval) There are other categories as well, including pure symbols and messages, Perhaps the most famous of the latter bricks are the "DON'T SPIT ON THE SIDEWALK" warnings emblazoned on bricks produced in Kansas as part of Dr. Samuel J. Crumbine's early 20th Century campaign to limit the spread of tuberculosis. The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. also has a research and display collection of bricks, including 1,500 donated in 1994 by Raymond Chase of Peekskill, NY. Included are bricks with the messages "Pray" and "Merry Christmas." According to Clement, only about 1 in 5,000 bricks will bear a brand. Only about a quarter of all buildings have what collectors consider "interesting bricks." [See Bricklaying The third little pig was a sober little pig. He was building his house of bricks. - The Three Little Pigs Brick construction depends for its strength not only on the quality of the brick, but also on the arrangement of the bricks to form an interlocking structure.

"Brickwork is designed so that individual bricks are bonded into a structure that will act as a whole," one source notes. "The texture, strength, and watertightness of a brick wall depend greatly on the skill of the bricklayer. Mortar: Mortar joints between individual bricks must be well formed and watertight. The mortar used to hold the bricks together consists usually of portland cement, lime, and sand, although mortar types vary throughout the world." Knowledge of brickwork can be useful to the archaeologist faced with a buried bit of brick wall. Based on the arrangement and use of bricks, for example, it might be possible to tell whether the excavated section is the end point or merely a continuation of the wall, Basics The arrangement of bricks in rows or courses is called the bond of the wall. The type of bond will determine both the strength and the appearance of the wall. Bonds can tie two to three tiers of brick together, or can tie an outer brick facing to an inner back-up wall. In the interlocking arrangement of bricks, bricks placed parallel to the face of a wall (so the longest side is showing) are called stretchers.

Bricks placed perpendicular to the wall (with the end showing) are called headers. Headers are used to link two adjoining sets of courses, as in a wall two bricks thick. Bricks set vertically in walls are called soldiers if set longitudinally, like stretchers, or rowlocks if set endwise, like headers. A brick broken in half to fill a specific space is called a bat or brickbat, and when used to fill out a course at a corner becomes a closer. The joints between bricks are filled with mortar. The thickness of mortar joints can vary from thin "buttered" to very thick, and the mortar may be tooled in, cut flush, raked out, or left protruding. Mortar usually makes up about 15 percent of a wall. Steel reinforcing bars, or rebar, may be placed in the mortar joints or in a cavity between outer and inner walls to increase the shearing and bending strength of a wall. The cavity between walls can be left as air space or filled with a pouring-consistency mortar called grout. Types of Brick Walls There are three general categories of walls. Load-bearing walls support floors, furniture, people and roofing.

Early large structures featured load-bearing walls of brick or stone, and in brick structures the load-bearing walls were made very thick, This placed a limit on the height such buildings could attain, and the last high-rise brick building under the codes developed before modern engineering standards was the Monadnock Building in Chicago, 1889-91, a 16-story structure with brick load-bearing walls tapering from six feet (2 meters) thick at the base to one foot (30 cm) at the top. Structural steel replaced brick for high-rise structures soon after, but modem engineering now has led to 15-story apartment buildings in Europe with load-bearing brick walls only a foot thick, and reinforced brickwork has been used in an earthquake-resistant 17-story building with walls I I inches thick. Bearing walls may be bonded brick, brick and tile, cavity walls with air or grout-filled inner spaces, reinforced walls with steel bar and grout, or single-thickness walls. Bonding may be done through use of brick headers or metal ties. Non-load-bearing walls carry only their own weight. They may clad a steel or concrete frame building.

Tall non-load-bearing walls are usually supported at each floor by metal shelves, angles or connections; a wall supported at the base only is called a curtain wall. Veneer walls are non-load-bearing walls consisting of brick, ceramic or terra cotta fastened or adhered to a backing material. Patterns As with any stylistic element, the patterns used by bricklayers may be used as clues to regional or even ethnic origin. Many carry regional names. The following pages illustrate both brickwork patterns and common construction techniques, using illustrations from Architectural Graphic Standards (Second Edition), by Charles George Ramsey and Harold Reeve Sleeper (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1936). Among the most common types likely to be encountered are American bond , in which a course of headers is laid across the top of every fifth or sixth course of stretchers laid in front and back walls English bond , characterized by alternate courses of stretchers and headers Flemish bond , with alternate headers and stretchers in each course, staggered in front and back to form hollow squares within the wall. Click on illustrations for larger size Brickwork Aztec homes [ ?

]Subscribe To This Site Aztec homes Aztec homes in the big cities in what is now central Mexico ranged from the elaborate homes of the wealthy to the homes of the poor. Of course, there was the emperor's palace (actually, he had more than one home) which covered an extensive area. All in all, the homes of families had a lot in common, whether the home of a noble or a commoner. Common Aztec homes were made of adobe (sun dried brick made from adobe clay). The main area of the Aztec shelter was one room split up equally into four areas. There was an area for the whole family to sleep in, a family shrine where gods would be kept, a place where meals would be prepared, and then the eating area. There would be thatched roofs, or even terraced roofs. It was here that the people stood to attack the Spaniards, a last stand against the conquering army. In the adobe walls would be the doors. It was common for the windows (if there were any) to have two parallel sides and then two sides of different length. This shape or rectangles were very basic in Aztec architecture.

Aztec nobles had homes with a similar layout, but they would sometimes be made of better materials, such as lime or stone. These Aztec homes would be bigger and more elaborate. Generally speaking, nobles were allowed to decorate their homes lavishly, and the commoners very little (learn more about social classes in the Aztec empire ). Gardens were very important to the Aztecs - the nobles might have large beautiful gardens. Read more about the construction of Aztec houses here . Aztec doctors believed that everyone should have access to a steam bath - and so every Aztec home in Tenochtitlan (though not throughout the empire) had a separate building for that purpose. The little circular building had a low doorway (a smaller doorway kept more heat in). A fire was placed against the wall, and then water was poured on the hot wall creating the steam. Some would be more elaborate. The steam bath was called the temazcalli, which means "house to sweat". Steam baths are still popular in Mexico today ( see this photo of a steam bath like the ones in Aztec homes ). They are commonly used for religious purposes.

Once you got to the top of society, you found multi-roomed palaces such as Moctezuma's. The palace had fabulous botanical gardens and even a zoo. An adobe house in Mexico today photo courtesy of andrésmh The articles on this site are ©2006-2016. If you quote this material please be courteous and provide a link. Egyptian Mud Bricks - Biblical Essays Biblical Essays EGYPTIAN MUD BRICKS The absence of rain, the scarcity of wood and an abundance of sunshine made adobe the preferred building material. Loamy Nile mud mixed with straw resulted in surprisingly strong bricks. A sunbaked mud brick without straw had a strength of less than 6 kp/cm², the addition of straw resulted in a brick three times as strong (about 20 kp/cm²). As long as groundwater did not dissolve their foundations and floods did not reach them, well-tended mud brick walls could stand for generations. In every location during a building project, brick molds (see picture below) of equal size were used which were between about 45 to 30 cm in length and 20 to 15 cm in width.

The brick size was thus standardized, e.g. 30 by 15 by 7.5 cm during the Middle Kingdom. At Karnak the bricks measured 40 by 20 by 15, at the Late Period Naukratis they were about the same size. These dimensions suggest they were generally laid in cross bond (English bond). But other bonding patterns such as running bond, Flemish bond, and stack bond were apparently also used at times. A modern mud brick maker can produce between 1000 and 2000 bricks a day. One may assume that ancient workers were about as efficient. Five days’ work should therefore have sufficed to make about 5000 bricks needed for a worker’s one storey house of 60 to 80 m² with 40 cm thick walls. Few ancient mud bricks survived, but those that did can sometimes be dated because they were frequently stamped with the cartouche of the reigning monarch Not surprisingly, given the scarcity of fuel, the Egyptians rarely used burned bricks. But one of the earliest tombs to be opened at Nebesheh was built of red baked bricks, dated to Egypt’s Nineteenth Dynasty.

“This tomb was of Pa-mer-kau, according to the two limestone ushabti found in it; and from a statue in the temple, representing Merenptah, son of Pa-mer-kau, and bearing the cartouche of Ramessu II., it may be dated to the nineteenth dynasty” (W.M. Flinders Petrie, Tanis, Part II, Nebesheh [Am] and Defenneh [Tahpanhes]). Workmen had buckets and baskets to carry the mud, hoes for mixing it with straw or chaff and standard sized wooden molds (see picture below). Wheelbarrows were unknown and the dried bricks had to be carried, for which a yoke was often used. A mud brick is a fire-free brick, made of a mixture of clay, mud, sand, and water mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw. They use a stiff mixture and let them dry in the sun for 25 days You might wonder why so many ancient monuments are left standing while we don’t have any ancient Egyptian homes still around. The answer: Mud versus stone. Stone was built to last, and the ancient monuments are, for the most part, built from stone.

Homes, however, were built out of a much less expensive material – mud brick. This basic building material consisted of chopped straw mixed with mud from the Nile. Ancient homeowners then shaped the bricks in a wooden mold and left them to dry in the sun. After time, the elements would lead to crumbling and some bricks in the walls would have to be replaced. To protect them from the heat of the beating sun, the ancient Egyptians placed narrow windows high on the walls. As in Egypt today, many of the mud brick walls were whitewashed to deflect the sun’s heat. Depending on how wealthy and elaborate the dwellers were, the walls inside would be painted with colorful scenes of everyday life. Beneath your feet would be an earthen floor covered with reed mats. From the beginning of Egyptian history mud bricks were used as a basic material for construction. In the course of the Early Dynastic Period (about 3100-2613 b.c.) and the Old Kingdom (about 2613-2160 b.c.) bricks remained the basic building material of structures for living in, whether palaces or the houses of the ordinary people.

Stone was gradually introduced for temples and the tombs of the élite. Bricks were produced in vast quantities for all sorts of projects. They were made from Nile mud mixed with sand and straw, the latter two elements giving strength to the basic material. Egyptian Mud Brick Construction While the Sphinx and the pyramids in Egypt have survived the vagaries of age, Egyptian houses are another story. The main reason for this is that ancient residential and commercial construction in Egypt utilized Egyptian mud bricks and these are not durable. Homes were constructed out of this material because it was very cheap and economical. The basic method of constructing Egyptian mud bricks was to combine small pieces of straw with soil from the Nile River and shape this mixture into bricks by filling it in wooden molds. These were then dried out in the sun and resembled baked clay. The houses were constructed out of Egyptian mud bricks and then painted with a whitewash on the outside to reduce the impact of the harsh sunrays. Windows were placed on the upper parts of the walls and were extremely narrow in order to reduce the amount of heat that was transferred inside the house.

Both affluent and working-class homes were sparsely furnished with basic furniture constructed in a very functional form and the most common piece of furniture was a flat and low square created out of wood. This had a comfortable seating cushion made out of leather or fleece. Ancient Egyptian Mud Brick Homes in Affluent Areas Affluent homes were painted on the inside with different scenes depicting the daily lifestyle of Egyptians and the floor made out of mud was covered with mats woven from reed. The ceilings were crafted out of tightly woven palm rafters and sticks. The Egyptians believed in vertical construction and often had multiple story homes to utilize the land to its maximum potential. Ancient Egyptian Mud Brick Homes in Working-Class Areas Archaeologists have discovered ancient Egyptian houses in labor villages at Deir el-Medina in Upper Egypt. These followed a basic square shape and had three main working areas. This included the living room, a yard and the bedroom or sleeping area. The yard was utilized as an outdoor kitchen and always consisted of baked clay ovens and a floor space for grinding grain which would later be used to make bread or beer. Apart from this a basement was constructed with two cellars which were utilized as storage areas.

The front of the house was utilized by the craftsman in the labor village to conduct their work like pottery and carpentry or farming. During the hot months the stairway would lead to a flat roof where the Egyptians would cook and sleep and even dine in the company of their family members. Wood In Ancient Egypt Wood was extremely scarce, almost non-existent in ancient Egypt. The two construction materials that the ancient land of Egypt seemed capable of producing in multitude was sand and papyrus reeds; with some stone quarries. Therefore, for the most part, the majority of ancient Egyptian houses were constructed of mud brick. Ancient mud houses in Egypt were made by first mixing a compound of mud and straw. The mixture could then be formed into bricks that were allowed to bake and dry under the hot Egyptian sun. While the mud might be plentiful, it was not particularly sturdy. In a very short amount of time, usually just a few years, an ancient Egyptian house constructed of mud brick would begin to deteriorate and crumble. Ancient mud houses in Egypt were primarily constructed and lived in by the commoners on the lowest social strata in Egypt, who could afford little else.

Ancient Egyptian Houses In Egypt ancient houses constructed by the wealthy nobles were much different than those built by commoners. Those who could afford to do so built their ancient Egypt house of stone taken from stone quarries. Ancient Egypt houses constructed of stone were much sturdier and solidly built. The wealthy could afford to fill their homes with far more luxuries than poorer families. In Egypt ancient houses built by wealthy families, were likely to contain tiled floors and beautifully painted walls. While ancient Egypt houses built by commoners and nobles might have differed in many respects, in many others, they were quite similar in order to survive the burning heat of the Egyptian climate as comfortable as possible. Almost all ancient Egypt houses were constructed with a flat roof. Not only did this most likely make the construction process simpler, but the flat roofs also offered a welcome respite from the burning Egyptian sun. Families often lounged, ate and slept on the roofs of ancient Egypt houses. Another similarity in a typical ancient Egyptian home and houses was the presence of a hearth. Even in wealthy ancient Egypt houses, there was a need for a hearth in order to prepare food.

Due to the arid climate of the Egyptian nation, it is not likely the hearth of a house of ancient Egypt, although quite common, would have been needed for heating. The abundance of furniture was not common in most ancient Egyptian houses, due to the lack of wood. The most common furnishings were three legged stools and chests; even in wealthier Egyptian homes. adobe - definition and meaning adobe from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition n. A sun-dried, unburned brick of clay and straw. n. The clay or soil from which this brick is made. n. A structure built with this type of brick. from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License n. An unburnt brick dried in the sun. n. A house made of adobe brick. from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English n. An unburnt brick dried in the sun; also used as an adjective, . n. Earth from which unburnt bricks are made. n. Alluvial and playa clays of desert and arid regions, differing from ordinary clays of humid regions in containing carbonates and other soluble minerals.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia n. The Mexican-Spanish name of the sun-dried brick in common use in countries of small rainfall and of inferior civilization. n. Clay or soil from which sun-dried bricks are made, or which is suitable for making them. In the quicksilver-mines of the Pacific coast, a brick made of the finer ores mixed with clay, for more convenient handling in the furnace. Built or made of adobes or sundried bricks. Suitable for making sundried bricks: as, an adobe soil. from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. n. sun-dried brick; used in hot dry climates n. the clay from which adobe bricks are made Etymologies from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition Spanish, from Arabic aṭ-ṭūba, the brick : al-, the + ṭūba, a brick, singulative of ṭūb, bricks (from Coptic tōbe, tōōbe, from Egyptian ḏbt, brick).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License From Spanish adobe, from Arabic الطوب (aṭ-ṭūb), from Coptic (Sahidic) ⲧⲱⲃⲉ (tōbe, "brick"), from Egyptian Examples

Question: What is the name given to sun dried brick used in hot countries for building
Answer: Adobe