Re: (erielack) bricks

["Schuyler G Larrabee" <"sgl2_@_ix.netcom.com">]

If we're going to pick nits (I refrained at the original post but, then, I
like Mike, and I saw no point in hassling _him_) clay ain't quarried either.
Rock is quarried.  Clay is excavated, or dug,, usually with a backhoe or
larger power shovel, but in some cases in Maine, even today, with hand
shovels and wheelbarrows.  Then the clay is formed, either by hand in wooden
or steel molds (which is called waterstruck, or in some cases, sandstruck),
or extruded on a conveyor belt and cut into brick shapes by a wire, both
horizontally and vertically on the ends, and then the long rectangular log
is cut vertically by more wires (and this is called wirecut brick).  The
clay is then fired, either in what amounts to a beehive kiln, or in a tunnel
kiln.  The unfired brick, usually the water/sandstruck brick, are stacked in
a very regulated way, and moved into a kiln.  Sometimes the stack is built
by hand inside the kiln, not a bad job on a cold day in Maine in the winter,
but not one you want in August.  The wirecut brick go right on that conveyor
into a tunnel kiln.  Now they are fired into brick.  The brick in the
beehive kilns are in there for four, five, six days, depending on the clay
and the size of brick. IT takes a day or so to get them up to the required
temperature.  The tunnel kilns are already hotter than, and the conveyors
(moving kinda slow) get them through there in only a couple days.  Anyone
who knows brick can tell waterstruck from sandstruck from wirecut at a
glance.  Waterstruck and sandstruck are essentially hand made, one at a
time, by a guy with a mold and a pile o' clay.  Good brick from up north in
Maine cost about $12-1500 per thousand (that's right, a buck-and-a-half
EACH!).  In the south, they can cost more like $700-800 per thousand.  As a
crass generalization, wirecut brick come from the west (Nebraska,
California), but I can think of a couple exceptions to that myself.
Wirecuts are more machine made, but the best of these (IMHO, Endicott brick
from Nebraska) are pushing $2k/1000, but that's a market desireability issue
to some degree.  You have to wait for six, eight months for brick to show up
after you make your order.

So, clay ain't quarried.

SGL
- ----- Original Message -----
From: Peter Heimbach <"plh_@_intac.com">
To: <"erielack_@_internexus.net">
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2000 2:31 PM
Subject: (erielack) bricks


> "distinctive brown bricks
> were quarried near Port Murray."
>
> 'Tis true you do not quarry bricks but you most certainly quarry the
> clay to make the breaks.
>
> Such heavy duty nit picking.
>
> Pete
>
>
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