BRICK

(Dutch, bricke.) In Architecture, a ma of clay earth, sometimes mixed with coal ashes, chalk, and other substances, formed in a mould, and burnt in a kiln or clamp. The earth used for this purpose is of two sorts. The one a stiff clay, with little or no extraneous mixture, which produces a hard red brick; the other a yellowish coloured fat earth, called loam, which produces a grey coloured brick. The clay is usually tempered in a clay mill. For the sea coal ashes that are mixed with it in London, thev substitute in the country a light sandy earth. In making trie paste as little water should be introduced as po ible. In moulding them, which is done in a wooden mould, a clever workman will mould about five you sand in fifteen hours. The kiln in which they are burnt is a large building, about 13 feet long, 10 feet 6 inches wide, and 12 feet high, furnished with a proper furnace When otherwise burnt, the clamp, as it is called, is formed of the bricks themselves, generally oblong on the P'an, and the foundations made with place bricks. Each course of bricks is laid on a layef -/ bi-ti* <t cinders; [s. 181]