Brick
This page is about bricks used for construction. For other types of brick please see Brick (disambiguation).
A brick is a ceramic block made of kiln-fired material, usually clay or ground shale. Clay bricks are formed in a mould (the soft mud method), or more frequently in commercial mass production by extruding clay through a die and then wire-cutting them to the proper size (the stiff mud process). Brick made from dampened clay must be formed in molds with a great deal of pressure, usually applied by a hydraulic press. These bricks are known as hydraulic-pressed bricks, and have a dense surface which makes them highly resistant to weathering, and thus suitable for facing work. The shaped clay is then dried and fired to achieve the final, desired strength. In modern brickworks, this is usually done in a continuously fired kiln, in which the bricks move slowly through the kiln on conveyors, rails, or kiln cars to achieve consistent physical characteristics for all bricks. Bricks are also known in the building trades as compressed earth blocks or CEB's.
History
In the Near East and India, bricks have been in use for more than five thousand years. The Tigris-Euphrates plain lacks rocks and trees. Sumerian structures were thus built of plano-convex mudbricks, not fixed with mortar or with cement. As plano-convex bricks (being rounded) are somewhat unstable in behaviour, Sumerian bricklayers would lay a row of bricks perpendicular to the rest every few rows. They would fill the gaps with bitumen, straw, marsh reeds, and weeds. The Ancient Egyptians and the Indus Valley Civilization also used mudbrick extensively, as can be seen in the ruins of Buhen, Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, for example.
The Romans made use of fired bricks, and the Roman legions, which operated mobile kilns, introduced bricks to many parts of the empire. Roman bricks are often stamped with the mark of the legion that supervised its production. The use of bricks in Southern and Western Germany, for example, can be traced back to traditions already described by the Roman architect Vitruvius.
In the 12th century, bricks from Northern Italy were re-introduced to Northern Germany, where an independent tradition evolved. It culminated in the so-called brick Gothic, a reduced style of Gothic architecture that flourished in Northern Europe, especially in the regions around the Baltic Sea which are without natural rock resources. Brick Gothic buildings, which are built almost exclusively of bricks, are to be found in Denmark, Germany, Poland and Russia. However, bricks were long considered an inferior substitute for natural rock.
During the Renaissance and the Baroque, visible brick walls were unpopular and the brickwork was often covered with plaster. It was only during the mid-18th century that visible brick walls regained some degree of popularity, as illustrated by the Dutch Quarter of Potsdam, for example.
Construction and types
Hard-burned brick should be used for face work exposed to the weather, and soft brick for filling, foundations, and the like. The mainstay standard US brick measures approximately 8 x 4 x 2.25 inches (203 x 102 x 57 millimeters), and has a crushing strength of between 1000 and 3000 lbf/in² (7 to 21 megapascals) depending on quality. The standard UK brick size is 215 x 102.5 x 65 millimetres.
A highly impervious and ornamental surface may be laid on brick either by salt glazing, in which salt is added during the burning process, or by the use of a "slip," which is a glaze material into which the bricks are dipped. Subsequent reheating in the kiln fuses the slip into a glazed surface integral with the brick base.
Proportions
Regardless of size, bricks are usually manufactured with the depth equal to half the length (assuming that the brick is laid horizontally). This allows for several convenient layouts which must necessarily interweave the bricks in any structure, often both at the corners and within the wall depth in order to ensure the greatest possible durability of the structure.
Use
Bricks are typically for building. In the USA at one time, it was popular to pave roads with bricks, but they were found incapable of withstanding heavy traffic. Brick paving is again coming back into use as a method of traffic calming or as a decorative surface in pedestrian precincts.
Bricks are also used in the metallurgy and glass industries for lining furnaces. They have various uses, especially refractory bricks such as silica, magnesia and neutral (chromomagnesite) refractory bricks. This type of brick must have a series of properties such as good thermal shock resistance, refractoriness under load, high melting point, satisfactory porosity (which can influence several other properties), all of which are high-temperature properties. There is a large refractory brick industry, especially in the United Kingdom, Japan and the U.S.A.
Brick Day
On October 15, 1879, Ezekiel Fairweather decided to give up his Arizona masonry business for good.
He gazed out over his peck of bricks, neatly stacked in piles of varying heights like a small industrial-age factory, and mournfully repeated the word that proved his undoing: Adobe. Adobe. Adobe.
No one, it seemed, wanted his English brickwork in the burgeoning Southwest, preferring the more established form of masonry in the region. Having sunk all his money into the venture, he lost big. So, he did what any sane man would do in the same situation -- he headed for a saloon and commenced to get lit. He walked in and sat down, pathetically clutching one of his beloved clay bricks to his chest like a parson holding the Good Book. He set the brick down on the bar and ordered a drink. (If jukeboxes had been around, he would've no doubt programmed "All by Myself.")
"Well there pardner," said the jovial bartender, "what chew got that brick fer?"
Fairweather took in a deep breath, slowly lowered his glass, and said, "It's Brick Day, fuckface."
Thus began the Brick Day holiday, a tradition that has lived on in the lives of many, but most notably in the lives of the East Bay band The Gazillions. Every year on the 15th of October they and their posse call in sick to work and show up at a bar with a brick and a dream -- the same dream Ezekiel Fairweather proffered two centuries ago: Death to adobe and other non-brick building materials. The band celebrates the day in a song that rounds up the uninitiated and spreads good brick cheer to the inebriated. I spoke with Jason Smith, Gazillion guy and KALX layabout, who told me that the holiday was in serious danger of extinction before the band took it upon themselves to keep the fire burning. "The Gazillions have actually broken up," says Smith, "but I think that the holiday should live on. I plan to celebrate Brick Day forever! I'd love the see the holiday become bicoastal, and maybe even international -- I mean, it's a holiday that encourages two things people love to do the most: 1) play hooky from work; and 2) drink excessively. Frankly, I'm surprised that it hasn't caught on more than it already has."
I decided to go to this year's Brick Day celebration at the Stork Club, and fourteen Budweisers later I was glad I did. We played the Brick Day drinking game -- which is suspiciously like "I Never" (the game where you go around the table saying stuff like "I never been skiing," and them that has must drink) -- but with the beer bottle perched on top of a brick. We handed out pepperoni to the winners. Readers will be happy to know that the statement "I've never had sex with an animal" didn't elicit one single swig from any of us.
But zoophilia aside, why is Brick Day so damn sexy? "Is there anything sexier," says Smith, "than watching dozens of your friends (and recent acquaintances) get a twelve-hour drink on? ... I'm at a loss." True dat. True dat. "Don't you think we need more national drinking days?" he asks. "And I'm not talking about holidays that drive you to drink (Christmas), or those holidays that are used as thinly veiled excuses to drink (Cinco de Mayo, St. Paddy's Day). I'm talking about a holiday that clearly admits its mission statement -- that you are meant to drink all day."
"Has Brick Day ever been rocked with violence?"
"Hmmm..." he muses, "interesting question. I guess you'd think with all the excessive drinking and bricks readily available that there would be more violence. But I don't believe there has ever been a single incidence of violence on Brick Day. At risk of making the day sound like some hippie holiday, I'd have to say I can't remember there ever being anything but love in the room when Brick Day's being celebrated." That certainly seemed true this year, with Stork Club owners Wes and Micky Chittock keeping the booze flowing at a discounted rate and the jukebox programmed with Prince songs. Later on fellow revelers and bandmembers from Blanche Devereaux (named for that slutbag from the Golden Girls) took to the stage in a stripped-down Billy Childish meets Billy Barty thing. Perhaps their best song, "Bootyshine," was an excellent way to round out the evening, segueing into an impromptu karaoke jam session.
As I sat sunk into a booth, beer-soaked dribble glistening on my chin, I was reminded of Ezekiel Fairweather's words: "It's Brick Day, fuckface." Damn straight. Damn straight indeed.
See also
