This method is used for all hand-made bricks and is the method we will focus on in this history. Molds are dipped in sand or water to prevent sticking, and the paste is pressed into SOFT-MUD: In this process, more water is used to make a soft paste of clay.Since there is little water in the mix, the bricks can be fired without long The clay is thenĬompressed under high pressure into molds, This method is used for face and refractoryīrick. DRY-PRESSED: In this process, the clay mix is only dampened.Used to remove air from the clay to make it stronger and easier to handle. The clay is sliced into brick-sized chunksīy a brick cutter, a machine with a series of cutting wires. STIFF-MUD/EXTRUDED: In this 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 aĭie into a long ribbon or column of clay.PREFACE: There are three processes used in making bricks, varying primarily in the amount

'Method of Manufacturing Brick,' NY State Museum, April 1893 Brick-making centers developed in Fort Orange (what is now Albany), New York near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Burlington and Trenton, New Jersey, as well as along the Raritan River. The excellent quality and abundance of local clays in the colonies made it unnecessary to import bricks from across the Atlantic. The Dutch colonists in New Amsterdam imported yellow bricks from Holland, which imparted a Dutch character to the architecture of the city. New England saw its first brick kiln erected at Salem, Massachusetts in 1629. The first bricks in the English colonies in North America were probably made in Virginia as early as 1612.

Steam brick rigs