Dan--

When I was researching plantation brickmaking in Charleston, SC, I came
across a reference to a brickmaking machine costing $1000 in 1812.  At least
one plantation in the area acquired one of these machines--it is now in the
Charleston Museum.  If Martha Zierdan is on the list, maybe she can provide
you with a photo and more information.  It was essentially an iron molding
machine--as I recall, the clay was pressed into molds by the machine--not
extruded.

So yes--mechanized molding--probably at a pretty low rate--did exist early
in the 19th c.  Certainly by mid-century you had fully mechanized
brickmaking (see Gurke).

Lucy Wayne
----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel H. Weiskotten" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2004 10:53 PM
Subject: Early 19th Century Machine Made Bricks


> OK, all you brick aficionados ... tell me about VERY EARLY pressed or
> machine made bricks.  I was recently at a house where the bricks in the
> chimney were not so evidently hand made although dating to the 1820s and
> there is no indication that the chimney was a later one.  They are also
not
> like other machine made bricks I have studied.
>
> The bricks appear to have been formed in a hinged mold that was closed
onto
> the glob of clay, forcing the excess out the side, rather than the top,
> where it was stricken off.  In many examples the side of the brick has a
> deep fold or wrinkle in it showing that the gob of clay had indeed been
> folded or compressed in a hinged closing mold.  Some clearly show that the
> top, bottom, ends and one side were against the sides of the mold, while
> the one side was open, rather than having a box mold with the top open.
>
> I picture these things to have been made in a big old fashioned waffle
> maker-like thing.
>
> (strike marks are on one side of the brick not the top)
>
> They are also not perfectly formed, being very slightly tapered in
> THICKNESS from one side to the other (not like well bricks, which are
> tapered in WIDTH from one end to the other)
>
> Are there examples or patents for early 19th century or so brick machines
> in which the bricks are molded by compressing them in a hinged mold?  All
> references I have handy to early brick machines refer to mechanized ways
to
> mix the clay and keep the bricks dry, or they discuss extrusion attempts,
> which is a much different and later process.
>
> (I want to use the word "clamp" to describe the process, as in "clamping
> the mold shut like a waffle iron," but I know what a clamp is in
> brickmaking, so don't get confused)
>
> Dan W
>