Actually, Thomas Freeman and James S. Porter were manufacturing fire brick on a large scale at New Cumberland, West Virginia as early as 1830-32.
Silica refractory brick cemented with clay bonding came considerably later, the 1870s in Ohio.
Jim Murphy
----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Genheimer <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Monday, August 7, 2006 9:22 am
Subject: Re: Query about cementitious firebrick (?)
> Just a note. Refractory bricks were being manufactured in the
> U.S. long before the end of the 19th century. Excavation of a
> yellow ware kiln site in Covington, Kentucky indicate (numerous
> stamped bricks recovered) that they were being made by
> manufacturers in St. Louis, West Virginia, and other portions of
> the Ohio Valley as early as the 1840s and 1850s.
>
> Bob Genheimer
> George Rieveschl Curator of Archaeology
> Cincinnati Museum Center
> 1301 Western Avenue
> Cincinnati, Ohio 45203
> 513-455-7161
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Ron
> May
> Sent: Friday, August 04, 2006 4:43 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Query about cementitious firebrick (?)
>
>
> Karl Gurcke authored a book about bricks, in which he treats fire
> brick. The
> yellow-tan brick does not melt in the fireplace fires and often
> resists
> industrial furnace temperatures. Just yesterday, I saw a group of
> really odd
> shapes lining a 1908 garden at the U.S. Navy Fuel Farm in San
> Diego. Those were
> specially-made for some sort of pipe structure. The earliest were
> made in other
> countries, but by the end of the 19th century, American factories
> produced
> fire brick. The Los Angeles Pressed Brick factory produced much
> of what is
> seen in southern California fireplaces. But I expect local
> factories could be
> found across America by the 1920s.
>
> Ron May
> Legacy 106, Inc.
>
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