Fire bricks
Did anyone mention firebricks?
 
three reference works are:
 
A.B. Searle (remember him) 1940  "Refactory Materials: their manufacture and
uses", Charles Griffin  & Co. London.
 
a 895 page text book, all you ever wanted to know about firebricks and their
uses.
 
K. W. Sanderson   1990   "The Scottish Refactory Industry 1830-1980", K.W.
Sanderson, Edinburgh.
 
A short but good history of the Scottish industry and virtually the only
publication on the Scottish firebrick industry.
 
K.W. Sanderson   1985   "Stein of Bonnybridge", K.W. Sanderson, Edinburgh.
 
A good company history of one on the major firebrick manufacturers.
 
Kenneth Sanderson may still have copies of the latter two books for sale.
His address is 22 Belgrave Cresent, Edinburgh, Scotland. They'd make a good
Christmas present or a suitable addition to a University Library.
 
My understanding is that fire bricks varies in the refcatoryness,
dimensional stability and structural integrity and therefore differnet fire
bricks were used in different industries or even within different parts of
the same industrial process.
 
Looking at manufacturers catalouges (of which I have several) there were
standard shapes produced for standard applications such as chimneys
fireboxes in locomotives and so on. However for some applications fire
bricks were specially made and these came in odd shapes.
 
Also note that not every white coloured brick is a fire brick. Often white
bricks were made for decoration out of ordinary clay or kaolin these are not
fire bricks.
 
In Australia I have seen considerable numbers of English and Scottish fire
bricks as well as the local product but no American fire bricks.
 
I hope this covers some issues, I am happy to answer any further queries.
 
Iain Stuart,
PHA, University of Sydney
 
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