Winning, Dashing, and Firing
Making Bricks In Danville
By Van Wagner
January 1, 2009
Clay bricks were made in Danville as early as 1813. The first brick house in Danville was the building on the north
side of Soverign Bank on Mill Street, formerly Dr. Vaughn's dental office and
once the law office of James Scarlet.
The second one was the Magill home on W. Market St. built around 1814,
possibly 1816, there are conflicting articles about the date. Alexander Montgomery had his
home, the current American Legion, built out of brick that was made across the
road from his house about 1819.
Clay was mined locally, processed in rendering pits, and fired locally
to create the final product.
Bricks we used to build homes, roads, walls, canal and railroad
structures, and the interior of iron blast furnaces.
There were 5 steps to local brick
making. First was the ÒwinningÓ or
mining of the clay. This was often
done in the fall. All mining was
done by hand with picks and shovels until the steam shovel was invented in
1879. The raw clay was
allowed to freeze and thaw over the winter. This made the clay more workable. It is unclear where clay was mined locally. There are several references to
Mahoning Creek being used as a source.
Several of DanvilleÕs brickyards were located near the river. This may suggest that river clay may
have been used.
The second stage in brick making
was tempering or preparation. In
the spring the clay was worked as dry powder. Another method was to soak the clay in pits and mix the clay
with bare feet or hands. The goal
was to separate out any rocks no matter how small. Rocks will cause cracks and explosions during the firing
process. At a pug mill the clay
was mixed with a small amount of sand and mixed to a doughy consistency. By the mid 1800Õs horse driven pug
mills were used.
Horse powered pug mill. From Dobson.
The third step is moulding. The clay was removed from the soaking
pit or pug mill by a temperer who delivered it to the moulding table. The assistant brick moulder was called
the "clot" moulder and he would prepare a lump of clay and give it to
the brick moulder. The brick moulder was the key to the operation and he was
the head of the team. He would stand at the moulding table for 12 to 14 hours a
day and with the help of his assistants could make 3500 to 5000 bricks per day.
He would take the clot of clay, roll it in sand and "dash" it into
the sanded mould. The dash
involved holding the ball of clay about head-level and throwing it into the
mould. The clay was then pressed
completely into the mould with the hands and the excess clay removed from the
top of the mould with a strike, which was a flat stick that had been soaking in
water. Excess clay was returned to the clot moulder to be reformed. Sand was
used to prevent the clay from sticking to the mould.
Moulding table shown in Dobson's
Book
Mould (top)
and stockboard (below) of the kind used for making bricks in the nineteen
century. Beech wood was often used
because moulders claimed it resisted sticking to clay. Brick moulds ranged from
single, as seen above, to six.
The Òoff-bearerÓ would then take
the full moulds to the drying floor using a barrow (below). He would then return the empty moulds
to the moulding table where he would apply sand and water for the next
batch.
Barrow for twenty-six bricks
illustrated by Dobson
Bricks were sun dried for 2 days
before they were flipped and dressed by an edger. The edger worked the bricks to ensure a smooth and straight
edge. After 4 hot, dry days the
bricks were moved to a covered area called a hack or hackstead. They were stacked under cover with at
least a fingers width between them to allow further drying. After 2 weeks in the hack the bricks
were ready for firing.
The fourth step was firing. The
bricks were stacked into arches and the fire was built inside the arch. The bricks themselves were the kiln. If
fired bricks were available from a previous batch they were used to construct
the outer walls of the kiln and the surface was smeared with mud to contain the
heat. If no fired bricks were available, the kiln was constructed entirely of
green or raw bricks that were stacked in such a way as to act as their own
kiln. These kilns were called clamps or scove kilns. Some coal dust was added because
it made them burn better, and some companies added red oxide for coloring. The
walls and top were plastered with a mixture of sand, clay, and water to retain
the heat. Bricks were placed
closer together and vented for circulation at the top to pull the heat up
through the bricks. The kilns were originally fired with wood or anthracite
coal. I have not been able to find
proof that bituminous coal was used but I strongly suspect that it was. PennsylvaniaÕs Òbrick beltÓ is located
in the bituminous regions and almost certainly used local soft coal. Whether or not it was imported to
Danville is unclear.
Kiln stack design from Dobson.
After drying in air the green
bricks still contained 9-15% water. Due to this water, the fires were kept low
for 24-48 hours to finish the drying process and during this time steam could
be seen coming from the top of the kiln. This was called "water
smoke". Once the gases cleared this was the sign to increase the intensity
of the fires. If it was done too soon the steam in the bricks would cause them
to explode. Intense fires were maintained in the fire holes around the clock
for a week until temperatures of 1800 degrees F were reached. In 1828
brickmaker James Wood discovered that adding 'culm' (coal crushed into a fine
dust) to the mixture reduced burning time for a kiln by one-half, from 14 to
7. The knowledge and experience of
the brickmaker dictated when the fireholes would be bricked over and the heat
was allowed to slowly dissipate over another week. The total baking time for
kilns ranged from 8 to 12 days. Each
finished brick weighed approximately eight pounds. Salt was added in the kiln
"eyes" while the brick baked. This changed their color and made them
waterproof.
After cooling down, the entire
kiln was usually disassembled and the bricks were sorted. If only raw bricks
had been used, the bricks from the outermost walls were kept to be burned again
in the next kiln. Some bricks that were closest to the fire received a natural
glaze. These bricks were used in the interior courses of the walls. Bricks that
became severely over-burned and cracked or warped were called clinkers and were
occasionally used for garden walls or garden paths.
The best bricks were chosen for
use on the exterior walls of the building. Those that were only slightly under
fired had a salmon color and early bricklayers knew that the porosity of these
bricks would help to insulate the structure and they were placed on the
innermost courses of the wall.
Who We Know Of That Made Bricks
in Danville PA:
In 1892 Danville City directory
lists that John Deibert manufactured bricks on CO-OP Court and Joseph Flanagan made them on Mowrey
at the Susquehanna River. In 1895
John Deibert was still at CO-OP and John Keim (Kein) was making bricks at the
corner of Cooper and Foust Streets.
Keim was listed as a brick manufacturer at CO-OP in 1901.
Keim had a very good business in
the early 1900s. He made all the
brick for the wall around Castle Grove, presently known as St. CyrilÕs. This wall contains at least 300,000
bricks. Mr. Keim made all the
bricks for the orphanage on the road from Snydertown to Sunbury. He furnished 80,000 brick to the Magee
Carpet Co. to be used in building an extension to the factory. An account just after 1900 said he had
all four of his yards in operation employing five moulders. He provided all the bricks for
the new building being built at the Danville State Hospital. The total order for was for 1, 200,000
bricks. He had a dozen men
employed daily hauling brick to the state hospital, piling up brick in the
kilns, or digging clay for use next summer. KeimÕs was the rough or red brick,
they were handmade.
Danville may not have been a major
brick manufacturing town, yet bricks played a key role in our iron heritage. In
the 1800Õs, brick was an engineering prerequisite of infrastructure. Without bricks, a town lacked the
essential building blocks for furnaces, mills, homes, canals, railroads, and
factories.
References:
Book: Treatise on the Manufacture of Bricks, 1850, Edward Dobson
The definitive reference for brickmaking in the
mid-1800's.
Todd Jefferys.
Potter, Danville PA
Sis Haus.
Historian, Danville PA
Rick Bonomo. Potter, Berlin, PA
Leon Hagenbuch. Watsontown PA