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Preface. Since the first edition of this booklet was published in 1895, the paving brick industry has developed into one of the large, firmly established industries of this country, while the merits of vitrified brick as a paving material are now so universally known that it has become the most popular of pavements for cities, towns and even counties. After the industry got a successful foothold in 1885 there was such a rapid development during the following ten years and the demand and prices became so attractive that too many brickmakers rushed into the new and enticing field, for some were inadequately equipped to produce a good paver, or their clay was not suitable to make a durable paver, or, under the stimulus of growing markets and increasing prices they pursued the short- sighted policy of rushing out quantity, immaterial as to quality of the brick. In consequence, many poor brick were put on the market at a time when the public was not educated to distinguish between good, indifferent and bad brick a paver was still only a paver to most consumers. There was also a woeful lack of harmony among city engineers as to what constituted a good paver, how to lay them and how to test them. The prompt work of the Testing Committee of the National Brickmakers' Association soon removed the latter confusion, while experience more slowly settled the former. This setback, of which full advantage was taken by the competitors of brick, was not without its salutary effect, and since then the industry has been established on a more conservative, healthy basis. The small, imperfectly equipped plants have been succeeded by fewer but very much larger, well equipped factories that are under able business management, large stocks and usually several grades and sizes are carried, while the inexorable law of the "survival of the fittest" has eliminated those whose clays were not suitable. The use of paving brick is now mainly a question of freight. The weight of 1,000 pavers is so large, from four to six tons, that a long haul greatly increases their cost. The use of brick is, therefore, largely confined within a moderate radius of where suitable clays occur- Thus, New England, with its great wealth and dense population, has used comparatively little brick on account of the excessive freight, while local macadam is usually good and cheap. The state of Ohio, on the contrary, with its great abundance of suitable clays, has scarcely a town of 500 that has not at least paved its main street with brick. Vitrified brick is now exclusively employed in many of the larger cities for sewers, for which its exceptional hardness pre-eminently adapts it, while its use is steadily growing among our more advanced architects for the exterior of buildings, for under skillful handling it lends itself readily to picturesque effects which not only do not fade, but remain clean a feature that is so rare in any other building material in our western cities. Very recently a careful comparison was made in Indianapolis (see CLAY-WORKER August, 1909) of all the various paving materials to find the one most suitable for a speedway for automobiles. After elaborate tests, in which no expense was spared, it was found that vitrified brick was the best. The decision is too recent to have the great influence that it at least prognosticates for the industry. For, with the very rapid growth in the use of the automobile and its increase in power, the enormous mileage of macadamized roads that this popular machine has developed will largely give way to brick, for the modern automobile is found to rapidly wear and heavily cut into even well maintained macadam roads. The writer takes this opportunity to express his thanks and appreciation to the many engineers who favored him with local data and their personal experience. St. Louis, Oct. 11, 1909. H. A. WHEELER. Table of Contents History of Paving Brick Definition of Vitrified Brick Clays Employed Composition of Paving Brick Shales Physical Properties of Clays Manufacture of Paving Brick Winning the Clay Crushing Screening Pugging Molding Repressing Drying Burning Physical Properties of Paving Brick Color Structure Hardness Porosity Density Crushing Strength Cross Breaking Strength Toughness Methods of Testing Paving Brick Eye Examination Laboratory Tests Density Absorption Crushing Strength Cross Breaking Hardness Rattler Test Evaluation of the Tests Uniformity of Results Uses of Vitrified Brick Sewers Buildings Foundations Sidewalks Street Paving Chemical Purposes Other Paving Materials Macadam Wood Pavements Asphalt and Bitulithic Granitoid Cobble Stones Stone Blocks Comparison of Street Paving Materials First Cost Maintenance Traction Footing Cleanliness Noise Repairs Sanitary Value Size of Brick Foundation Drumming Durability of Paving Brick Paving Statistics Specifications for Brick Paving Grading and Preparing the Roadbed for Superstructure Intersection with Streets and Alleys Cement Sand and Limestone Screenings Broken Stone or Washed Gravel Concrete Crushing Vitrified Brick Wearing Surface Guarantee General Stipulations Payments N. P. B. M. A. Specifications Grading Curbing Foundation Sand Cushion Brick Bricklaying Rolling and Tamping Expansion Cushion Filler
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