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drop a brick Informal.
[Middle English brike, from Middle Dutch bricke.]
bricky brick'y adj.Background
The term brick refers to small units of building material, often made from fired clay and secured with mortar, a bonding agent comprising of cement, sand, and water. Long a popular material, brick retains heat, with-stands corrosion, and resists fire. Because each unit is small—usually four inches wide and twice as long, brick is an ideal material for structures in confined spaces, as well as for curved designs. Moreover, with minimal upkeep, brick buildings generally last a long time.
For the above-cited practical reasons and because it is also an aesthetically pleasing medium, brick has been used as a building material for at least 5,000 years. The first brick was probably made in the Middle East, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now Iraq. Lacking the stone their contemporaries in other regions used for permanent structures, early builders here relied on the abundant natural materials to make their sun-baked bricks. These, however, were of limited use because they lacked durability and could not be used outdoors; exposure to the elements caused them to disintegrate. The Babylonians, who later dominated Mesopotamia, were the first to fire bricks, from which many of their tower-temples were constructed.
From the Middle East the art of brickmaking spread west to what is now Egypt and east to Persia and India. Although the Greeks, having a plentiful supply of stone, did not use much brick, evidence of brick kilns and structures remains throughout the Roman Empire. However, with the decline and fall of Rome, brickmaking in Europe soon diminished. It did not resume until the 1200s, when the Dutch made bricks that they seem to have exported to England. In the Americas, people began to use brick during the sixteenth century. It was the Dutch, however, who were considered expert craftsmen.
Prior to the mid-1800s, people made bricks in small batches, relying on relatively inefficient firing methods. One of the most widely used was an open clamp, in which bricks were placed on a fire beneath a layer of dirt and used bricks. As the fire died down over the course of several weeks, the bricks fired. Such methods gradually became obsolete after 1865, when the Hoffmann kiln was invented in Germany. Better suited to the manufacture of large numbers of bricks, this kiln contained a series of compartments through which stacked bricks were transferred for pre-heating, burning, and cooling.
Brickmaking improvements have continued into the twentieth century. Improvements include rendering brick shape absolutely uniform, lessening weight, and speeding up the firing process. For example, modern bricks are seldom solid. Some are pressed into shape, which leaves a frog, or depression, on their top surface. Others are extruded with holes that will later expedite the firing process by exposing a larger amount of surface area to heat. Both techniques lessen weight without reducing strength.
However, while the production process has definitely improved, the market for brick has not. Brick does have the largest share of the opaque materials market for commercial building, and it continues to be used as a siding material in the housing industry. However, other siding materials such as wood, stucco, aluminum, plaster, and vinyl are strong competitors because they cost up to 50 percent less, and some (notably stucco and plaster) offer built-in insulation. Yet these systems can cost up to 1.75 times that of brick, which also requires less maintenance. Other materials that compete with brick despite their usually higher cost include precast concrete panels, glass, stone, artificial stone, concrete masonry, and combinations of these materials, because advances in manufacturing and design have made such materials more attractive to the builder. According to the U.S. Industrial Outlook, the use of brick as a siding material for single-family homes dropped from 26 percent in 1984 to 17 percent in 1989.
Raw Materials
Natural clay minerals, including kaolin and shale, make up the main body of brick. Small amounts of manganese, barium, and other additives are blended with the clay to produce different shades, and barium carbonate is used to improve brick's chemical resistance to the elements. Many other additives have been used in brick, including byproducts from papermaking, ammonium compounds, wetting agents, flocculents (which cause particles to form loose clusters) and deflocculents (which disperse such clusters). Some clays require the addition of sand or grog (pre-ground, pre-fired material such as scrap brick).
A wide variety of coating materials and methods are used to produce brick of a certain color or surface texture. To create a typical coating, sand (the main component) is mechanically mixed with some type of colorant. Sometimes a flux or frit (a glass containing colorants) is added to produce surface textures. The flux lowers the melting temperature of the sand so it can bond to the brick surface. Other materials including graded fired and unfired brick, nepheline syenite, and graded aggregate can be used as well.
The Manufacturing
Process
The initial step in producing brick is crushing and grinding the raw materials in a separator and a jaw crusher. Next, the blend of ingredients desired for each particular batch is selected and filtered before being sent on to one of three brick shaping processes—extrusion, molding, or pressing, the first of which is the most adaptable and thus the most common. Once the bricks are formed and any subsequent procedures performed, they are dried to remove excess moisture that might otherwise cause cracking during the ensuing firing process. Next, they are fired in ovens and then cooled. Finally, they are dehacked—automatically stacked, wrapped with steel bands, and padded with plastic corner protectors.
Grinding, sizing, and combining
raw materials
Extrusion
In molding, soft, wet clay is shaped in a mold, usually a wooden box. The interior of the box is often coated with sand, which provides the desired texture and facilitates removing the formed brick from the mold. Water can also be used to assist release. Pressing, the third type of brick forming, requires a material with low water content. The material is placed in a die and then compacted with a steel plunger set at a desired pressure. More regular in shape and sharper in outline than brick made with the other two methods, pressed bricks also feature frogs.
Chamfering the brick
Coating
Drying
Firing
Setting and packaging
Quality Control
Though the brick industry is often considered unsophisticated, many manufacturers are participating in total quality management and statistical control programs. The latter involves establishing control limits for a certain process (such as temperature during drying or firing) and tracking the parameter to make sure the relevant processes are kept within the limits. Therefore, the process can be controlled as it happens, preventing defects and improving yields.
A variety of physical and mechanical properties must be measured and must comply with standards set by the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM). These properties include physical dimensions, density, and mechanical strength. Another important property is freeze-thaw durability, where the brick is tested under conditions that are supposed to simulate what is encountered in the outdoors. However, current tests are inadequate and do not really correlate to actual conditions. What passes in the laboratory may not pass in the field. Therefore, the brick industry is trying to develop a more accurate test.
A similar problem exists with a condition known as efflorescence, which occurs when water dissolves certain elements (salt is among the most common) in exterior sources, mortar, or the brick itself. The residual deposits of soluble material produce surface discoloration that can be worsened by improper cleaning. When salt deposits become insoluble, the efflorescence worsens, requiring extensive cleaning. Though a brick may pass the laboratory test, it could fail in the field due to improper design or building practices. Therefore, brick companies are developing their own in-house testing procedures, and research is continuing to develop a more reliable standard test.
The Future
Currently, the use of brick has remained steady, at around seven to nine billion a year, down from the 15 billion used annually during the early 1900s. In an effort to increase demand, the brick industry continues to explore alternative markets and to improve quality and productivity. Fuel efficiency has also improved, and by the year 2025 brick manufacturers may even be firing their brick with solar energy. However, such changes in technology will occur only if there is still a demand for brick.
Even if this demand continues, the brick industry both here and abroad faces another challenge: it will soon be forced to comply with environmental regulations, especially in the area of fluorine emissions. Fluorine, a byproduct of the brickmaking process, is a highly reactive element that is dangerous to humans. Long-term exposure can cause kidney and liver damage, digestive problems, and changes in teeth and bones, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has consequently established maximum exposure limits. To lessen the dangers posed by fluorine emissions, brickworks can install scrubbers, but they are expensive. While some plants have already installed such systems, the U.S. brick industry is trying to play a more important role in developing less expensive emissions testing methods and establishing emission limits. If the brick industry cannot persuade federal regulators to lower their requirements, it is quite possible that the industry could shrink in size, as some companies cannot afford to comply and will go out of business.
Where To Learn More
Books
Bender, Willi and Frank Handle. Brick and Tile Making. Bauverlag GmbH, 1985.
Jones, J. T. and M. F. Berard. Ceramics: Industrial Processing and Testing. Iowa State University Press, 1972.
Robinson, Gilbert C. Ceramics and Glasses. ASM International, 1992, pp. 943-950.
Periodicals
"Trends in Brick Plant Operations," The American Ceramic Society Bulletin. 1992, pp. 69-74.
Hall, Alvin. "Using Computer-Aided Manufacturing to Build Better Brick," The American Ceramic Society Bulletin. 1990, pp. 80-82.
Richards, Robert W. "Brick Manufacturing from Past to Present," The American Ceramic Society Bulletin. May, 1990, pp. 807-813.
Sheppard, Laurel M. "Making Brick and Meeting Regulations," The American Ceramic Society Bulletin. 1993.
"Lodge Lane Brickworks: A Breakthrough in the Reduction Firing of Bricks," Ziegelindustrie. September, 1992, pp. 344-341.
[Article by: L S. Millberg]
A construction material usually made of clay and extruded or molded as a rectangular block. Three types of clay are used in the manufacture of bricks: surface clay, fire clay, and shale. Adobe brick is a sun-dried molded mix of clay, straw, and water, manufactured mainly in Mexico and some southern regions of the United States. See also Clay.
The first step in manufacture is crushing the clay. The clay is then ground, mixed with water, and shaped. Then the bricks are fired in a kiln at approximately 2000°F (1093°C). Substances in the clay such as ferrous, magnesium, and calcium oxides impart color to the bricks during the firing process. The color may be uniform throughout the bricks, or the bricks may be manufactured with a coated face. The latter are classified as glazed, claycoat, or engobe.
The most commonly used brick product is known as facing brick. Decorative bricks molded in special shapes are used to form certain architectural details such as water tables, arches, copings, and corners.
An electronics device that has been damaged and rendered useless. In other words, "as useful as a brick." See iBricking.
In addition to the idioms beginning with brick, also see drop a brick; hit the bricks; like a cat on a hot brick; like a ton of bricks; make bricks without straw; run into a stone (brick) wall.
1. A piece of equipment that has been programmed or configured into a hung, wedged,unusable state. Especially used to describe what happens to devices like routers or PDAs that run from firmware when the firmware image is damaged or its settings are somehow patched to impossible values. This term usually implies irreversibility, but equipment can sometimes be unbricked by performing a hard reset or some other drastic operation. Sometimes verbed: “Yeah, I bricked the router because I forgot about adding in the new access-list.”.
2. An outboard power transformer of the kind associated with laptops, modems, routers and other small computing appliances, especially one of the modern type with cords on both ends, as opposed to the older and obnoxious type that plug directly into wall or barrier strip.
For more information on brick, visit Britannica.com.
A solid masonry unit, usually of clay, molded into a rectangular shape while plastic, and then treated in a kiln at an elevated temperature to harden it, so as to give it mechanical strength and to provide it with resistance to moisture; after being removed from the kiln, the brick is said to be burnt, hard-burnt, kiln-burnt, fired, or hard-fired. Bricks laid lengthwise in a wall are called stretchers; bricks laid crosswise to a wall are called headers. Bricks differ in color, ranging from dark red to rose and salmon, and from pink to blue-black and purple, depending on the type of clay and on the temperature of the kiln in which they were burnt. Various types of patterns common in laying bricks are described under bond. The current American brick is typically about 8 inches (20.3 cm) long, 33/4 inches (8.26 cm) wide, and 21/4 inches (5.7 cm) thick; other countries tend to produce bricks with their own standard dimensions. For specific types of brick, see adobe quemado, air brick, angle brick, arch brick, axed brick, brindled brick, building brick, bull stretcher, burnt brick,
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A kind of building material consisting of a block of dried or baked clay, often with some kind of tempering agent such as stone, sand, or straw. There are many different shapes, sizes, and styles of bricks, and most are culturally or chronologically distinctive.
Feed compacted into a solid mass weighing up to 2 lb. Bricks provide an alternative to pellets and have the advantage that they have to be eaten slowly.
Peace is built brick by brick, mortared by the stubborn effort and the total energy and imagination of able and dedicated men. And it is built in the living faith that, in the end, man can and will master his own destiny.
— Lyndon Baines Johnson, Source: The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency, 1963-1969, 1971.
A brick is red and bad for your teeth.
The oldest shaped bricks found date back to 7,500 B.C [citation needed]. They have been found in Çayönü, a place located in the upper Tigris area in south east Anatolia close to Diyarbakir. Other more recent findings, dated between 7,000 and 6,395 B.C., come from Jericho and Catal Hüyük. From archaeological evidence, the invention of the fired brick (as opposed to the considerably earlier sun-dried mud brick) is believed to have arisen in about the third millennium BC in the Middle East. Being much more resistant to cold and moist weather conditions, brick enabled the construction of permanent buildings in regions where the harsher climate precluded the use of mud bricks.
By 1200AD brick making was to be found across Europe and Asia, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In the Near East and India, bricks have been in use for more than five thousand years. The plain of the Tigris-Euphrates lacks rocks and trees. Sumerian structures were thus built of plano-convex mudbricks, not fixed with mortar or with cement. As plano-convex bricks (being rounded) are somewhat unstable in behaviour, Sumerian bricklayers would lay a row of bricks perpendicular to the rest every few rows. They would fill the gaps with bitumen, straw, marsh reeds, and weeds.
The Ancient Egyptians and the Indus Valley Civilization also used mudbrick extensively, as can be seen in the ruins of Buhen, Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, for example. In the Indus Valley Civilization all bricks corresponded to sizes in a perfect ratio of 4:2:1. [citation needed] The ratio for brick dimensions 4:2:1 is today considered optimal for effective bonding.[citation needed]
In Sumerian times offerings of food and drink were presented to "the brick god," who was "represented in the ritual by the first brick." More recently, mortar for the foundations of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was mixed with "a broth of barley and bark of elm" and sacred relics, accompanied by prayers, placed between every 12 bricks.
The Romans made use of fired bricks, and the Roman legions, which operated mobile kilns, introduced bricks to many parts of the empire. Roman bricks are often stamped with the mark of the legion that supervised its production. The use of bricks in Southern and Western Germany, for example, can be traced back to traditions already described by the Roman architect Vitruvius.
In the 12th century, bricks from Northern Italy were re-introduced to Northern Germany, where an independent tradition evolved. It culminated in the so-called brick Gothic, a reduced style of Gothic architecture that flourished in Northern Europe, especially in the regions around the Baltic Sea which are without natural rock resources. Brick Gothic buildings, which are built almost exclusively of bricks, are to be found in Denmark, Germany, Poland and Russia.
During the Renaissance and the Baroque, visible brick walls were unpopular and the brickwork was often covered with plaster. It was only during the mid-18th century that visible brick walls regained some degree of popularity, as illustrated by the Dutch Quarter of Potsdam, for example.
The transport in bulk of building materials such as bricks over long distances was rare before the age of canals, railways, roads and heavy goods vehicles. Before this time bricks were generally made as close as possible to their point of intended use. It has been estimated that in England in the eighteenth century carrying bricks by horse and cart for ten miles (16 km) over the poor roads then existing could more than double their price.
Bricks were often used, even in areas where stone was available, for reasons of speed and economy. The buildings of the Industrial Revolution in Britain were largely constructed of brick and timber due to the unprecedented demand created. Again, during the building boom of the nineteenth century in the eastern seaboard cities of Boston and New York, for example, locally made bricks were often used in construction in preference to the brownstones of New Jersey and Connecticut for these reasons.
The trend of building upwards for offices that emerged towards the end of the 19th century displaced brick in favor of cast and wrought iron and later steel and concrete. Some early 'skyscrapers' were made in masonry, and demonstrated the limitations of the material - for example, the Monadnock Building in Chicago (opened in 1896) is masonry and just sixteen stories high, the ground walls are almost 1.8 meters thick, clearly building any higher would lead to excessive loss of internal floor space on the lower floors. Brick was revived for high structures in the 1950s following work by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the Building Research Establishment in Watford, UK. This method produced eighteen story structures with bearing walls no thicker than a single brick (150-225 mm). This potential has not been fully developed because of the ease and speed in building with other materials, in the late-20th century brick was confined to low- or medium-rise structures or as a thin decorative cladding over concrete-and-steel buildings or for internal non-loadbearing walls.
Bricks may be made from clay, shale, soft slate, calcium silicate, concrete, or shaped from quarried stone.
Clay is the most common material, with modern clay bricks formed in one of three processes - soft mud, dry press, or extruded.
In 2007 a new type of brick was invented, based on fly ash, a by-product of coal power plants.
The soft mud method is the most common, as it is the most economical. It starts with the raw clay preferably in a mix with 25-30% sand to reduce shrinkage. The clay is first ground and mixed with water to the desired consistency for forming in a mould. The clay is pressed into steel moulds with a hydraulic press. The shaped clay is then fired ("burned") at 900-1000 °C to achieve strength.
In modern brickworks, this is usually done in a continuously fired tunnel kiln, in which the bricks move slowly through the kiln on conveyors, rails, or kiln cars to achieve consistent physical characteristics for all bricks. The bricks often have added lime, ash, and organic matter to speed the burning.
In Pakistan and India, brick making is still typically a manual process. The most common type of brick kiln in use there are Bull's Trench Kiln (BTK), based on a design developed by British engineer W. Bull in the late 1800s.
An oval or circular trench, 6-9 meters wide, 2-2.5 meters deep, and 100-150 meters in circumference, is dug in a suitable location. A tall exhaust chimney is constructed in the center. Half or more of the trench is filled with "green" (unfired) bricks which are stacked in an open lattice pattern to allow airflow. The lattice is capped with a roofing layer of finished brick.
In operation, new green bricks, along with roofing bricks, are stacked at one end of the brick pile while cooled finished bricks are removed from the other end for transport. In the middle the brickworkers create a firing zone by dropping fuel (coal, wood, oil, debris, etc) through access holes in the roof above the trench.
The advantage of the BTK design is a much greater energy efficiency compared with clamp or scove kilns. Sheet metal or boards are used to route the airflow through the brick lattice in such a way that fresh air flows first through the recently burned bricks, thus heating the air, then through the active burning zone. The air continues through the green brick zone (pre-heating and drying them), and finally out to the chimney exhaust where the rising gases create the suction which pulls the air through the whole system. The reuse of heated air results in a considerable savings in fuel cost.
As with the rail process above, the BTK process is a continuous one. A half dozen laborers working around the clock can fire approximately 15,000-25,000 bricks a day. However, unlike the rail process, in the BTK process the bricks themselves do not move. Instead the locations at which the bricks are loaded, fired, and unloaded gradually rotate through the trench.[1]
The dry press method is similar to mud brick but starts with a much thicker clay mix, so it forms more accurate, sharper-edged bricks. The greater force in pressing and the longer burn make this method more expensive.
In extruded bricks the clay mix is 20-25% water, this is forced through a die to create a long cable of material of the demanded width and depth. This cable is then cut into bricks of the desired length by a wall of wires. The majority of structural bricks are made by this method as hard dense bricks are the result and any needed holes or other perforations can be introduced by the die. The introduction of holes reduces the needed volume of clay through the whole process, with the consequent reduction in costs per brick. The bricks are also lighter and so easier to handle and have different thermal properties compared to solid bricks. The cut bricks are hardened by drying for between 20 and 40 hours at 50-150 °C before being fired. The heat for the drying is often the waste heat from the kiln.
In May 2007, Henry Liu, a retired 70-year old American civil engineer, announced that he had invented a new brick composed of fly
ash and water compressed at 4,000 psi (27,939 kPa) for two weeks. Owing to the high
concentration of calcium oxide in fly ash, the brick can be described as "self-cementing".
The brick is toughened using an air entrainment agent, which traps microscopic bubbles
inside the brick so that it resists penetration by water, allowing it to withstand up to 100 freeze-thaw cycles. Since the
manufacturing method uses a waste by-product rather than clay, and solidification takes place under pressure rather than heat, it
has several important environmental benefits. It saves energy, reduces mercury
pollution, alleviates the need for
The fired colour of clay bricks is significantly influenced by the chemical and mineral content of raw materials, the firing temperature and the atmosphere in the kiln. For example pink coloured bricks are the result of a high iron content, white or yellow bricks have a higher lime content. Most bricks burn to various red hues, if the temperature is increased the colour moves through dark red, purple and then to brown or grey at around 1300 °C. Calcium silicate bricks have a wider range of shades and colours.
The raw materials for calcium silicate bricks include lime mixed with quartz, crushed flint or crushed siliceous rock together with mineral colorants. The materials are mixed and left until the lime is completely hydrated, the mixture is then pressed into moulds and cured in an autoclave for two or three hours to speed the chemical hardening. The finished bricks are very accurate and uniform, although the sharp arrises need careful handling to avoid damage to brick (and brick-layer). The bricks can be made in a variety of colours, white is common but a wide range of "pastel" shades can be achieved.
Bricks formed from concrete are usually termed blocks, and are typically pale grey in colour.
They are made from a dry, small aggregate concrete which is formed in steel moulds by vibration and compaction in either an
"egglayer" or static machine. The finished blocks are cured rather than fired using low-pressure steam. Concrete blocks are
manufactured in a much wider range of shapes and sizes than clay bricks and are also available with a wider range of face
treatments - a number of which are to simulate the appearance of clay bricks.
An impervious and ornamental surface may be laid on brick either by salt glazing, in which salt is added during the burning process, or by the use of a "slip," which is a glaze material into which the bricks are dipped. Subsequent reheating in the kiln fuses the slip into a glazed surface integral with the brick base.
Natural stone bricks are of limited modern utility, due to their enormous comparative mass, the consequent foundation needs, and the time-consuming and skilled labour needed in their construction and laying. They are however very durable and considered more handsome than clay bricks. Only a few stones are suitable for bricks, common materials are granite, limestone and sandstone. Other stones may be used (e.g. marble, slate, quartzite, etc.) but this tend to be limited to a particular locality.
For efficient handling and laying bricks must be small enough and light enough to be picked up by the bricklayer using one hand (leaving the other hand free for the trowel). Bricks are usually laid flat and as a result the effective limit on the width of a brick is set by the distance which can conveniently be spanned between the thumb and fingers of one hand, normally about four inches (about 100 mm). In most cases, the length of a brick is about twice its width, about eight inches (about 200 mm) or slightly more. This allows bricks to be laid bonded in a structure to increase its stability and strength (for an example of this, see the illustration of bricks laid in English bond, at the head of this article. The wall is built using alternating courses of stretchers, bricks laid longways and headers, bricks laid crossways. The headers tie the wall together over its width.
The correct brick for a job can be picked from a choice of color, surface texture, density, weight, absorption and pore structure, thermal characteristics, thermal and moisture movement, and fire resistance.
In England, the length and the width of the common brick has remained fairly constant over the centuries, but the depth has varied from about two inches (about 51 mm) or smaller in earlier times to about two and a half inches (about 64 mm) more recently. In the United States, modern bricks are usually about 8 × 4 × 2.25 inches (203 × 102 × 57 mm). In the United Kingdom, the usual ("work") size of a modern brick is 215 × 102.5 × 65 mm (about 8.5 × 4 × 2.5 inches), which, with a nominal 10 mm mortar joint, forms a "coordinating" or fitted size of 225 × 112.5 × 75 mm, for a ratio of 6:3:2.
Blocks have a much greater range of sizes. Standard coordinating sizes in length and height (in mm) include 400×200, 450×150, 450×200, 450×225, 450×300, 600×150, 600×200, and 600×225; depths (work size, mm) include 60, 75, 90, 100, 115, 140, 150, 190, 200, 225, and 250. They are usable across this range as they are lighter than clay bricks. The density of solid clay bricks is around 2,000 kg/m³: this is reduced by frogging, hollow bricks, etc.; but aerated autoclaved concrete, even as a solid brick, can have densities in the range of 450–850 kg/m³.
Bricks may also be classified as solid (less than 25% perforations by volume, although the brick may be "frogged," having indentations on one of the longer faces), perforated (containing a pattern of small holes through the brick removing no more than 25% of the volume), cellular (containing a pattern of holes removing more than 20% of the volume, but closed on one face), or hollow (containing a pattern of large holes removing more than 25% of the brick's volume). Blocks may be solid, cellular or hollow
The term "frog" for the indentation on one bed of the brick is a word that often excites curiosity as to its origin. The most likely explanation is that brickmakers also call the block that is placed in the mould to form the indentation a frog. Modern brickmakers usually use plastic frogs but in the past they were made of wood. When these are wet and have clay on them they resemble the amphibious kind of frog and this is where they got their name. Over time this term also came to refer to the indentation left by them.[Matthews 2006]
The compressive strength of bricks produced in the United States ranges from about 1000 lbf/in² to 15,000 lbf/in² (7 to 105 MPa or N/mm² ), varying according to the use to which the brick are to be put. In England clay bricks can have strengths of up to 100 MPa, although a common house brick is likely to show a range of 20–40 MPa.
In the early 1900s, most of the streets in the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan were paved with brick. Today, there are only about 20 blocks of brick paved streets remaining (totaling less than 0.5 percent of all the streets in the city limits). [1]
Bricks are used for building and pavement. In the USA, brick pavement was found incapable of withstanding heavy traffic, but it is coming back into use as a method of traffic calming or as a decorative surface in pedestrian precincts.
Bricks are also used in the metallurgy and glass industries
for lining furnaces. They have various uses, especially refractory bricks such as silica, magnesia, chamotte and neutral (chromomagnesite) refractory bricks. This type of brick must have good
thermal shock resistance, refractoriness under load,
high melting point, and satisfactory porosity. There is a large refractory brick industry,
especially in the United Kingdom, Japan and the
In the United Kingdom, bricks have been used in construction for centuries. Until recently, many houses were built almost entirely from red bricks. This use is particularly common in areas of northern England and some outskirts of London, where rows of terraced houses were rapidly and cheaply built to house local workers [citation needed]. These houses have survived to the present day. Although many houses in the UK are now built using a mixture of concrete blocks and other materials, many houses are skinned with a layer of bricks on the outside for aesthetic appeal.
 Brick sculpturing on Thornbury Castle, Thornbury, near Bristol, England. The chimneys were erected in 1514 |
 Frauenkirche (Munich), erected 1468-1488, looking up at the towers |
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Campbell, James W. P., and Will Pryce. 2003. Brick : a world history. London ; New York: Thames & Hudson.
| Types of road | |
|---|---|
| High-speed, Access via interchanges |
Autobahn • Autopista • Autostrada • Autostrasse • Auto-estrada • Expressway • Freeway • Lebuhraya • Motorway |
| High-speed, Other types of access |
[[2+1 road]] • Divided highway • Expressway • Farm-to-market road • Highway • Parkway • Super two • Two-lane freeway • Collector-distributor road • Express-collector setup |
| Low speed | Arterial road • Boulevard • Frontage road • Road • Street |
| Low speed low traffic | Alley • Cul-de-sac • Driveway • Lane |
| Other | Dual carriageway • Interchange • Range road • Concession road • County road • Roundabout • Primitive road •Toll road |
| Surface types | Asphalt concrete • Brick • Cobblestone • Concrete • Corduroy road • Dirt road • Gravel road • Ice road • Macadam • Oiled road (Bitumen) • Plank road • Tarmac • Winter road |
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - mursten, teglsten
v. tr. - bygge af mursten, belægge med mursten
idioms:
Nederlands (Dutch)
baksteen, klinker, blok, patente kerel, metselen
Français (French)
n. - (Constr) brique, (fig) mur, (GB) cube (de construction), type/fille sympa (arch)
v. tr. - murer
idioms:
Deutsch (German)
n. - Backstein, Ziegelstein
v. - mauern
idioms:
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - τούβλο, πλίνθος, κύβος κατασκευών, (καθομ.) ασίκης, τσίφτης
v. - χτίζω με τούβλα
idioms:
idioms:
Português (Portuguese)
n. - tijolo (m)
v. - revestir com tijolos
idioms:
