THE MAKING OF BRICKS

Press, Volume LX, Issue 17985, 31 January 1924, Page 4

THE MAKING OF BRICKS

I j THE WORLD'S OLDEST | TRADE. I | (SfECIALLy V.'HITTEK FOR "THD I'P.ESS.") : It is termed to bo the oldest trade, j bill it c.iii truly bo called im art alto—tliiit of making bricks. Dricks are to common and .so e:-«eiitinl nowadays that ilit'y are accepted as a matter ol : course. There is no romance in the appearance of a brick, but there is in it tiro thought that it is unknown thousands of years since the lirst clav brick was shaped.

The art was practised by all the old civilised nations, and tho earliest known burnt bricks aro those found in tho sites of ancient Babylonian cities, how Lower Mesopotamia. In all probability the method of making durable hricks by burning dried clay originated in this part of Asia. The Babylonian kings seemed possessed by a, mania for building, and the site of ibc city of Babylon, built more than OtXJO years ago, is still marked by great mounds of bricks—flic ruins ot towers, walls, and famous palaces—even though for centuries it has been customary to carry away great quantities, needed for building more modern tonus in the surrounding country. The Babylonians and Assyrians became highly prolicicnt in the art, especially "in'manufacturing bricks with a coating oi coloured glaze or onainei, which were extensively used for decorating buildings. Although Chhia claims great anl.iquitv for her clav Industries, it is not improbable that the art of bnck-m.iK-ing travelled East from Chaldea across the whole of Asia. The great Wall ot China was partly cnostrneted of brick-;, both burnt 'and' unburnt, but tl.is was at a- comparatively late perioi! and thero is nothing to show that the art was known in China, when it flourished in Balwlan.

Brick-making was tho chief occupation of tho Israelites during their bondage in Ecypt. Their bricks were sun-dried only. • They were made of mud from the Nile banks, and as tiny was not sufficiently cohesive in itself, chopped straw, or reels, was added as a binding material. As of old, those bricks, called adobes, are still made on the Nile banks in tho following way: A shallow pit is digued, into which afo thrown the mud, chopped straw, arid sufficient water, the mass being tramped upon until thoroughly mixed. Lumps aro then shaped into bricks, cither in moulds or by hand, and finally sun-dried.

The art was introduced into Britain nearly 2000 years ago by the Romans, who became masters of it probably during their occupation of Egypt and Greece. It was lost when the "Romans withdrew from the country, and it is doubtful if burnt bricks were made again in England until the thirteenth century. But it was nob until the fifteenth century that bricks came into general use, and then only for important buildings. In tho rebuilding of London after the Great Fire, they were largely used, and from then to tho present time bricks havo been one of the best building materials known. TENEMENT HOUSES. CONDITIONS IN NEW YORK. New apartment and tenement houses calculated to provido accommodation for 113,000 persons were constructed in Now York last year. This represented an increase of iiO per cent, in tho erection of multi-family houses.

The cost of construction wus cstiI mated at about 117*,'160,000 dollars, tho avcrago per room being 11135 dollars, only about 30 dollars lower than the price iu 192L'. The speeding-up Of building construction has not yet overtaken the demand for tenemental accommodation. Conditions ai'e' bad. High rents and cramp- | ed housing accommodation in the humj bier ijuarters of the city arc breaking down the morals of the city's youth, I and are creating a menace so grave J that it must be met by the Ktate, if the younger generation is to bo saved. Mr Justice Kdward F. Boyle, of the Children's Court, has reported that con- • ditions in tenement sections have bei come so bad that patents arc losing '' hope in their struggle to pay rent. Their families are breaking up, and the boys and girls, warped iil body and soul, arc being schooled only iu crime. Menace to Girla. "Tho nienaeo to young girls when strangers have to be taken into these cramped homos to help pay the reut, tho contraction of the drug habit by I young children Who arc under-nourish- : ed because too much money must go into the rent, the disappearance of even j common standards of decency—these i arc all common," the report continues. | "And back of each of these sordid J stories is the record of the helpless : struggle of fathers and mothers bat- ! tlitlg against overwhelming odds to j save their children and their homes, to i get, their children out of unwholesome environment and away from had com- : panions—an ambition baffled in almost: | every instance by higher rents than .they caJi afford to pay." !Mr Justice Boylo has spent his life in New York and knows its phases. He was a member of tho Governors' lieconstructiou Commission in 3.910. and for many years was on the Bench in the Children's Court. The human prob- ; lem of high rents is recorded, he finds, .in the stories of these little tragedies. "There was a time when homes that were broken up because of sickness, intemperance, or misfortune could bo rehabilitated in new surroundings," !Mr Justice Boyle says. "ISTow that I prospect is almost negligible. Rents are so high that families cannot move to new surroundings, arid the quarters that can be obtained arc so deplorable there is no choice remaining. Families are doubling up iu small apartments to an extent never known. Some of the results are too shocking to describe. The inevitable result is lowering of the moral standard. "Oirls are substituting hallways for the old-fashioned parlour for entertainment of their companions, more and more iu proportion as the home space is pre-empted by congestion. In greater numbers than ever there will bo found in the small apartment of the poor the male lodger who is always a monace. The best room iB his, the family crowds ! into the little space remaining. ; "It is not rare to find boys and girls ; of fourteen to sixteen yoars slccpm" together—sometimes as many as six in I a small bedroom. These conditions, [the intarmLngling troth day aad nighi.