| Brick has been a popular building material for thousands of years, as ample historic structures can attest. Several different methods can be used to make brick. As a general rule, the brick making process involves mining clay, mixing the clay with sand, creating bricks, and then firing the bricks so that they harden. Once fired, the bricks are extremely strong, and they can be various colors and sizes, depending on where they are made. Many people associate bricks with the color red, but they can also be yellow, nearly white, or cream, depending on the ingredients used.
Historically, brick making was accomplished by hand, with the clay and sand mixture being packed into molds, allowed to dry, and then fired. Molding is still a technique used in brick making today, except that it is accomplished with the use of large steel molds into which the raw materials are packed hydraulically to achieve a very dense, evenly textured brick. These molds are often set up on a rolling conveyor belt which moves the bricks through a kiln for firing as they are made. |
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