Tadeusz Westawic on mon 13 jan 97
This is a snippet from mail about getting hard firebrick from old
brickyards. Some of you may be in the right place at the right time. The
location was central New Jersey.
---snip---
The big yards were usually laid-out with six kilns on points of a
hexagon and the stack in the middle. The cake-shaped brick kilns were
downdraft affairs, each with its own long horizontal underground level
flue leading to the big stack. The brickyards I played in as a kid had
not yet been torn down, so I remember the layaout.
Years later, returning for what brick I could find, the kilns and stack
had been leveled, as in no trace left. But I felt that the demolition
companies probably would have left the underground flue alone, which
turned out to be true. I located the underground flue by tamping the
ground with a heavy steel bar and listening to the sound of the thump. I
remember also that there were blowholes every twenty feet or so along
the underground flue, you'll need to find one to get the first brick
out. I removed several van loads of straights and
arches and stored them at my parent's house before leaving for grad
school in Colorado.
When I returned from grad school, my mother had used all that brick to
line the driveway. What could I say?
--snip--
Tadzy
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