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Date: | Wed, 28 Jun 2006 15:19:02 -0700 |
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This from Tim Scarlett at Michigan Tech, who is coauthoring a brick
identification guide for Left Coast Press, Inc.
>
> The indentation you describe is called a "frog" and it is indeed
> caused by the molding process. Bricks with frogs are typically
> "soft-
> mud" manufactured, which means that very wet clay was slopped into a
>
> wooden or iron mold with four sides and a bottom. The bottom of the
>
> mold surface also included a raised area that impresses the clay when
>
> it is forced into the mold. The back of the mold is then "struck"
> with a blade or wire. The strike creates the sixth side of a soft-
> mud molded brick. You can often still see the strike marks on the
> opposite side of the brick from the frog. If those strike marks are
>
> irregular, meaning that they appear to have been formed at non-
> uniform angles, then the brick was probably hand struck while in the
>
> mold rather than by some automated process.
>
> The frog presents a couple of advantages- it creates a recess for
> mortar, it makes each brick weigh just a little bit less, makes each
>
> brick a bit thinner so it fires more throughly, and it takes slightly
>
> less clay to make each brick. While the difference seems trivial for
>
> each brick, multiply the difference in weight and cost by the 10 or
> 100 thousand bricks in a large building or the millions of bricks
> made annually in a large yard, and you can see how the savings do
> indeed accrue!
>
> The bad news is that this information does not necessarily yield a
> simple probable date of manufacture. That is a much more complex
> problem.
>
> You can find more information in Larry Gurcke's 1987 book, Bricks and
>
> Brickmaking: A Handbook for Historical Archaeology (Idaho). Keep an
>
> eye out for the second edition of this text from Left Coast Press,
> updated and revised to include much more chronological and regional
> information!
>
> Best,
> Tim
>
> Timothy Scarlett
> Assistant Professor of Archaeology
> Industrial Heritage and Archaeology
> Department of Social Sciences
> Michigan Technological University
> [log in to unmask]
> (906)487-2359
> (906)487-2468
> ------------------------
> Currently conducting fieldwork at the site of the West Point Foundry
>
> in Cold Spring, New York.
>
>
>
Mitch Allen
Publisher
Left Coast Press, Inc.
1630 N. Main Street, #400
Walnut Creek, California 94596
925 935-3380 phone and fax
[log in to unmask]
www.LCoastPress.com
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