Fathers Day Monday Trivia

Re: Fathers Day Monday Trivia

They were actually fairly common into the 19'th century as well. Interesting analogy to an ice cream cone as the results were harder on the inside and softer on the outside. I only know the answer because they were used here on my farm 1850-1865 and I had done some research on them. I won't give the answer since I don't want to get fired for answering too soon.

Dale is correct . Hint.

Timing had a lot to do with it. If you are thinking of these clamps in the sense of temporarily holding wood--they did, but not in the way "clamps" hold wood in the shop of today. Also given the language of the time, clamps and cramps may not be the same things.

MONDAY ANSWER

When I was thinking of an ice cream cone I was thinking of it as a perfect container. Does what it�s supposed to do then is consumed. So it is with 18th century clamps, which is another name for a brick kiln. Raw clay was extracted then set out to weather for several months where it developed a sort of skin. After sand and water was added the �green� bricks were termed �tempered� then formed and stacked and spaced in such a way that there were passages through a above ground building like structure. At the foundation level, openings were created so that wood or coal could be shoved into the various openings and burned. The whole contraption was covered with dirt, or plaster (scoved), or left open to the wind and the newly molded bricks were then fired for three days (about) to 1800 degrees F. Various vents and openings were constantly checked and permitted or shut down air during that time. After the bricks cooled the entire clamp was taken down and nothing remained. Even the charcoal of the wood �held� in the pit was removed and used later, some for heating and some for filtering. Try http://sleekfreak.ath.cx:81/3wdev/GATE_DL/BUILDING/BC.HTM. Not all bricks were fired the same so some became chimneys and some rubble fill. It was quite an art to make the maximum number of �users� and read the bricks by time and color of the heat. Dangerous too as someone had to climb on the top to open and close vents during firing.

Re: PICS

Here are a couple photos of brickwork fired here on the farm circa 1870. The black ends were directly in the fire and are actually glazed a little. I'm sure it takes a lot of heat to do that, The further away from the fire compartments, the brick is softer as the heat is less. The second photo is of a brick that ranges from medium done on the left to very soft on the right, but it still has survived 130+ years.

Re: PICS

If you do any tuck pointing of these old structures, you need to use lots of coarse sand and hydrated lime to make a nice soft mortar. Other wise the mortar will be stronger than the brick and any settling will split the bricks rather than crack at the mortar joints.

Re: OOPS soft on left, hard on right above pic