Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1884 — Bricks in Antiquity. [ARTICLE]

Bricks in Antiquity.

Though an ancient Roman Emperor boasted that he had found Rome brick and left it marble, the former has generally superseded both marble and all other kinds of stone, and even here in the heart of the iron industry, says an English paper, complaint is made that owing to our sulphrous atmosphere it costs more to keep iron painted and' free from oxidation than it is worth, and there are more brick than iron fronts in our heavy warehouses. The Greeks, though celebrated for their work in marble, understood the value of bricks, and did not allow them to be used until seasoned for five years, and their quality certified to by a magistrate. The Romans were skilled in their manufacture, and the bricks in the baths of Titus and Caracalla have .withstood the “tooth of time” better than the stones of the Coliseum. They introduced the manufacture into England, and left specimens of a deep red color, well burnt, and at this date better than those made by English workmen in the reign of Elizabeth. The Dutch made better bricks in the medimval ages than the English, and specimens of Holland brick are still found in some of the old Dutch houses of New York. In Asia the industry seems to have been followed at a time beyond, perhaps, the stone age, and the Chinese give the face of the brick the* texture of porcelain. The ancient Peruvians made bricks so well that a scientific Spaniard -thought there must have been some secret in their composition which had been lost prior to Spanish occupation.