Bricks are blocks of clay or other ceramic material, kneaded and then usually baked and used for the construction and decorative facing of buildings. Bricks may be dried in the sun but are more usually baked in a kiln. They cost relatively little, resist dampness and heat, and can supposedly last longer than stone - in tests however, modern bricks have a life span of only about forty years after which they start to decay. The colour of a brick varies according to the clay used and in proportions according to architectural tradition. The typical red or brownish colour found in British bricks is caused by the presence of iron oxide in the clay.
Brick was the chief building material of ancient Mesopotamia and Palestine, which had little wood or stone. The inhabitants of Jericho in Palestine were building with brick about 7000 BC. Sumerian and Babylonian builders constructed ziggurats, palaces, and city walls of sun-dried brick and covered them with more durable kiln-baked, often brilliantly glazed brick, arranged in decorative pictorial friezes.
Later the Persians and the Chinese built in brick (the Great Wall of China is built of brick). The Romans built such large structures as baths, amphitheatres, and aqueducts in brick, which they often covered with marble facing - ironically they built their houses from the far more resilient flint. During the Middle Ages, in the Byzantine Empire, in northern Italy, in the Low Countries, and in Germany, indeed wherever stone was scarce, builders valued brick for its decorative and structural qualities. They made handsome use of warm, red, unglazed brick laid in a variety of intricate patterns, such as checker, herringbone, basket weave, or Flemish bond. Such traditions continued during the Renaissance and in English Georgianarchitecture, and were taken to North America by the colonists although brick was already known to the American Indians of pre-Columbian civilizations. In dry regions they made houses of sun-dried adobe brick. The great pyramids of the Olmec, Maya, and other groups were made of brick faced with stone. Research Brick
In bricklaying, Flemish bond is a brick pattern in which each course of masonry consists of headers and stretchers that are laid alternatively with each header centred with respect to the stretcher above and below it. Research Flemish Bond
In bricklaying, the rat-trap bond is a variation of the Flemish bond in which the stretchers are laid on edge and the headers span the whole thickness of wall, dividing the wall cavity into square spaces. Research Rat-Trap Bond
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Brick
