Civil Engineering: History of Bricks

What does a brick means?

The term brick refers to small units of building material, often made from fired clay and secured with mortar, a bonding agent comprising of cement, sand, and water. Long a popular material, brick retains heat, with-stands corrosion, and resists fire.

History of Bricks Manufacture

First bricks was probably made in the middle- east, between the Ttigris and Euphrates rivers (Iraq) 5000 years ago.
It spreaded over Egypt, Persia and India.
It did not resume until the 1200s, when the Dutch made bricks that they seem to have exported to England.
In America, people began to use brick during the sixteenth century.
Prior to the mid-1800s, people made bricks in small batches, relying on relatively inefficient firing methods.
After 1865, the Hoffmann kiln was invented in Germany and since then other methods gradually became obsolete.
Brick making improvements have continued even today. Improvements include rendering brick shape absolutely uniform, lessening weight, and speeding up the firing process etc.

Civil Engineering