Found an Old Ala. Brick

evelyn64

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Apr 11, 2008
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I live in Virgina and while digging to put spring flowers in uprooted an old brick, I have someone researching it for me - but - In the meantime I thought I'd share a Photo of it here for Fellow Treasure Hunters - If anyone knows anything about it Please Share. Thanks evelyn64 In case you can't make out whats engraved on it it says: GRAVES. CHEMICAL BHAM, ALA.
 

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Bridge End Farm

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Old Brick Road History – Graves Brick Company

The Old Brick Road represents a good example of an early twentieth century
highway paved with vitrified bricks, that is, clay bricks glazed at temperatures
high enough to make them impervious to water and possessing a high resistance
to chemical corrosion. The vitrification process associated with bricks and other
clay products occurs when kiln temperatures are sufficiently high to fuse grains
and close the surface pores, making the mass impervious. The curing process
after the kiln fire occupies seven to ten days with the resulting brick possessing a
crushing strength of eight to ten thousand pounds per square inch. More
expensive to produce that common bricks, vitrified brick for street and highway
paving in 1905 averaged about $10.00 per thousand, while common red brick
cost $5.90 per thousand, ornamental brick cost $14.82 per thousand, and bricks
for fire boxes and locations requiring resistance to extreme heat averaged $17.00
per thousand (Bureau of the Census 1908; Kendrick 1964, p. 61).

Between 1890 and 1905, the value of vitrified brick increased from $982,440 to
$7,256,088 nationwide. In the latter year, vitrified brick represented
approximately nine percent of all brick and tile products manufactured in the
United States. The peak production of vitrified bricks occurred about 1909. In
1915, the nation’s manufacturers produced 824,359,000 vitrified bricks for street
and highway paving, valued at $11,114,427. The leading manufacturers were
located in Ohio, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. In the South, only Alabama and
Georgia clay manufacturers produced appreciable numbers of vitrified bricks with
the former manufacturing 29,018,000 that year. In 1917, Alabama brick
manufacturers produced 21,319,000 vitrified bricks with 562,234,000 produced
nationwide. In Florida, William Pannell of Hernando County played an important
role as head of the so-called “brick trust.” Pannell represented brick companies
throughout the country in the second decade of the twentieth century, and helped
bring large quantities of paving bricks into Jacksonville and Tampa from
Baltimore, Birmingham, and Chattanooga. In the same way that Carl Rose
introduced lime rock for streets and William P. MacDonald introduced asphalt
into the state, Pannell became an important broker for vitrified brick during the
1910s and 1920s (USDI 1917, pp. 866, 871; USDI 1921, p. 875; Bureau of the
Census 1908; Kendrick 1964, p. 61).

Rural highways paved with vitrified bricks were one of the by-products of the
Good Roads Movement. The first rural brick road in the nation was built in 1893
on the Wooster Pike in Ohio. The expense associated with bricks and the
introduction of bituminous macadam in 1906 and concrete in 1909 for rural roads
slowly eroded the market for brick roads to the extent that by the 1930s few
roads or streets in America were paved with bricks. Between 1918 and 1923,
most federal assistance for highway construction was allocated for concrete and
gravel paving. In the latter year, 4,384 miles of concrete highways and 9,442
miles of gravel roads, built with federal assistance, crisscrossed the American
landscape. By then, only 342 miles of the nation’s highways had been paved with
bricks. Most state road departments also relied primarily upon concrete and
gravel to improve their highways. Nationally, concrete accounted for 27,874 miles
while brick highways amounted to 3,111 miles. Only the states of Ohio,
Pennsylvania, and Florida had appreciable amounts of rural brick highways. In
1925, Ohio led the nation with 1,412 miles, Pennsylvania claimed 358 miles, and
Florida had 337 miles. Florida’s brick rural roads not in the state highway system
accounted for an additional 389 miles (Rose 1953, pp. 97-98; USDA 1924, pp.
1196-1197; USDA 1927, pp. 1256-1259).

Competition between manufacturers of asphalt, bricks, and concrete helped drive
the construction of various road types. Automobile associations, the Bureau of
Public Roads, universities, and other organizations and agencies investigated the
use of bricks and other materials for durability, surfacing, and smoothness on
roads. In 1913, Vernon Peirce and Charles H. Moorefield of the Bureau of Public
Roads published one of the nation’s most comprehensive studies on brick paving
for rural roads. Pierce and Moorefield found that vitrified bricks were (1) durable
under heavy traffic conditions; (2) afforded easy traction and good footing for
horses; (3) were easily maintained and kept clean; and (4) presented a pleasing
appearance. They asserted that the essential features of well-built brick roads
consisted of a subgrade with thorough drainage, firmness, uniformity in grade
and cross section, and adequate shoulders. Common curb materials included
stone, Portland cement, or vitrified clay shapes made for the purpose with a
depth of eighteen to thirty-six inches, four inches thick, and seven to eight feet in
length. The typical rural brick highway was paved with vitrified bricks that each
measured 3.5" x 4" x 9", weighed approximately nine pounds, forty-five to the
square yard, and 237,600 per mile (Rose 1953 pp. 97-98; USDA 1915; Pierce
and Moorefield 1913, pp. 283-286; Marder 2002).

Subsequent studies by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Engineers’ Society of
Pennsylvania, and universities compared the advantages and benefits
associated with asphalt, brick, and concrete. In 1915, the Department of
Agriculture published Bulletin 22, Road Models, which furnished extensive
descriptions and comparisons of the road types then in use. The department also
developed a series of miniature profiles, or models, of roads from antiquity
through 1915. In addition to profiling the Appian Way in 300 B.C. and the first
macadam road in 1816, the models illustrated contemporary asphalt, brick,
concrete, earth, gravel, and sand-clay roads, drainage systems, bridges, and
even miniature models of road building equipment (Rose 1953, pp. 97-98; USDA
1915).

The process for building rural brick highways in the early twentieth century
consisted of a series of steps carried out in succession. After an alignment was
selected and cleared of vegetation and roots, the subgrade was moistened,
packed, and rolled for firmness and uniformity, generally with a ten-ton roller.
Then the curbing was laid in gravel or broken stone beds about three inches
thick. Road foundations for heavy traffic areas were often poured concrete slabs;
in areas with light traffic a subgrade might consist of broken stone or a gravelsand
composite rolled with a ten-ton roller. The majority of vitrified bricks
manufactured by the nation’s brick companies measured 3.5 inches by 4 inches
by 9 inches. They were laid in uniform courses at right angles to the curbs as
close as possible and crowded together by means of a crowbar inserted at the
curb (Figure 17). After the highway was laid, the pavement was swept clean and
smoothed with rollers weighing between three and five tons to eliminate
irregularities. Various grouts, including Portland cement, sand, or bituminous
materials, were often employed to help keep the bricks in their proper position
and to protect the edges from chipping and spalling.
Some roads were built with expansion joints. In this process, pieces of lumber
ranging between three-eighths to one inch in thickness were laid with metal
removal straps inside the curbs. Once the bricks were laid and rolled, the
expansion joints were removed. In 1915, highway engineers and observers
disagreed over the use of grouts and the thickness and even the use of
expansion joints. One observer of grouts found that “brick pavements that had all
joints grouted, expand so much with the heat of our summer weather, that the
pavements burst up with a report like that of a cannon and scattered some
square yards of brick all over the street (Pierce and Moorefield 1915, pp. 283-
286; USDA 1915; Daytona Gazette-News, 8/3/15).
 

Bridge End Farm

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can you imagine buying 1000 bricks for 10 bucks lol and they were high quality as the regulars were going for 5.90, What a barbeque pit I could make lol
 

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evelyn64

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Apr 11, 2008
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Wow,Thanks for the info. I'll have to share it with my husband when he gets home...I know for sure this Brick is very heavy..at least for me to pick up,hubby tells me I need to start lifting weights,lol
Anyway a Great many Thanks for such a detailed explaination. Vey informative :thumbsup:
evelyn64
 

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