Twenty Days to Burn a Brick

A green brick holds so much water that it would blow apart in the kiln, so before anything else it had to be dried. Left in the yard that took days and depended entirely on the weather. The yards fixed that by running flues under the drying floors, and later by circulating steam and waste heat off the kilns. This is the rotary dryer and its conveyors.

Then the burning. Setters stacked the bricks inside the kiln in patterns worked out so the heat could get everywhere evenly, the door was bricked shut, and the firemen brought the temperature up over a period of days to more than two thousand degrees. Then they had to bring it back down just as slowly. A single firing cycle could run twenty days, with loading and unloading on either end of that.

Twenty days, for one kiln of brick, done by men who knew by feel when it was right.

From the record

Passages about this subject, quoted from county histories now in the public domain. Each one names the book and the position in the text so it can be checked. Spelling is as printed.

Proposals for the grading and masonry between Lewistown and Huntingdon were advertised for in April, 1818, and received until the 17th of May. Contracts were entered into within the next twenty days, and the work was at once commenced. At the close of tbe year the grading was almost completed. The sections west of Huntingdon were in process of construction during the same year and the one succeeding it. HISTORY OP HUNTINGDON" COUNTY. 149 On the tunnel near Spruce Creek, eleven hundred feet in length, great labor was required. An opening was effected through the mountain in June, 1849, eleven months after the first pick had been struck into it. But only three hundred and fifty feet were at that time finished. Several serious accidents occurred at this tunnel from the premature explosion of blasts. In one of these, seven men were blown up, one of whom was killed and two others so badly injured that they were not expected to recover. - In the neighborhood of Birmingham there were a number of riots among the laborers on the road in 1849. The Irish workmen were divided into several parties known as the u Far-downs," " Corkonians," etc., each determined to drive the others from the line.Milton Scott Lytle, History of Huntingdon County (Lancaster: William H. Roy, 1876) · character 285,677 of the scanned text

A large brick hotel was built soon after the town was laid out. Reedsville is also connected with Lewistown by electric railway. It has a bank, the Brown township high school, several good stores, hotel, etc., and is supplied with water by the Lewistown Water Company. Wagner, a station on the Sunbury division of the Pennsylvania railroad, had its beginning in 1868, when the railroad was completed, A tan-yard had been started there in 1853 by William Mitchell & Son, and doubtless had some influence in securing the location of a station. Soon after the railroad was opened for business a postofiice was established and a store opened. Yeagertown, situated on the Kishacoquillas creek, about a mile above Bumham, and connected with Lewistown and other points along the Kishacoquillas by electric railway, is the outgrowth of a settlement that grew up about the saw-mill and grist-mill erected there at an early date. James Mayes settled in that section in 1790 and built a tavern which was kept by different persons for many years. In 1842 Jacob Yeager came with his family from Dauphin county and purchased the mill property.John W. Jordan, ed., History of the Juniata Valley and Its People (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing, 1913) · character 354,308 of the scanned text

Anderson, his Heirs and Assigns, shall and will, at his or their own proper Cost and Charges, make, erect, build and finish on the said Lot of Ground, one substantial Dwelling House of Dimensions of Eighteen Feet by Twenty Feet at least, with a good Stone or Brick Chimney, within the Space of Ten Months from the First Day of October," (year illegible.) 240 HISTOEY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY. On the failure of Anderson to pay the rental for the space of ninety days after it became due, Dr. Smith was to have the right to recover the arrearages by distress, and if no property could be found upon the premises upon which to distrain, or if the dwelling house was not erected within the time and in the manner agreed upon, he was to have the right to re-enter and to hold and possess the lot, and if the arrearages of rent were not paid within two years after such re-entry, the lot was to revert to him absolutely. Huntingdon was incorporated as a borough by act of Assembly of March 29th, 1796. The boundaries, as therein specified were as follows : " Beginning at a large stone corner placed on the bank of the river Juniata, at or near the entrance of a fording place, and at the distance of two hundred feet, on a course south sixty-six degrees east, from the east side of St.Milton Scott Lytle, History of Huntingdon County (Lancaster: William H. Roy, 1876) · character 461,963 of the scanned text

Checked 2026-09-16 · Historic Mount Union collection

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