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BRICKS AND BRICKWORK.

[Footnote: A recent lecture delivered at Carpenters' Hall, London Wall,
E.C.--_Building News_.]

By Professor T. ROGER SMITH, F.R.I.B.A.


Timber, stone, earth, are the three materials most used by the builder
in all parts of the world. Where timber is very plentiful, as in Norway
or Switzerland, it is freely used, even though other materials are
obtainable, and seems to be preferred, notwithstanding the risk of fire
which attends its use. Where timber is scarce, and stone can be had,
houses are built of stone. Where there is no timber and no stone, they
are built of earth--sometimes in its natural state, sometimes made into
bricks and sun-dried, but more often made into bricks and burned.

London is one of the places that occupies a spot which has long ceased
to yield timber, and yields no stone, so we fall back on earth--burnt
into the form of bricks. Brick was employed in remote antiquity. The
Egyptians, who were great and skillful builders, used it sometimes; and
as we know from the book of Exodus, they employed the forced labor of
the captives or tributaries whom they had in their power in the hard
task of brick making; and some of their brick-built granaries and stores