ABSTRACT
Bricks made of sun-baked mud formed one of the chief building materials of the early Mesopotamian, Indus and Mediterranean civilizations, and they are still used to a considerable extent in the Middle East. The Romans introduced the wood-fired brick and tile kiln to Britain, but the Romans built very few walls entirely of brick, preferring to use them as facing to concrete cores or in alternate courses of brick and squared stone. In the early seventeenth century British brickmakers devised a method of burning bricks in clamps like charcoal heaps. The last important innovation in brickmaking took place less than a hundred years ago, when owners of brickworks in the Nottingham area tried to cut labour costs by pioneering the 'semi-pressed' brick. This involved the crushing and powdering of the clay without the addition of water and a subsequent mechanical pressing of the powder into shape before firing.
