This Vallejo-made brick features a distinctive "V" imprint. |
"The term terra-cotta, if used generically, would, if its
etymology were strictly adhered to, include every kind of brick and porcelain,
since in Italian it means “baked earth.” It is, however, limited to mean a
species of kuolin or clay, usually of a dark cherry red color though comprising
also every variety of a buff shade and utilized in all sorts of ornamental work
for the exterior and interior of buildings, for stationary, tiles, brick, etc.
In fact, it would be difficult in the erection of a building to point out where
its use for architectural or constructive purposes could not be brought into
requisition. While its advantages have been recognized during a long lapse of
time, still it is becoming so popular and so highly appreciated everywhere that
the present may justly be termed its period of renaissance. The
application of terra-cotta to the simplest subject of domestic utility as well
as to the higher orders of architectural expression, demonstrates besides the
almost illimitable opportunities of this humble, cheap and universal clay as a
promoter of art. There is no other material that can compare with it in
mobility, ease of production or wideness of application. With proper handling,
relative to harmony in a while building, there is scarcely a situation in
cannot be made to adorn, and with a more general use of it, its cost is
comparatively so light as to be within the reach of the most modest house
building.
People
follow settled habits altogether when they begin building. They do not look
around them to discover it there be any material that could produce better
effects, and one may add that furnishers of such material do not advertise
their products widely enough, and people go on in using wood in fancy shapes
that cost more to whittle out than a good, fire-proof terra-cotta coating
would, and then invite an annual outlay for paint and repairs that in five
years would pay for the clay product. Besides its qualities of durability and
economy, we cannot resist the utterance of the belief that terra-cotta is yet
to prove an irresistible educator in art.
This
Company is composed of San Francisco
gentlemen, with the following officers: President, John H. Wise; Vice
President, H.T. Scott; Sec., W.H. Magee, and Superintendent of Works, Alphonse
Le Jeune. Thirty-five acres of land adjoining the works were purchased by the
company and contains a practically inexhaustible supply of the terra-cotta
clay. This is a shale clay, rich in iron and is the product of the
disintegration or weathering of silicious rocks. It contains in round numbers
60 parts of silica, 30 of alumina and the remainder are oxides of iron,
magnesia, water, impurities, etc. Mr. Le Jeune, the gentlemanly and accomplished Superintendent of Works, who
has operated in terra cotta in Belgium, France and Germany, and who for
eighteen years had charge of the great Northeastern Terra Cotta Works at
Chicago, pronounces it the best clay for the purpose he ever met with. This
being the case and with this establishment crowded with orders it is easy for
the people for Vallejo
to predict that in a short time its capacity must necessarily be increased.
Five large
three story buildings each 135x50 form the main body of the works. Besides
these there is a shed at the south end of the same dimensions containing brick
in stock, and running and the right angles with these and alongside the water’s
edge is a mammoth double shipping shed over 500 feet in length with tracks and
turntables between. Here is sorted for shipment the varied products of these
works, which when suitably crated are run on tram cars out on the company’s
wharf which projects 1800 feet from the land. The convenience for shipping
stock and receiving coal could not be improved on.
Perhaps of
the many features in this establishment which prove so interesting and
instructive to the visitor, the office of Mr. Le Jeune is the most replete with
attractions. It is hardly exact to term it as office, since it has more of the
air and methods of a sculptor’s atelier than anything we can compare it
to. It is here that his artistic inspiration gives forth its impressions in the
shape of designs and models for all the ornamental work. Here he drafts plans
and sketches with an ease of manner and prolificacy of artistic expression,
seemingly unconscious on his part. Here he designs brackets, cornices, sills,
window jams, arches, columns, mantles and all kinds of ornamental work where
felicity of skill and harmony of detail are required. In one corner of the room
was a terra cotta altar, just receiving its elaborate finishing touches and
intended for St. John’s
Episcopal Church of San Francisco. Over in the corner was a medallion of the
“divine Sara” Bernhardt, while scattered in ornamental profusion were plastic
objects in clay to which his creative hand was extending their first endowment
of beauty.
It was an
artist’s studio more than a workshop or an office. In making an article the
clay is modeled by hand into proper shapes, from this a plaster of Paris mould
is made, then the prepared terra cotta clay is pressed thereon, when it is then
“fired” in muddled kilns. There are three of the kilns, costing $7,000 each,
and the company is now building a muffle kiln that will double their capacity
for firing terra cotta.
What
puzzles the ordinary layman is how to get a given shade or color, so as to make
any number or articles in the same kiln of a uniform color. This is easily
explained it is the work of the Superintendent and he thoroughly understands
his business. It is often the case in mining clay that one stratum is mined and
used, then a stratum next below is used, the strata, however, differing widely
in their composition. One stratum may be burned in much less time than another
and the color of the articles produced may differ materially. To prevent any
disharmony in the color or shade required Mr. Le Jeune experiments with the
clays in a small kiln designed for this purpose. Besides he superintends the
selection or mixing of clays for every article manufactured. it requires close
scrutiny and a thorough knowledge of the soils, but the results are infallible.
To give this ware a red color there must be a certain amount of oxidized iron,
when heated to a certain degree, and care must be taken that the heat is not
sufficient to fuse the alkaline salts in the clay as this would give the
article a dark and metallic color or the luster of gray vitrifaction. A dainty
task this, to select one’s clay appropriately and heat the kiln to the proper
temperature.
In the
brick department only first-class face or stock brick are manufactured. Eight
brick machines, the patent of the company, are in constant operation. The
article turned out is perfect. It has a glossy surface, is of any buff, cream
or red shades desired, and has a metallic ring about it that shows its
durability. Nothing manufactured in terra cotta will oxidize. Acids will leave
no impression on it, which can not be said of bronze, brass or iron which
oxidize in a short time after coming in contact with the atmosphere.
Five brick
kilns, likewise patented by the company with a capacity of 50,000 each are in
use. These can be fired from above or below as best suits the condition of the
brick in process of hardening. Connected with the works is a large machine
shop, containing lathes, planers and boring machines where the company makes
its own dies, tools, etc. There is no occasion to go out for a single repair or
to procure a single tool.
These works
are complete in every particular. Though they are yet in their infancy they
have already acquired a most enviable reputation on this coast for the
perfection of their work. They have recently filled contracts for such splendid
edifices as the Crocker, Mills, and Fair building in San
Francisco, and the School
of Fine Arts in San Diego. Over one hundred men are employed,
and a the present rate of incoming orders it is only a question of time when
twice that number will be employed and the product of these works be sought for
from all parts of the state.
It is out
pleasure to close this article with the statement that the company is now
figuring to put up a plant to make clay fire proofing, which means employment
for more of our people.
_________________
When man
has passed from the condition of a nomadic herdsman and abandoned his tent to
make a permanent home it was but natural that the choice of building materials
should be a prime object in his changed conditions of life. On the plains where
he pastured his flocks stone could not always be readily obtained, and on
observing that clay on drying became hard and durable, the suggestion came
naturally to him that if he put this clay in proper shape while soft and
suffered the sun to bake it, he had a building material that required no tools
to prepare it. Hence we find that the adobe, the first and oldest form of brick,
was connected with the early stages of every nation that has made any
considerable advance toward civilization. The transition was easy from the
adobe to the burnt brick and was in itself an indication of permanency of
habitation and domestic progress. It is not pertinent here to trace the
wonderful improvements and modifications in the manufacture of brick from the
time when the clay was tempered by treading with horses or oxen, when brick
yards enjoyed a pre-eminence in their line if they burned 20,000 brick in a
season up to the present day when a machine automatically filled from a pug
mill can turn out its 50,000 per diem. It is sufficient for out present purpose
to know that Vallejo
in the brick making industry occupies a most enviable place and has at her
disposal the most practical and complete machines which human ingenuity has so
far devised.
We find here an establishment, an infant as yet in its
operations, which promises much both for itself and for Vallejo. This company was organized in 1890
by San Francisco
capitalists. Its chief officers are: President, Frank McCoppin; Secretary, G.
H. Luchinger; Superintendent, Mr. Marr. A large amount of money has been
invested; the plant is substantial and first-class in every particular and the
gentlemen composing this company view their investment with pleasant
satisfaction. Three hundred acres of land were purchased and on this the works
have been erected. These consist of a storage shed, 100x200 feet, engine room
and kilns of the continuous pattern, having just been built to take the place
of the first kilns put in, which proved to be failures.
To obtain
an intelligent idea of these works and the process of manufacturing brick, it
is quite necessary to make a rapid survey of the entire establishment.
Adjoining the storage room, to the east, is where the first work has been done
in the clay pit. The soil for three feet down from the surface is a dark
colored loam, from the surface is a dark colored loam, reposing on a light
colored shale and of this latter the brick is manufactured. The clay is taken
toward the pit and wheeled a few yards into the clay shed, where it goes
through a natural sweating process, the moisture being better equalized here
under shelter, than if taken directly from the bank. Immediately adjoining this
shed is the mammoth and ingenious machinery, where the manufacturing proper is
carried on. This consists of two Steadman crushers through which the clay is
passed after being broken finely, hence through a roller crushers while this in
turn is treated by a centrifugal wheel, which beats up the lumps. It is now taken
in hand by a revolving screen which parts with every particle of hard or
non-assimilating clay before its is conveyed into the bin where it drops
automatically into the machine itself, where the bricks are given shape. The
machine is known as the St. Louis Hydraulic Brick machine and has a capacity of
45,000 daily. Its molds are of steel and developed a pressure of from 2000 to
4000 pounds per square inch. It makes ten impressions at each fall. To watch
these smooth surface, symmetrically shaped blocks, turned out here with so much
precision and regularity, is to observe one of the wonders of mechanical sills.
As fast as the bricks issue out they are taken directly to one of the kilns all
under the same roof and set therein fifty-three courses high.
It is
estimate tat when these works are in fair operation they will turn out 40,000
bricks daily. Besides the common building brick for general purposes, we
observe a face or “stock” brick, of a dark cherry color, as smooth as a planed
block and which is as fine as article of its kind as can e produced any where.
It is not difficult to designate the market for this product. That San Francisco will be the
chief point of supply is but natural when on considers that its capital is
derived from that city, and that transportation thereto is so easy. The company
has a wharf here 50x200 feet with an 800 feet approach, and now that they are
engaged in looking about for suitable vessels to do their own carrying it is
but question of a brief period when these works will be the scene of
considerable shipping activity. When once the works are in full swing keeping
pace with their capacity, from 60 to 100 men will dine work, no inconsiderable
pay roll for the merchants of Vallejo
to cater to and become interested in.
Pacific Brick Works
The works
of this company, located a few hundred yards north of the foregoing company’s
plant, exhibit it both as a neighbor and co-laborer in the brick-making
industry. They, too front on the Straits and kook towards San Francisco as a
market for their out –put. This company was organized in June, 1980, by San Francisco gentlemen.
Its officers are: Mr. R.V. Watt, President; L. J. Norton, Vice President; Mr.
R. D. McElroy, Treasurer; J. L. Case, Secretary and General Manager; M.S.
Wilds, Superintendent. Seventy –five acres of land here belong to the company,
out of any portion of which brick of a quality unsurpassed either in Philadelphia or Milwaukee
manufactured can be surpassed. The soil is of terra cotta based overlaid with
loose dark colored loam and practically inexhaustible for the purpose to which
it is now devoted. It is yet in its infancy, though it is passed that
experimental stage, in having proved to the satisfaction of its stockholders
and the gratification of the public that the article already manufactured
surpassed the most sanguine expectations. This was accomplished in burning the
first kiln of 250,000 brick. Many of these were of so fine a quality that
visitor carried them home with then, heavy as they were.
The machine
used here is the famous Penfield machine manufactured at Willoughby, Ohio,
used for making soft mud brick. It works rapidly commonly, seldom clogs and has
a capacity for molding 40,000 bricks per day. Connected with this machine are a
clay crusher and stone separator and a pug for refining and mixing the dirt.
A dry
house, 40x90, is an essential part of the plant of this company. Since they
design conducting operations every day in the year, once they get under
headway, is essential they should be independent of unfavorable weather. For
this purpose a dry hose was constructed. It is divided in to three “tunnels” or
apartments, where brick can be placed in various stages of drying. Coils of
iron pipe are stretched under the floor of these apartments, so constructed
that they contain the exhaust from the engine and boiler from the day and the
live steam during the night. The temperature of the dry hose is 140 degrees to
180 degrees. Brick are dried here sufficiently in forty-eight hours to permit
of their being set immediately in the kiln.
The engine
house is the model of neatness as well as a symbol of power. It contains a
large Atlas of seventy horsepower and manufactured in Indianapolis expressly for this work.
A two
hundred and fifty foot wharf runs out from the land and here with their own
barges and steam tug they will be in readiness to delivery under their own
management where ever their product may be in demand. These works are not in
operation at present, pending proposed improvement in construction of their
kilns. In the coming spring they will be started up."