Editing Brick (section)

=== Industrial era ===
[[File:MNAR (Mérida) Interior 01.jpg|thumb|upright|In the [[National Museum of Roman Art]] in [[Mérida, Spain]] (designed by [[Rafael Moneo]] and built in the 1980s) the coating of hard-fired clay bricks forms a compression-resistant element together with the fill of non-reinforced concrete.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.sze.hu/~eptansz/Deplazes_Constructing_Architecture.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.sze.hu/~eptansz/Deplazes_Constructing_Architecture.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live|page=55|year=2005|chapter=Prefabrication|first=Barbara|last=Wiskemann|publisher=Birkhäuser – Publishers for Architecture|location=Basel, Boston & Berlin|title=Constructing Architecture: Materials, Processes, Structures|isbn=978-3-7643-7313-9|editor-first=Andrea|editor-last=Deplazes}}</ref>]]
Production of bricks increased massively with the onset of the [[Industrial Revolution]] and the rise in factory building in England. For reasons of speed and economy, bricks were increasingly preferred as building material to stone, even in areas where the stone was readily available. It was at this time in [[London]] that bright red brick was chosen for construction to make the buildings more visible in the heavy fog and to help prevent traffic accidents.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ZQl3C5BAHsC|title=London the Biography|author=Peter Ackroyd|page=435|publisher=Random House|year=2001|isbn=978-0-09-942258-7}}</ref>

The transition from the traditional method of production known as hand-moulding to a mechanised form of mass-production slowly took place during the first half of the nineteenth century. The first brick-making machine was [[patent]]ed by Richard A. Ver Valen of Haverstraw, New York, in 1852.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US9082|title=US Patent 9082|access-date=26 September 2014}}</ref> The [[Bradley & Craven Ltd]] 'Stiff-Plastic Brickmaking Machine' was patented in 1853. Bradley & Craven went on to be a dominant manufacturer of brickmaking machinery.<ref>''The First Hundred Years: the Early History of Bradley & Craven, Limited, Wakefield, England'' by Bradley & Craven Ltd (1963)</ref> Henry Clayton, employed at the Atlas Works in [[Middlesex]], England, in 1855, patented a brick-making machine that was capable of producing up to 25,000 bricks daily with minimal supervision.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US13123|title=Henry Clayton|access-date=17 December 2012}}</ref> His mechanical apparatus soon achieved widespread attention after it was adopted for use by the [[South Eastern Railway, UK|South Eastern Railway Company]] for brick-making at their factory near [[Folkestone]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S54AAAAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PA361|title=The Mechanics Magazine and Journal of Engineering, Agricultural Machinery, Manufactures and Shipbuilding|year=1859|page=361}}</ref> 

At the end of the 19th century, the Hudson River region of [[New York State]] would become the world's largest brick manufacturing region, with 130 brickyards lining the shores of the Hudson River from Mechanicsville to Haverstraw and employing 8,000 people. At its peak, about 1 billion bricks were produced a year, with many being sent to New York City for use in its construction industry.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley/culture/article/Brick-collectors-Hudson-Valley-17271119.php|title=Brick collectors of the Hudson Valley|work=www.timesunion.com|first=Michelle|last=Falkenstein|date=June 28, 2022|access-date=June 28, 2022}}</ref>

The demand for high office building construction at the turn of the 20th century led to a much greater use of [[cast iron|cast]] and [[wrought iron]], and later, steel and [[concrete]]. The use of brick for [[skyscraper]] construction severely limited the size of the building – the [[Monadnock Building]], built in 1896 in Chicago, required exceptionally thick walls to maintain the structural integrity of its 17 storeys.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Monadnock Building: The Last Brick Skyscraper|url=https://www.amusingplanet.com/2019/09/monadnock-building-last-brick-skyscraper.html|access-date=28 January 2022|website=|language=en}}</ref>

Following pioneering work in the 1950s at the [[ETH Zurich|Swiss Federal Institute of Technology]] and the [[Building Research Establishment]] in [[Watford]], UK, the use of improved masonry for the construction of tall structures up to 18 storeys high was made viable. However, the use of brick has largely remained restricted to small to medium-sized buildings, as steel and concrete remain superior materials for high-rise construction.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dehoopsteenwerwe.co.za/information03.html|title=The History of Bricks|publisher=De Hoop:Steenwerve Brickfields}}</ref>