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Show oo BRICK AGAIN IN FAVOR It is probable (hat few people, even among those who are connected with, the Building Trades, realize the. enor-' moua extent of the manufacture of brick In the lower Hudson river region. re-gion. So large are the quantities turned out in recent years that the! figures would doubtless be questioned coming from any less reliable source tban the United States Geological I Survey. In a bulletin just issued by George OUs Smith, director of the Survey, it I is stated that the consumption of ; brick in Greater New York during j the ear. 1912 was over a million thousands, valued at. $5,S60,770 This ' was an increase in that year of f3.-187.000 f3.-187.000 brick, and of $1,138,137 in value val-ue over the consumption in that field In 1911. It is sated in the hnllotin that the output of brick in the Hud- I son river district would tc been still larger last year ir the activity of the Industry bad not been cur- I tailed by scarcity, of labor and strikes amoug the brick-makers. The figures gien bv the Survey j bulletin are interesting, indicating as they do that concrete and cement construction has not superseded brick ill was freely predicted a few years .igo that concrete blocks would prac- I tlcally displace brick as building ma-lerlal ma-lerlal It appears, according to thei experts ol the Geological survey, that there was a definite "back to brick" movement in the metropolis and Hf suburbs in 1 9 1 J , and an Increasing use of brick as high-class building material The cause of the increased use of buck Is not far to seek The menace to the brick industry by the concrete block was real, for this newer con-: atruction was widely heralded. To meet the new and apparently danger- ous competition, radical changes in brick-making were Introduced, and , superior bricks took the place of those which had known little change for generations. Improved brif k-maklng I machinery, and scientific methods o'. burning reduced the cost of brie k 1 greatly. On the other hand, little ad-ance ad-ance was made in the quality of con crete blocks. In many cases the true formula for concrete was neglected by its manufacturers and Inferior blocks were often furnished Thus, while the brick-makers were obliged lo improve the product to meet competition, com-petition, there was retrogression rather rath-er than advancement in the new Industry. In-dustry. While ho concrete block has manj advantages, and, when honestly made, is an excellent substitute for brick and stone under certain conditions, it has not had th anticipated effect of superseding brick for superstructure nuxDosss. (Advertisement) |