These ingredients pulverize and triturate to an impalpable powder, reducing the whole to a homogeneous mass, which place in a crucible or other suitable vessel and calcine. After this calcined mass is cooled off it is again reduced to a powder by the pulverizing process. Sufficient water is then added, and the whole triturated, so that it will form an enamelling compound of about the consistency of cream. In this compound immerse that portion of the brick desired to be enamelled, and then subject it to a sufficient temperature to fuse the enamelling material on its surface.

When it is desired to make a brick having a black enamelled surface, add the black oxide of cobalt, black oxide of manganese, and umber to the herein before-named ingredients prior to the pulverizing and calcining process.

of

For

a blue enamelled surface, the black oxide of cobalt is used in like manner. For a green enamelled surface, suboxide copper is used. For a red enamelled surface, suboxide of copper and red oxide of iron are used. For drab enamelled surface, mineral paint known as the "Brandon mineral paint," manufactured at Brandon, in the State of Vermont. For bronze marble, carmine, and other shades and tints formed by a combination of the above, the ingredients are pulverized and formed into a homogeneous mass, and a suitable quantity of it is added to the ingredients forming the enamelling compound to produce the shade or tint desired.

With this enamelling compound the surface of the ordinary red front brick may be enamelled, and any desired shade or tint given to the enamelled surface-a result not

successfully accomplished prior to the date of this invention. The patentee is enabled, therefore, to produce, at a comparatively low cost, building brick having an enamelled and ornamental surface which is unaffected by the action of heat, frost, or other atmospheric conditions.

The ordinary front brick employed is made of any of the clays commonly used in the manufacture of such brick, and burned in the usual manner.

The surface of the brick to be enamelled should be smooth. To this end they should preferably be pressed; but the surface to be enamelled should be free from sand, or otherwise the enamel will not adhere.

It being obvious that the enamelled brick will only be used for forming fronts and other parts of the building requiring a fine finish and ornamentation, brick having a rough uneven surface, or porous, will not answer, for the enamelled surface will be uneven in one case, and full of small indentations in the other.

Mr. John D. Logan, of Philadelphia, Pa., has invented a process, the object of which is also to treat bricks or buildingblocks to solutions or coloring-matter and glaze, whereby their value for building purposes will be enhanced, and a structure be ornamented by allowing a choice of colors and shades at the will of the builder.

In carrying out the invention, he employs the following formula to form the solution, which, for convenience, we will designate the "white body, or slip:" blue clay, ninetynine pounds; china-clay, three hundred and twenty-one pounds; spar, three hundred and fifteen pounds; flint, forty

two pounds; bone (calcined and ground), three hundred and fifty-four pounds. These ingredients are mixed in a sufficient quantity of water, which will give a consistence to the solution that will allow it to be passed through a boltingcloth of seventy meshes to the square inch, after which the solution is allowed to settle, and the water poured off until the residuum will weigh, approximately, twenty-four ounces to the pint. The bricks are dipped or immersed in this solution and allowed to dry, after which they are treated with a glaze or enamelling solution, and again dried. The glaze solution is prepared as follows: spar, ninety pounds; Paris white, eighty pounds; china-clay, twenty pounds; borax, sixty pounds; soda-ash, sixty pounds; flint, forty pounds. These mix and calcine in a gloss-kiln. Of this mixture, take two hundred pounds; spar, seventy pounds; flint, forty pounds; white lead, fifty pounds. Grind together wet, and with water form a solution which will pass through a bolting cloth of eighty meshes to the square inch. After treating with this solution, the bricks are placed in saggers and set in a kiln and burned until the glaze flows.

The white body may be changed to a green slip by taking two quarts of the same, and adding thereto two ounces of black oxide of copper, and one ounce of blue calx; to a blue slip, by taking four quarts of the same, and adding four ounces of blue calx; to a drab slip by taking four quarts of the same, and adding two ounces of black oxide of manganese, and one ounce of blue calx. To make a black slip, take one hundred pounds of brick-clay, and with water form a solution which will pass through a bolting-cloth of seventy

meshes to the square inch, then add twenty-five pounds of carbonate of iron, and thirteen pounds of black oxide of manganese, and reduce the whole to a liquid weighing twenty-four ounces to the pint.

The blue calx, before mentioned, is formed as follows: Take oxide of cobalt, ten pounds; spar, thirty pounds; oxide of zinc, four pounds; nitrate of soda, two and one-half pounds. Mix and calcine in a gloss-kiln, and grind wet to a solution of thirty-two ounces to the pint.

Ornamenting Bricks and Tiles of Uneven Surface, with Metallic or Vitreous Colors.

Mr. James C. Anderson, of Chicago, Ill., has lately put into operation an invention which relates to the ornamentation of bricks and tiles of uneven surfaces; and it consists in applying metallic or vitreous colors to them while being formed in the mould. It is different from the manner in which plain surfaces are decorated, and it is accomplished by causing the ornament to be imbedded in the face of the brick or tile, the same having been previously printed or stencilled in metallic or vitrifiable colors on paper or inflammable material, which is placed in the mould, with the ornamental surface next to the clay. The clay is then compressed 'into a brick or tile, the ornament becoming imbedded in the clay, and the paper adhering to the article until consumed by the fires of the kiln in burning the brick or tile. In this instance, the object is to ornament in vitrifiable or metallic colors bricks or tiles of uneven surfaces; or, rather, with raised or depressed surfaces, and in which such raised or depressed portions form

ornaments in themselves.

As an example, suppose a brick

or tile is to be provided with a series of concentric circles in relief, and that it is desired to beautify such circles with colors different from the body of the brick. This may be done by making the circles of different colors, or combining various colors in one circle, or by wreaths of flowers, etc.; and in accomplishing this, it is necessary to form the desired design or pattern in the matrix or bottom of the mould, or in the plunger or plungers which compress the material into shape. The same design is then printed, stencilled, or otherwise placed on paper or other suitable material, in metallic or other vitrifiable colors, and in such manner as will produce the most desirable effect. This pattern or print is now placed in the mould, with the color next to the clay, care being exercised to have the ornaments on the paper to match with the depressions in the mould. This can be best accomplished by cutting the paper the same size as the mould, and having the designs on the paper in the same relative position in regard to the face of the brick as the design on the matrix or plunger, or, rather, have the design on the paper or other material register with the pattern in the mould or matrix. Pressure is now applied, which forms the brick or tile, and at the same time causes the coloring matter to be imbedded or to adhere to the brick or tile, together with the paper. The article thus formed is now subjected to the fires of the kiln, and in this burning operation the paper is destroyed, and the colors burned in or permanently fixed to the brick or tile. We have given this illustration of a brick with concentric circles in relief or in depression