Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
of Brunswick Wharf, Vauxhall, was advertising rubbers and cutters '…of the
best quality'. Later in the period other building supply merchants advertised
bricks for gauged work, such as F. Rosher & Co. of Old Jamaica Wharf, who
sold 'Yellow Malm Cutters' and 'White, Black and Red Rubbers'.
Advising on the selection of rubbers suitable for gauged work from a general
firing of bricks, Hammond (1889, 78-9) suggests that:
… It is of very little use to look at the outside of a brick-stack if one is trying
to ascertain the quality of the bricks …. The brick must be broken, or … sawn
through with the saw, so as to examine the kind of earth of which it is made; for
we frequently see bricks having a first-class appearance outside, and the inside
when examined is found to be full of stones or clay that has never been properly
worked up, much less washed; so that when the cutter begins to work he is sure
to find one or the other defect just in that particular part which he wants to cut
to the mould, and so the brick is wasted after a considerable time has been spent
in squaring or otherwise preparing it for cutting, and the brick is not only wasted
but the labour also.
He continues (Hammond, 1889, 79)
There are a great many different kinds of bricks used for cutting, called 'rub-
bers'. Some of these have too much clay and others too much sand in compos-
ition. The first takes a great deal more labour in working than would be required
if the sand and clay existed in proper proportions, because there is not sufficient
friction when working the on the rubbing-stone or using the saw, and the latter is
almost as bad in the too great freedom of its working; for where the brick has too
much sand it is next to impossible to work the angles to the sharpness generally
required for good gauged work, the excess of sand making the brick rotten, as it
were, so that the angles will not hold. This is sometimes seen with good bricks,
but it is when they have become exposed to the damp and then dried by the fire.
This is often the case in the winter season.
There would have been quite a large number of small rural brickyards produ-
cing a variety of bricks capable of being rubbed. This is evidenced in a dated
1862 letter from the Beaulieu Brickworks, replying to a customer complaining
about the non-delivery of arch bricks:
…we do not keep Arch Bricks by us as they vary in taper, we make them to order
generally … all our Customers use the rubber for the Arches as they can rub
them to the taper they require them. You will find that all Brick makers make the
rubbers for the purpose you require Arch Bricks … I should not of (sic) sent
them had I not of (sic) been sure that you would of used them as other build-
ers do. They never object to the labour of rubbing or cutting. (Cottingham,
1984, 15)
