The Bridgeville Area Historical Society’s October program meeting was an interesting talk regarding the history of brickmaking and the unique hobby of brick collecting. The speaker was Jean Bear, the regional representative of the International Brick Collectors Association (IBCA). I have known her for nearly three decades and was delighted to hear her presentation.
Jean lives in Washington County, not far from the Arden Trolley Museum. In addition to displaying thousands of bricks in her patios and sidewalks, she maintains an excellent brick museum in a separate building. Included in her collection are three dozen different varieties of C P Mayer bricks, certainly the most comprehensive collection anywhere.
She began her discussion by reminding us that bricks were among the first construction materials, dating back to 7000 BC in Turkey. These were hand formed and dried in the sun. The first upgrade in technology was the introduction of straw as reinforcement, in Egypt. Next came the introduction of kiln-firing to a temperature 1100 degrees Fahrenheit, in 3500 BC. By 1650 AD, fired bricks somewhat similar to those produced today were being manufactured in Europe and in North America.
My favorite reference related to brickmaking is a wonderful 2001 movie starring Sidney Poitier, entitled “The Last Brickmaker in America”. Poitier is a tired old gentleman who has spent his life making bricks “the old-fashioned way”, mostly by hand and with the help of a mule to propel the pug mill. He retired when a modern automated brick plant was constructed in his home time. Worse than that, his beloved wife died, and his life was over. Just when things looked the worst, he learned that the local library needed 30,000 bricks for a new building dedicated to his wife. The rest of the film is a beautiful depiction of nineteenth century brick-making, replete with all its problems.
The speaker then gave a brief overview of the C P Mayer Brick Company and of Mr. Mayer’s stature in the industry. She told several stories about his participation in the national trade association for the brick-makers, the Common Brick Manufacturers Association of American. He obviously was as charismatic in that environment as he was in his everyday life in Bridgeville. At one convention he was presented with a gag hat in recognition of his contributions; he proceeded to wear it throughout the meeting. She showed us a photo of him in a formal dress suit, his lapel sporting four badges, a Mayer brick in his lap, and a sombrero-type hat on his head. She also reported on a tirade he made regarding his disillusionment with insurance companies and their negative impact on the brickmaking industry. I believe this episode led to the industry establishing its own insurance company.
Among her collection of Mayer bricks is one that has a jelly bean shape, with most of the original brick surface and its corners removed. She then explained that it is one that has survived a “rattler test”. When we began using paving bricks on streets and highways, their durability was a major concern. The industry invented a test to evaluate this property. The rattler was a large eight-sided drum into which a dozen paving bricks and several hundred pounds of scrap iron were loaded. The drum was rotated for an hour at thirty revolutions per minute. The abraded pavers were then weighed and their weight loss from this ordeal determined. I think anything greater than fifteen percent was deemed unacceptable.
Mrs. Bear had brought with her three or four dozen of her favorite bricks, which she proceeded to display and discuss. Included was a Mayer brick that was new to me. It was smaller than the pavers, the size of common house brick, and lacked the usual spacer lugs. Unlike the normal “Mayer” or “C P Mayer” designation, this one stated “C P Mayer & Sons Bridgeville Pa”. She reported that it had been recovered from a sidewalk. I wonder if it was a house brick; we know that they produced millions, but I hadn’t seen one with a name on it.
One of her favorites had the single word “Snowball”. She explained that it was a firebrick produced by a company owned by George Snowball. Firebricks are manufactured to operate in very high temperature environments; Mr. Snowball’s slogan was “You can’t melt a Snowball”. Another favorite brick sports the slogan “Don’t Spit on the Sidewalk”. This was the brainstorm of public health crusader Samuel Crumbine in Dodge City, Kansas (of all places) in the early 1900s. As part of his campaign to curb the spread of tuberculosis, he persuaded local brick-makers to stamp it on sidewalk bricks. I wonder if Marshall Dillon enforced the slogan!
At various times bricks were made in prisons. She displayed one that was stamped “Convict Made 1912 O. S. P. M.” and stated that it was produced in the Oregon State Prison. Other interesting bricks displayed included one with a five-pointed star embossed on it – from the Star Brick Company in Warren, Pa.; a lovely one from Columbus, Kansas that featured the state flower, the Sunflower; and one from Corry, Pa. with “Katonka” in intersecting diagonals.
The audience was full of comments and questions after the presentation; perhaps we have introduced a few more folks to the hobby of brick collecting. Lou Delach asked if there were Mayer bricks in the Indianapolis Speedway. We know Mr. Mayer made several trips there; surely he managed to sneak one or two into its surface.
Next month’s program will be at 7:30 pm Tuesday, November 28, in the Chartiers Room of the Bridgeville Volunteer Fire Department, when I will discuss a Native American settlement in Bridgeville in 1223 AD. Guests are encouraged to bring in their Native American artifacts for “Show and Tell”.