Brick

A brick is a block, or a single unit of a ceramic material used in masonry construction. Typically bricks are stacked together, or laid as brickwork using various kinds of mortar to hold the bricks together and make a permanent structure. Bricks are typically produced in common or standard sizes in bulk quantities. They have been regarded as one of the longest lasting and strongest building materials used throughout history.

In the general sense, a "brick" is a standard-sized weight-bearing building unit. Bricks are laid in horizontal courses, sometimes dry and sometimes with mortar. When the term is used in this sense, the brick might be made from clay, lime-and-sand, concrete, or shaped stone. In a less clinical and more colloquial sense, bricks are made from dried earth, usually from clay-bearing subsoil. In some cases, such as adobe, the brick is merely dried. More commonly it is fired in a kiln of some sort to form a true ceramic.

Read more about Brick:  Methods of Manufacture, Influence On Fired Colour, Optimal Dimensions, Characteristics, and Strength, Use, Limitations, Gallery

Famous quotes containing the word brick:

    They dropped separately after the celebration,
    handpicked,
    one after the other like artichoke leaves.
    After that I walked to my car awkwardly
    over the painful bare remains on the brick sidewalk....
    Anne Sexton (1928–1974)

    Protoplasm, simple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all life. It is the clay of the potter: which, bake it and paint it as he will, remains clay, separated by artifice, and not by nature from the commonest brick or sun-dried clod.
    Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895)

    Man you ought to see his plans for allsteel buildins. He’s got an idea the skyscraper of the future’ll be built of steel and glass. We’ve been experimenting with vitrous tile recently... crist-amighty some of his plans would knock you out... He’s got a great sayin about some Roman emperor who found Rome of brick and left it of marble. Well he says he’s found New York of brick an that he’s goin to leave it of steel... steel an glass.
    John Dos Passos (1896–1970)