British Pathe

Title reads: "British Instructional Films presents a Classroom Film - Bricks".

Pan down of a large chimney - brick works. Men in a quarry shovel earth into large carts on wheels. These are then pushed along until they reach a sloping rail where they are hooked on to a chain and pulled up the...

Title reads: "British Instructional Films presents a Classroom Film - Bricks".

Pan down of a large chimney - brick works. Men in a quarry shovel earth into large carts on wheels. These are then pushed along until they reach a sloping rail where they are hooked on to a chain and pulled up the slope to the brick works. Shot of the carts moving on the rails from the top of the slope and of the carts arriving at the works.

Intertitle reads: "The clay is refined". The clay is tipped from a cart into a refining machine. C/U of machinery used to break the clay into smaller pieces. Water is added and the clay is pushed through holes in a metal plate - rather like mincemeat coming out of a hand mincing machine. The smooth clay is fed into a machine which cuts it into brick shapes. Men slide the bricks off the machine and stack them on a pallet. They then push the pallet along. Intertitle read: "The soft clay bricks are stacked in the kiln to be fired". We see the large kiln for firing the bricks from above. A man pushes a wheelbarrow of coal around the outside (the kiln is round). Men push barrows loaded with bricks into the kiln. The bricks are then stacked with gaps between them. C/Us of the men at work. C/U of the stack of bricks.

The doorway to the kiln is bricked up and plastered over. Man shovels coal into the furnace. C/Us of the coal fire burning. Intertitle: "New Bricks". The bricks are brought out of the kiln. (The man pushing the barrow slides down sloping boards pulled by the weight of the bricks - quite cute.) The bricks are stacked outside. C/U of a fired brick being measured. C/Us of men stacking the bricks. One man smokes a pipe as he works. Brickie stacks bricks on to a hod. He climbs up a latter with the hod on his shoulder - shot from above. Two men build a brick wall. We see the cement being put on and the bricks being laid. A man checks that the wall is straight by putting a piece of wood against is. Long shot of the building site with men on scaffolding.
Note: see also "Bricks for Houses" which shares some shots but is not as comprehensive. 2 negs exist - check for best quality.