The word "brick" is borrowed from Turkic languages. Before brick, Rus' used a “plinth” - a thin and wide clay plate measuring about 40 x 40 cm, with a thickness of 2.5 to 4 cm. Such a plinth, for example, was used in the construction of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. The shape and size of the plinth are explained by the ease of molding, drying and firing “thin” bricks. It was made in special wooden forms, dried for 10-14 days, and then fired in a kiln. Plinth masonry is characterized by relatively thick mortar joints and the use of layers of natural stone after several rows of plinth. Many plinths were marked with marks, which are considered to be the marks of the manufacturer.

Plintha was used in Russia until the 15th century. It was replaced by the “Aristotelian Brick”, close in size to the modern one. The first brick building in ancient Rus' was the Tithe Church in Kyiv; in Moscow, the first brick houses were built in 1450. And in 1475, the first brick factory in Russia was built. Before this, brick production was mainly developed in monasteries. In 1485-1495 brick was used during the reconstruction of the Moscow Kremlin. A striking example of the use of brick construction in Russia during the time of John III was the construction of walls and temples of the Moscow Kremlin, which was supervised by Italian craftsmen.

And they built a brick kiln behind the Andronikov Monastery, in Kalitnikov, what to burn the brick in and how to make it, our Russian brick is already longer and harder, when it needs to be broken, they soak it in water. They ordered to stir the lime thickly with hoees; as soon as it dries in the morning, it’s impossible to split it with a knife.”

In 1500, the Kremlin in Nizhny Novgorod was built from brick, in 1520 - the Kremlin in Tula, and in 1524 - the Novodevichy Convent in the Moscow region.

Brick, as a building material, has its own history, during which the process of its manufacture changed and, accordingly, the morphology (size, exterior) and also the structure of the molding mass changed. Knowing about these changes, it is possible to construct a chronological scale that will make it possible to more accurately date the cultural layers and masonry in which bricks are found. The main feature that allows us to determine the time of manufacture of a brick is its size. The “sovereign brick” standard introduced by Boris Godunov (7x3x2 inches, that is, 31.2x13.4x8.9 cm) was to be used in the manufacture of bricks for the first stone building in Western Siberia - the residential chamber of Metropolitan Cornelius in Tobolsk, built in 1574 G.
At the beginning of the 18th century, Peter I established the dimensions, which were then long considered the standard - 28x14x7 cm. In addition, he obliged all brick manufacturers to brand their products, since only this method made it possible to identify unscrupulous manufacturers. Back then, the quality of bricks was assessed very strictly. A batch of bricks brought to a construction site was simply thrown off the cart: if more than three pieces were broken, then the entire batch was rejected.

The first brick house in St. Petersburg was the chambers of Admiralty Councilor Kikin, built in 1707. In 1710, on the St. Petersburg side on Trinity Square, the house of Chancellor G. P. Golovnin was built. In 1711, the palace of Princess Natalya Alekseevna, the sister of Peter I, was built. The summer and winter palaces of Peter I were built in 1712. The first large brick house in St. Petersburg was the Menshikov Palace (1710-1727). Despite repeated reconstructions, the palace has retained its original appearance. Currently it is a museum, a branch of the State Hermitage.

From 1714 to 1741 in the Russian Empire there was a ban on stone construction (and, accordingly, the production of building bricks) in all cities except St. Petersburg. The Emperor issued a special decree on the construction of new factories near the capital, ordering their owners to increase production volumes.

...so that everyone at his factory makes at least a million bricks a year, and whatever more is better.

Craftsmen from all over Russia began to gather to work in the city’s brick factories. The ban on stone construction was introduced specifically so that masons and other craftsmen, left without work, would flock to the construction of St. Petersburg. Everyone entering the city was obliged to give the brick they brought with them as payment for travel. According to one version, Brick Lane in St. Petersburg was named so precisely because at the place where it is located, the “brick tax” for entering the city was accepted and stored.
In the middle of the 18th century. two types of bricks were produced in the country: “city brick” of five grades (size 27x13x6.7 cm), used for the construction of buildings, and “pipe” (although before the start of stone construction, small-format stove bricks 22x9x4.5 cm or 22x11x7 cm were produced here), used for laying pipes and furnaces. The use of the latter for the construction of buildings was not permitted.

In 1811, the Engineering Department of the War Ministry compiled a “Use Register for Civil Architecture,” which indicated that the brick should have dimensions of 26.6x13.3x6.7 cm. The freshly molded material, which, during drying and firing, had to correspond to these parameters changed its size. As a result, the parameters of baked bricks, even at one brick factory, turned out to be slightly different. The difference could reach 1-2 cm. Thus, all attempts to standardize bricks could not ensure the consistency of the dimensions of the fired product. Taking these considerations into account, in the second edition of the “Lesson Provisions”, which was published in 1839, the dimensions of the brick were established according to the dimensions of the dry adobe. In 1847, “Rules for uniform durable making of bricks, which should be used both in St. Petersburg and in other places in Russia, in state-owned and private factories,” were published. These rules established the size of the finished (i.e., baked) brick as 26.7x13.3x6.7 cm. In 1927, the USSR adopted a new standard for brick making: 25x12x6.5 cm, as well as 25x12x8.8 cm (i.e. n. one and a half).

The shape and size of the brick have changed over the centuries, but have always remained such that it is convenient for the mason to work with it, that is, so that the brick is commensurate with the size and strength of the mason's hand. For example, Russian GOST requires that the weight of a brick should not exceed 4.3 kg. Each face of a brick has its own name: the largest one, on which bricks are usually laid, is called “bed”, the long side is called “spoon”, and the small one is called “poke”. Brick remains the most popular material for the construction of various structures: from simple fences to luxury villas and multi-story buildings. The variety of colors and shapes gives the buildings a unique look. Brick is easy to use, strong and durable. Currently, more than 15,000 combinations of shapes, sizes, colors and surface textures are produced in the world. Currently, solid and hollow bricks and porous ceramic stones with enhanced heat-shielding properties are produced.

Kuritsyn E.M.

The beginning of a personal collection of bricks, which amounts to more than 600 units, was, on the one hand, accidental, and on the other hand, natural, since I come from a family of hereditary builders and architects and have been interested in construction and building materials since childhood. The first brick that laid the foundation for the collection, Danish in origin, was found in masonry during excavations of an old Finnish foundation on a summer cottage near the city of Priozersk, Leningrad Region. The unusual mark on the brick aroused interest and served as an incentive to search for information about it. Gradually, on the streets of St. Petersburg, I began to come across ancient bricks with stamps, which I took with me. Over time, this hobby grew into a conscious search and collection of other exhibits.

Brick is the most common building material these days. Its versatility and practicality are appreciated all over the world. His invention is no less important for us than the invention of the wheel, and its history goes back to the depths of time. Of course, brick is one of the very first building materials. The word “brick” itself is of Persian origin, and it came into the Russian language through the Turkic languages. Its history goes back several thousand years, but no one can say for sure who and when the first copy was made. The oldest objects made of baked clay were found at an Old Stone Age (Paleolithic) site in Slovakia; their age is 25 thousand years. The first mention of brick as a building material dates back to the 5th–4th millennium BC. in the architecture of the predynastic period (Ancient Egypt). During excavations in Jemdet Nasr, traces of construction from the late 4th – early 3rd millennium BC were discovered. e. made of thin flat bricks (so-called “rimchens”).

At the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. hand-made one-sided convex bricks were replaced by bricks made in wooden molds, initially oblong (20 x 30 x 10 cm - Old Babylonian brick).

It is known that the first people who built houses from adobe were the Sumerians (3000 BC). A clear example of this is the wall of the Sumerian city of Ur, the thickness of which reached 27 meters. Brick played a particularly important role in the architecture of Ancient Rome, where complex structures, including arches, vaults, etc., were laid out of brick (45×30×10 cm).

In pre-Mongol Rus' (mainly “wooden”), brickwork was similar to Roman, insofar as “brick architecture” came to Rus' from Byzantium, which was the successor of Rome.

A striking example of the use of brick construction in the Russian state during the time of Ivan III was the construction of walls and temples of the Moscow Kremlin, which was managed, among other things, by Italian masters. In 1485-1495, Russian and Italian craftsmen erected new walls and towers of the Kremlin from red brick. Brick walls were placed along the line of old white stone bricks, with a slight retreat outward.

Brick began to be made in a different shape than before and with greater strength. For this purpose, a new brick factory was built in Kalitniki, near the Peasant Outpost. Day and night the master brick makers baked strong baked bricks for the new Kremlin walls, towers, and cathedrals. A lot of bricks were required. 600 pieces were needed for one wall tooth (merlon), and there are more than a thousand of these teeth. Moreover, there are 20 towers, and the walls themselves stretch for two and a quarter kilometers.

For cathedrals, smaller bricks were used, and the towers and walls were made of half a pound of brick, which was called “two-handed” (30x14x17 cm or 31x15x9 cm) weighing up to 8 kg each.

For the first time, mechanization of construction work was used: bricks and stones were raised not manually, but with the help of a special machine, which Russian carpenters nicknamed veksha (squirrel). The front walls were made of brick and filled with white stone. The highest walls were erected along Red Square, where there was no natural water barrier. The Moscow Kremlin, built according to the latest in fortification, was, first of all, a fortress that protected all residents of the city.

And since the highest secular and spiritual power, the most revered churches, monasteries and all-Russian Christian shrines were concentrated there, the Kremlin began to be perceived as a place of “special state holiness” for all of Russia.

Recently, the Uphill consulting group conducted an assessment of the Moscow Kremlin. The value of the Kremlin as a piece of real estate (taking into account socio-cultural value) as of November 2012 amounted to 1.5 trillion Russian rubles (50 billion US dollars).

Brick production in St. Petersburg began through the efforts of Peter I in 1703. However, there is another version on this matter. According to which, the Swedes, long before the Russians, chose the swampy banks of the Neva just with the aim of establishing a brick business here. Indeed, swamps indicate the presence of clay, the forest provides the firewood necessary for stoves, and the river is a convenient route for transportation.

It is known that after the expulsion of the Swedes, Peter I continued the creation of brick factories, as this was required by the construction of a new capital, which Peter planned to create from brick and stone. He even ordered his own wooden house (the house of Peter the Great) to be painted “like a brick,” imitating the well-known Flemish masonry at that time.
In 1713, Peter I issued a special decree on the construction of new factories near St. Petersburg, ordering their owners “so that everyone at their factory makes at least a million bricks a year, and whatever more is better.” Craftsmen from all over Russia began to gather to work in the city’s brick factories. In the same decree, under threat of ruin and exile, the tsar banned the construction of stone buildings in all other cities of the country. This was done specifically so that masons and other craftsmen, left without work, would flock to the construction of St. Petersburg.

Everyone entering St. Petersburg was obliged to give the brick they brought with them as fare. According to one version, Brick Lane in St. Petersburg was named so precisely because at the place where it is located, the “brick tax” for entering the city was accepted and stored.

During the reign of Peter I, control over the quality of bricks was very strict. After transporting the bricks across the water on ships (the most convenient way), they were loaded onto carts. After arriving at their destination, the bricks were thrown off the cart, and if at least three bricks were chipped, then the entire batch was considered defective.

How bricks were made (weight and size)

Until the 19th century, bricks were formed by hand. This process took a lot of time and effort. They dried them only in the summer in the sun and fired them in temporary outdoor ovens.

But already in the middle of the 19th century, the first ring kiln and belt press were built, which made it possible to revolutionize brick production technology. Clay-processing machines - runners, rollers, and clay grinders - appeared next. And at the end of the 19th century, special dryers began to be built. Nowadays, brick production is almost completely mechanized.

The average weight of a brick is about 4 - 4.5 kilograms. But there are also “little ones” weighing 2.5 kg, as well as six-kilogram giants. Since manipulations in brick buildings are carried out manually, by the hands of masons, the greatest amount of work per unit of time is achieved only if a certain average weight of each brick is observed. This gives rise to the most advantageous, and therefore the most commonly used size and weight of bricks.

The shape and size of the brick have changed over the centuries, but have always remained such that it is convenient for the mason to work with it, i.e. so that the brick is commensurate with the size and strength of the mason's hand.

For example, Russian GOST requires that the weight of a brick should not exceed 4.3 kg. Modern standard brick received its dimensions in 1927 and remains so to this day: 250 x 120 x 65 mm.

Each face of a brick has its own name: the largest one, on which bricks are usually placed, is called “bed”, the long side is called “spoon”, and the small one is called “poke”.

It is also worth adding here that for a tighter connection between the parts of the masonry it is necessary to lay bricks in it, either along or across to each other, this also explains the appearance of a certain common predominant format that is given to the brick. As a result, length, width and thickness are in a ratio of approximately 1:1/2:1/4, usually with some excess thickness against this exact proportion.

Stamps

Products of the 18th century mainly demonstrate the imperfection of hand-made technologies and, for the most part, do not have marks. The first stamps on bricks appeared under Boris Godunov with the image of a unicorn and a double-headed eagle. Samples of ceramics from the 19th century, on the contrary, are distinguished by their correct geometric dimensions, high strength indicators, and the presence of marks on almost all samples. The stamps are of particular interest and make it possible to determine the name of brick factories and companies, as well as the geography of brick production.

In the Russian Empire at the end of the 18th – beginning of the 19th centuries, in connection with the beginning of mass stone construction, “Rules for making bricks at state-owned and private factories” were adopted (January 27, 1847). According to them, the owners of the factories had to put their own mark on each brick made, which was squeezed out of the raw material during its formation or drying. The stamps were animalistic (resembling animal paws), abbreviated (the initials of the owners) and rarely numerical (year of manufacture). It was also obligatory to stamp bricks so that in the event of any disasters or destruction (which actually happened) their manufacturer could be determined.

In the practice of today's restoration work, various methods and techniques are used to date buildings and structures, their individual structures and details according to architectural, stylistic and technological characteristics, and according to the chemical, physical and metrological characteristics of building materials. One of these methods is dating by marks on building materials and products. It should be noted that the concept of “dating by stamps” is used as a collective concept and conditionally extends not only to the stamps themselves, but also to factory, plant and trade marks and signs, all kinds of tags and plates, labels, as well as marks, markings and designations used on construction and finishing materials and products.

Of course, the ideal type of stamp in general would be to have a date, manufacturer’s designation and information about the place of production. Such marks on Russian products are rare and mainly date back to the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. Of the dated stamps, the oldest is the stamp “1777” on a stick of bricks from the buildings of the Marfino estate, Mytishchi district, Moscow region. It can be assumed that with the introduction of the Arabic designation of numbers in 1700 by Peter I, stamps with the Arabic designation of god could have appeared on various products, including building materials, including brick, already in the first decade of the 18th century.

It should also be noted that the appearance of marks on bricks with the image of a double-headed eagle coincides in time with the similar marking of silver items with an eagle, i.e. by the middle of the 17th century. (in relation to this time, the appropriate term is not “brand”, but “eagle”). The marking of bricks with letters is information about the manufacturer. Sometimes these are initials, sometimes the name of the area, or a combination of both. However, when talking about digital stamps of the Arabic style, it is necessary to remember about possible exceptions. In 1979, during an examination of the eastern facade of the Church of the Ascension in the village of Kolomenskoye, a date was discovered in Arabic numerals carved on the white stone capital - “1533”. It is likely that it was made by a foreign master.

Markings, marks and graffiti are extremely rare on white stone parts. In 1986, a master's mark was discovered on a white stone foundation slab from 1532 in the patrimonial Annunciation Church in the village of Seredinskoye, formerly. Vereisky district, Moscow region. The multi-line inscription is made in script. In the lower right corner there is a cryptogram in the form of a twisted volute (rose) with the name of the master. The text ends with the words “...wrote” and then a cryptogram, badly damaged by time.

In addition to the mark, bricks are “identified” by color: for example, modern St. Petersburg (“sea” brick) is uniformly ocher.

Ancient freshwater - in a wide range: Kolpino clays, taken from the Izhora River, gave the brick a red color, Tosnensky - pink-yellow, clays taken from the Neva - rowan.

Studying and “unraveling” the mark is a very fascinating and educational process involving extremely important disciplines - history (local history), architecture and archeology. Brick marks can tell funny, tragic, and sometimes mystical stories.

For example, in the St. Petersburg Brick Museum there is a brick with a wolf paw print, found near Georgenburg Castle in the Kaliningrad region. According to legend, when the Teutonic knights conquered Prussia in the 14th century, huge packs of wolves came out to defend their lands and began to besiege the castle occupied by the knights, leaving their paw prints on the stone.

Sometimes a brand could become a successful marketing move against the background of competitors - for example, the owner of the Podkova plant, Major General Viktor Aleksandrovich Specchinsky, was allowed to brand bricks with this famous symbol for his military merits as an officer of the cavalry Life Guards Regiment. It is not surprising that business for the entrepreneurs who used such a good-luck “trademark” quickly went up.

There is an interesting story about the secrets of brickmaking: Russian and foreign companies worked on the supply of building materials for the Cathedral of the Savior on Spilled Blood. The brick suppliers were the largest plant in Russia, “Pirogranite”, and the Siegersdorf factories in Germany, which produced glazed bricks for facades. The Estonian company Kos and Duerr took part in covering the walls of the building with Estonian marble. The granite cladding of the plinth was carried out by the well-known sculpture workshop of Grazioso Bota in St. Petersburg.

In 1861, the Pirogranit (Terracotta) plant of Prince M. Golitsyn began operating in Borovichi. At the end of the XIX century Borovichi almost entered the world history of refractories. At the fireclay brick factory of Prince Golitsyn, master Matvey Veselov worked - an inventor in his own right. I walked around the neighborhood, collected handfuls of different clays, mixed them in different proportions, and fired them. No one knew about his exercises; his assistant was a deaf-mute and illiterate man. Finally, Veselov made a chocolate-colored facing brick with a shiny glaze. Showed it to the owner. And then the 1889 World Exhibition in Paris turned up. Golitsyn with his brick, which was called “pyrogranite,” received a large silver medal. Western industrialists were shocked: the facing material was of amazing strength and beauty - they were already planning for the most expensive work.

Golitsyn was offered a contract for the cladding of the redesigned wing of Buckingham Palace. The prince returned home and asked about the cost of the master's recipe. Hearing the price, he became furious and kicked Veselov out of the factory. I thought that he would come to repent. And the master started drinking and... died. They looked for the recipe in his papers, but never found it. Already in Soviet times, the Institute of Refractories wanted to restore pyro-granite for cladding the Moscow metro under construction, but the attempts were unsuccessful.

The most popular questions about bricks:
Why are old bricks so strong?

It's all about the clay from which the ceramic dough is made. Before the revolution, in the vicinity of St. Petersburg there were a large number of brick factories, up to ninety. These factories took clay from rivers and lakes of the Ice Age, its chemical composition did not give the same “efflorescence” and salt corrosion. These glaciolacustrine deposits were then dredged out. Modern factories use Cambrian clay. She is of marine origin. Present-day Petersburg was once the bottom of the ocean, so there is a lot of this clay and it is very easy to mine, which is convenient for large-scale brick production. However, this clay is heavy and less neutral in chemical composition, and therefore modern bricks, after lying for even one winter, can crumble.

To restore ancient buildings in St. Petersburg, light clays of glacial origin are needed. Modern bricks made from Cambrian clay are not suitable either in color or texture. Therefore, for example, for the reconstruction of the Estonian Church on Dekabristov Street, they took Pskov brick made from local clays of glacial lake origin.

The second question I am often asked is: Why are bricks made with holes?

Brick manufacturers, when making “holes,” are guided by the following principles: saving material, lightening the weight of the brick and, as a consequence, the entire construction. And also when laying, due to the holes, better adhesion occurs. Imagine how the mortar goes on a flat brick, and how it goes on a brick with holes. In the first case, it hardens into a flat cake, and in the second, into the letter “T”.

After laying hollow bricks, air remains in the holes, which serves as additional thermal insulation. Low thermal conductivity coefficient, unlike usual. With holes - more volume, less weight. One cubic meter of standard size brick contains about 450 bricks. There are much fewer hollow pieces per cube.

The author, of course, is not a rare collector, since a large number of people in different countries collect unique bricks. Already today, the State Construction Supervision and Expertise Service of St. Petersburg has opened the Museum of Building Materials (“Museum of Brick”, Yuzhnoe Highway, 55). Showcases were specially made that can withstand one and a half tons of rare building materials. The oldest bricks are rightfully considered to be the 17th century bricks, once used to build a stove on a Dutch ship, and later discovered in the Peter and Paul Fortress. One of the curious registered specimens is a brick with the surname Lenin, made in the 19th century. But he had nothing to do with the leader of the proletariat. It was a strong old brick - with a mark in pre-revolutionary spelling. In the 19th century, a certain Pyotr Semenovich Lenin owned a brick factory in the vicinity of St. Petersburg.

I keep my collection of bricks at the dacha, and if there is a place and an opportunity to make an exhibition, I will donate them to the Mining University. Like many collectors, I have my own website where you can look at photographs of rare bricks and read their stories. I also point out other collections:

Brick collection of Evgeny Kuritsyn http://zhenya-kouritsin.narod.ru/

Company "Sea of ​​Stoves" http://morepechey.ru/internet-magazin?mode=folder&folder_id=12429606

Collection of bricks. Stamps of the St. Petersburg province http://www.v-smirnov.ru/coll.htm

Anna Bokovnya. Collection of bricks with stamps produced at brick factories in St. Petersburg and its environs in the 19th - early 20th

centuries History in brick marks. http://www.aroundspb.ru/gallery.php?path=/variety/photos/brick

Collection of antique bricks. http://www.oldbricks.info/

Brick Museum http://www.pobedalsr.ru/muzey

Literature

Levakov I.A. . MNPP "Restoration Center". Institute Spetsproektrestavratsiya, 1993; Portal "Archaeology of Russia", 2005. //
http://www.archeologia.ru/Library/Book/2035a5646a32/page3

Filippov A.V. Messages from the laboratory of ceramic installation. issue 1, M., 1940.

Gelfeld L.S. Basics of restoration of architectural metal. Classification of architectural metal. / Institute of Special ProjectRestoration. M, 1991.

Giese M.E . Essays on the history of artistic design in Russia in the 18th - early 20th centuries. L.: Leningrad State University Publishing House, 1978.

Kandaurov D. P . Factory enterprises of the Russian Empire. Petrograd: Printing house of the t-va under the company “Electroprinting house N.Ya. Stoikova", 1914.

Kiselev I.A. Dating of brickwork XVI-XIX centuries. according to visual characteristics. Method. allowance. / Institute of Special ProjectRestoration. M., 1990.

Postnikova-Loseva M.M. Russian jewelry art: its centers, masters. XVI-XIX centuries M.: Nauka, 1974.

Sivak S.I. Activities of the tile workshop of the Iversky Valdai Monastery in the second half of the 17th century. // Restoration and research of cultural monuments. Vol. III. M: Stroyizdat, 1990.

The plant of the merchant brothers Ivan and Vladimir Vasilyevich Lyadov existed since 1841 in the village of Ust-Slavyanka on the right bank of the river. Slavs. It is possible that there were several factories (including one above the Novosaratov colony on the right bank of the Neva River) and subsequently the brothers’ businesses were divided. It is known that in the 1860s a separate stamp of Ivan Lyadov “I.L.” appeared. (original circular frame was used). In 1867, one of the factories (on the Izhorka River) was sold to L.A. Vitovsky. However, in 1881 one of the factories still had two owners, but by 1887 only Vladimir Lyadov remained the owner of the factory. Subsequently, the plant passed to his wife Ekaterina Vasilievna. There is also information that in the same places in 1897 in the Ovtsino colony (Neneroy estate) a new plant was built by their relatives: hereditary honorary citizen Mikhail Vladimirovich (one of the sons of V.V. and E.V. Lyadov) and Alexey Konstantinovich Lyadov (apparently their nephew). At the same time, the manager of the plant was K.V. Lyadov (possibly another son of the Lyadovs). The mark “ZBL”, like “Br.L.”, most likely refers to the founders of the business.

The brick was produced at a factory owned by Fedor Alfredovich Hill. The plant was located in the village of Ust-Izhora and, having begun work in 1897, worked at least until 1914. Brands with the surname written in capital and capital letters are known. Refractory sand-lime bricks were produced in the south of Sweden in the village of HOGANAS in the province of Skane, located 20 km from Helsingborg. Thanks to the combined deposits of coal and clay, the production of bricks and ceramics began in 1832, thanks to which this place became famous. Due to the lack of local labor, Russian prisoners of war were also used in the work. Brick production was closed after 1926. There are known varieties of marks that differ in font and size, as well as the presence of symbols in the form of an anchor with the abbreviation HSB - Höganäs Stenkols Bolag (Hoganäs Mining Enterprise).

The refractory brick factory dates back to 1875, when Karl Küster opened his first coal mine in the village of SKROMBERGA in Skane, the southernmost province of Sweden. When things went poorly at the mine, in 1888 Küster sold the mine to new owners, who, instead of coal, discovered rich deposits of clay in the mines and began to actively develop them. In 1986, the company was sold to the Finnish concern Partek and the historical circle was closed - the president of Partek was married to the granddaughter of Karl Küster...

The bricks were produced at factories owned by the Eliseev family (most likely, not having direct family ties with the famous Russian traveler A.V. Eliseev and the famous merchants Eliseev).

Locomotive

Nowadays, the Borovichi brick factory dates back to 1855, when Mr. Nobel founded in the Novgorod province in Borovichi its first plant of refractory products. Then, in 1880, a native of German industrialists, a merchant of the first guild, Konstantin Logginovich Wakhter, founded several factories, which were named after the first letters of the Greek alphabet. Today there are 3 brands known: “ALFA”, “BETA” and “GAMMA”. Before the First World War, Borovichi factories produced about 40% of all refractories in Russia. According to some sources, one of the brick factories was founded in 1910.

The brick was found in Egypt in the city of Cairo. On the ruins of a building built in 1956. This brick is fireclay, staked. At the moment, the plant and manufacturer have not yet been determined.

This brick was received as an exchange from Ukraine from the city of Lvov. This mark stands for CegielniaZwiazkowa Kozielniki. The owners of the factory for the production of this brick were Lviv architects Julian Sosnowski, Alfred Zachariewicz and industrialist Neuwohner. It is difficult to say about the location of the plant.

And in conclusion, I would like to say that it is not the brick itself that interests me, but the information that it carries.

Application