Many of us visited the brickyard for a brick-making demonstration. Because they had people who knew how to make brick and plenty of sand and clay, they were able to make many things out of brick. There were 5 brickyards in Nauvoo; only one has been restored. The brick makers used a recipe of 4 parts clay and 1 part sand to make a doughy substance that was formed into blocks. These blocks were dried by turning them everyday (hacking) for about 2 weeks. Then they stacked them in pyramid shaped structures with openings for fires and fired the bricks. When they were done, about 80% of the bricks were just right, 10% were salmons (underdone) and 10% were clinkers (overcooked). People still bought the whole lot. The average brick home took 40.000 bricks, and it took about a month to get them from order to delivery. Some people were so anxious to get their bricks that they didn’t wait for them to cool before hauling them off. Nauvoo had about 350 brick homes. We took home a commemorative brick. The missionaries make 25,000 of them during the winter months when tourism is slow.
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