It is very difficult to question the official version of history if you are on the same battlefield with professional historians and use the same weapons - chronicles and other "documents"! However, if you go to another field - production technology, then there the humanitarians are usually weak, and most importantly, this section of history has practically not been subjected to purges and total falsifications!
Let's take the basis of the foundation of the foundations of civilization - construction, both civil and military. Amazing and large-scale buildings are brick kremlins, bricks were spent on these structures!
The Kremlin of Italy, Moscow, Kolomna, Yaroslavl, Zaraisk, Suzdal, Astrakhan, Kazan, Tobolsk and others … all of a standard brick and buildings are amazingly similar as in one project!
This means that there was a massive, widespread technology for creating bricks, and not anyhow, but of a standard size almost all over the world, which still exists and is determined by the size of a person's hand, for ease of use!
What do official sources write? But what- …..
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“The most ancient type of brick is adobe brick (raw brick).
These bricks are made from soil containing clay, quartz and other minerals.
These bricks are simply dried in the sun. Such bricks were made in countries with a dry and hot climate, since it is strong only in a dry state, while when it is moistened, its strength quickly decreases. Until the 19th century, bricks were made using manual labor. The first brick-making machines - steam installations - were fired with wood and coal. Modern cars run on gas and electricity.
Brick has not lost its former popularity today, remaining the optimal material for the construction of various structures: from simple fences to luxurious villas and multi-storey buildings. It is easy to use, strong and durable. A variety of colors and shapes gives brick buildings a unique look. Now in the world, more than 15 thousand combinations of shapes, sizes, colors and surface textures are produced.
Brick production
Brick production included several stages: clay extraction, clay processing, molding, drying, brick firing, transportation.
Clay mining
The main components for brick production are clay and sand.
Before the invention of the steam excavator (in the late 19th century), brick makers had to dig out the clay by hand. This was done in the fall. The choice of clay was determined by its color and texture. Brick masters chose the clay that lay under the top layer of the soil so as not to waste energy digging the clay from the depths with a shovel. The clay was left in the open air so that after the winter freeze-thaw cycle it would crack and could be handled easily. During melting, organic substances and salts were washed out of the clay.
Clay processing
In the spring we started working with clay. It was necessary either to knead the clay into powder and sift it to get rid of stones, or the clay was immersed in a soaking vat, where it was mixed with water to achieve the desired consistency necessary for forming a brick. It was kneaded by hand or by feet. This was the hardest part in brick making. In the middle of the 19th century, clay mixers began to be introduced, consisting of a bucket with a shaft on which knives were horizontally attached - the clay was loaded from above, and the knives, rotating, grinded it. Such clay mixers were driven by horses.
Then the clay was transferred from a vat or clay mixer to a molding table.
Molding
The molder's assistant prepared the clay mass and passed it on to the molder. The brick molder was the main figure in the brick making process and was the head of the entire team. He stood at the molding table for 12-14 hours and, together with his assistants, could make from 3,500 to 5,000 bricks a day. He took a clay mass, laid it on the sand, and then threw it onto a sandy mold. The clay was pushed into the mold by hand so that it filled the entire mold, and the rest was removed with a flat spatula, which was kept in water. This excess clay was returned back to the shaper assistant for later use. The sand was used to prevent the clay from sticking to the mold.
They used forms for one, two, four or six bricks. The advantage of the one-brick mold was that even a child could carry it to the brick drying room.
The molds were mostly made of beech, as it was believed that the clay did not stick to the beech.
At the bottom, the form was fastened with iron. Due to the fact that the mold was sprinkled with sand, the brick easily jumped out of it.
Two types of forms were used: forms without a day and forms with a bottom.
There was an advantage in molds with a bottom - when carrying and, especially, when removing from the table, the clay mass did not fall out of the mold. A stamp in the form of a drawing was attached to the bottom of the form, the letters, as a rule, were the initials of the owner of the brick production. Later, during firing, the stamp was fixed.
Brick Museum in St. Petersburg.
Next in importance to the molder was the worker who would walk up to the molding table, take the completed molds and carry them to the brick drying room. There he folded the forms on pallets or on special stretchers. After that, he returned the mold to the table, wetted and sprinkled it with sand, and waited for a new batch of bricks.
Over the years, various machines have been constantly invented to automate the clay processing and brick molding process. In the second half of the 19th century, several types of brick-making machines were used, which worked according to a similar principle: a clay mass was continuously moving along a conveyor belt, which was cut into bricks.
Drying bricks
The bricks were dried in drying sheds, underground tunnels or outdoors. The drying sheds had fans powered by steam engines to keep the room temperature constant.
Most often, the bricks were dried outdoors in a sunny location.
During the first two days, the bricks were turned over from time to time to dry evenly and to prevent deformation. The workers, using special tools, “straightened” and “smoothed” the bricks. After four days of drying in dry, sunny weather, the bricks became quite heavy and were moved to a new place a finger's width apart for further drying. Here the bricks were covered with straw or a roof on top to protect them from rain or the scorching sun. After two weeks of drying, the bricks were ready for firing.
Firing bricks
The bricks were fired in temporary kilns, which were built from adobe (raw brick). If refractory bricks were available, they were used to build the outer walls of the furnace.
The kiln consisted of several brick partitions, standing parallel to each other, each partition being about 3 bricks wide. At a height of about 2 feet (1.2 meters), the partitions were connected by crossbeams and formed one large stack of bricks with small gaps between the bricks. The bricks were stacked on top of each other so that hot air passed between them from bottom to top, burning them in this way. The stack could be up to 6 meters high.
The stoves were fired with coal or wood. The furnaces were installed at the bottom of the stack, and chimneys were also made there. After the start of the furnace, the chimneys were closed.
Even after drying in the open air, the adobe brick contained 9-15 %% of water.
Therefore, at first, a low temperature was maintained in the furnace for 24-48 hours.
Steam escaped from the surface of the furnace - this was the release of hot gases. After all the gases were released, the temperature in the furnace began to rise. If this was done too early, steam generated in the brick could blow up the brick. The oven was kept on fire around the clock for a week until the temperature reached 1000 degrees Celsius. The knowledge and experience of brick masters helped them determine the time when the bricks were sufficiently fired and the temperature in the kiln could be reduced. Then the chimneys were opened, and the stove cooled for several more days. After that, bricks began to be unloaded from the furnace.
The entire firing process took about two weeks.
After the end of firing, the furnace was disassembled. And after that they started sorting the bricks.
The raw brick, from which the outer walls of the furnace were built, were laid aside for firing with the next batch of bricks. Those bricks that lay close to the fire were covered with a natural glaze of sand, which fell into the fire, and its vapors fell on the brick.
Such bricks were used in the construction of the interior walls of buildings. Bricks that were burnt and cracked or deformed were commonly used to build fences and paths in gardens and parks.
Unburned brick (yellow-red) was also used for the interior walls.
The best bricks were used in the construction of the outer walls of buildings.
Transporting bricks
Where there was an opportunity, furnaces were built next to the construction site. However, it was not always possible to organize the molding and firing of bricks on or near the construction site.
You can carry it on horseback, or you can carry it on your head - so they probably wore billions of bricks for the Moscow Kremlin?
After firing, the bricks were transferred from the kiln to brick trolleys. The workers usually worked in pairs: one pulled the brick out of the oven, tossed it to another worker, who was already putting the bricks in the cart. The bricks were stored outdoors. After some time (sometimes several months), the bricks were loaded onto railroad cars and transported to construction sites. One carriage held 8-10 thousand bricks. The bricks were loaded onto the wagons manually. Bricks were also transported by river and sea transport on steamers and barges.
So, brick buildings, and especially civil ones, began not earlier than the second half of the 18th century, and the grandiose type of Kremlin - the 19th century!