Mason City Brick & Tile Co.

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THE MASON CITY BRICK & TILE CO.

The Mason City Brick & Tile Co. was established in 1884 and incorporated in 1892.  O. T. Denison, the proprietor, has been connected with it since its inception in 1892.  He is man of genial personality and possesses an inexhaustible stock of practical knowledge which has gained for him the respect and admiration of all with whom he has come in contact.  His practical clayworking lore is supplemented most efficiently by a clear comprehension of the geological clay and shale formations and their distribution throughout Iowa.

The ground covers 150 acres and the clay is blasted with dynamite and worked to a greater depth in summer, for the clay extends uniformly to a depth of at least 60 ft.  It is known as a Devonian soft shale, being a sedimentary clay.  The upper stratum is yellow and below it takes a blue tinge and is fossiliferous on top.  The clay is hauled to the plant by cable in cars made by

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the Hathorn Foundry & Machine Co., Mason City.  This company has already constructed 350 cars for the Mason City Brick & Tile Co. and they are models for strength and easy running.  The clay is dumped into a pugmill especially constructed by O. T. Denison to cope with its peculiarities.  A pan has been found to be of no use for the proper breaking up of this soft shale and consequently a horizontal pugmill has been constructed 17 ft. long with a very steep grade.  Up this grade the shale is taken by steel knives placed 3 in. apart and only that which has been properly broken up reaches the top, the heaviest lumps falling back over the knives over and over again until finally they are reduced to the necessary smallness.  When the shale reaches the top of this grade it falls into two Drake crushers which further reduce the size of its grains and from this it goes into another horizontal pugmill, this time without a grade and with a closed end.  From this it issues, cut off in ribbons, and passes to a Madden machine with a capacity of 60,000 brick per 10-hour day.  These bricks are then conveyed on Hathorn cars to the driers.  These driers have 21 tracks in all, each track handling 15 cars and each car containing 500 brick.  The products on nine of these tracks are dried by exhaust steam and suction fans.  The other nine have their drying accomplished by live steam while three are held in reserve for when a rush for the products comes on.

Mr. Denison contributed at a recent Iowa convention a most valuable paper on “Drying by a Suction Fan,” subsequently reproduced in “Brick.”  The fan used is 80 in. in diameter with from 175 to 200 r. p. m. being driven at a less speed in winter than in summer.  A small engine supplies the power, about 20 h. p. being expended.  The engine is of the Atlas type.  We spent some time inside the drier noticing the excellent manipulation of the air currents among the products.  The air rises from beneath and immediately strikes a hanging iron curtain from which it is deflected down through the cars of brick and then it proceeds upwards again, strikes another curtain, proceeds downward again and so on with an up and down motion throughout the whole length of the drier.

There are two Madden machines, one on each side of the track on which the clay is brought to the plant, in fact all the machinery is divided by the track so that should one side of the machine give out or anything happen to it, by shifting the belting work could be resumed within a few moments at full speed without any appreciable delay.  Brewer brick cutters and Fate tile cutters are used.  A recent addition to the plant is a fine sewer pipe press in which the largest sized pipe are made.  This press will turn out any size from 6 to 24-in. tile.  There are 14 round down draft kilns 20 ft. in diameter, arranged four kilns to a stack.  The boiler stack is 125 ft. high, 7 ft. in the clear, and built of hollow block.  There is an excellent set of pumps on the plant which precludes the possibility of the giving out of the water supply.  The condensation from the exhaust steam is passed through a box of cinders so as to remove the oil and the water is then pumped back into the boiler.  There is a 160-h. p. corliss engine 16 by 36 in. built in Sioux City.  It has been in use in this plant for eight years and has cost exactly $1.00 in repairs in that time.  There are three boilers 60 in. x 16 ft. of an aggregate capacity of 240 h. p.  The shipping facilities of the plant are good, there being switches to the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul and to the Chicago & Northwestern on both sides of the yard, the tracks being the property of the Brick & Tile Co.

Besides ordinary building brick they are also manufacturing sidewalk brick, hollow block and drain pipes.  The products are of excellent quality and have achieved a state reputation.  O. T. Denison is president and manager and I. W. Denison, son of the former, a young man of marked executive ability, is the secretary and treasurer.  The business prospects are excellent and we noticed with great pleasure the fine new office building which greatly helps the handling of the mass of office work caused by increasing business and will be a handsome addition to the buildings of this excellent plant.  (Brick and Clay Record, Windsor & Kenfield Publishing Company, Chicago, August 1903, Volume XIX, Number 2)

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Mason City Brick & Tile Co.

The first of the four Denison factories is that operated by the Mason City Brick & Tile Co., which is officered as are the other Denison companies.  This is the original Denison factory built in 1882 and incorporated in 1892.  The plant was rebuilt in 1892, and again in 1907 and 1908.  From the modest beginning in 1882, has been built up the immense business of the Denison factories, which now ship more drain tile than any other concern in the United States.

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At the Mason City Brick & Tile Co. plant, 65 men are employed, and 90 per cent of the product is drain tile, and 10 per cent common brick and hollow block.  The present equipment is very complete and includes an electric-lighting plant with 75-kw. generator.  Electricity also operates the machine shop, the pump at the clay pit and the fan of the drier.  These works occupy 30 acres of land, the buildings being an engine and machine room 40x120 ft., of brick and frame construction, and a machine shop 32x60 ft.  The material is a fat blue shale obtained from the bank adjoining the factory.  It is dug to a depth of 40 ft., and hauled in clay cars by cable and winding drum, operated by power from the main line shaft.

In preparing the material a granulator and Drake crusher rolls are used, in connection with a Madden horizontal pugmill.  The machine is of the 6 “C” Madden type, of 60,000 brick capacity, and is used in connection with a Brewer cutter and a Fate tile table.  The drier now being rebuilt is of fireproof construction and has four tunnels.  It is of Denison design and constructed of brick, iron and cinder concrete.  It has 12 tracks holding 180 cars, and is 140x50 ft. in size.  Drying is accomplished by waste heat and exhaust steam, the waste-heat fans being supplied by Wm. Bayley & Co., of Milwaukee.  The kiln battery is one of the largest in the city, consisting of 12 down-draft kilns, four of 28 ft. diameter and eight of 30 ft. diameter.  The power equipment was furnished by the Murray Iron Works, and consists of one 200-h. p., and one 100-h. p. engine, and two horizontal tubular boilers.  (Brick and Clay Record, Kenfield-Leach Company, Chicago, January 1909, Volume XXX, Number 1)