[1] The term "marl" has been wrongly applied to many fire-clays. It should be restricted to natural mixtures of clay and chalk such as those of the Paris and London basins.
BRICKFIELDER, a term used in Australia for a hot scorching wind blowing from the interior, where the sandy wastes, bare of vegetation in summer, are intensely heated by the sun. This hot wind blows strongly, often for several days at a time, defying all attempts to keep the dust down, and parching all vegetation. It is in one sense a healthy wind, as, being exceedingly dry and hot, it destroys many injurious germs of disease. The northern brickfielder is almost invariably followed by a strong "southerly buster," cloudy and cool from the ocean. The two winds are due to the same cause, viz. a cyclonic system over the Australian Bight. These systems frequently extend inland as a narrow V-shaped depression (the apex northward), bringing the winds from the north on their eastern sides and from the south on their western. Hence as the narrow system passes eastward the wind suddenly changes from north to south, and the thermometer has been known to fall fifteen degrees in twenty minutes.
BRICKWORK, in building, the term applied to constructions made of bricks. The tools and implements employed by the bricklayer are:--the trowel for spreading the mortar; the plumb-rule to keep the work perpendicular, or in the case of an inclined or battering wall, to a regular batter, for the plumb-rule may be made to suit any required inclination; the spirit-level to keep the work horizontal, often used in conjunction with a straight-edge in order to test a greater length; and the gauge-rod with the brick-courses marked on it. The quoins or angles are first built up with the aid of the gauge-rod, and the intermediate work is kept regular by means of the line and line pins fixed in the joints. The raker, jointer, pointing rule and Frenchman are used in pointing joints, the pointing staff being held on a small board called the hawk. For roughly cutting bricks the large trowel is used; for neater work such as facings, the bolster and club-hammer; the cold chisel is for general cutting away, and for chases and holes. When bricks require to be cut, the work is set out with the square, bevel and compasses. If the brick to be shaped is a hard one it is placed on a V-shaped cutting block, an incision made where desired with the tin saw, and after the bolster and club-hammer have removed the portion of the brick, the scutch, really a small axe, is used to hack off the rough parts. For cutting soft bricks, such as rubbers and malms, a frame saw with a blade of soft iron wire is used, and the face is brought to a true surface on the rubbing stone, a slab of Yorkshire stone.