View of autoclave at sand/lime brick works Digital image of B 9496/9

Description View of autoclave at sand/lime brick works Digital image of B 9496/9

Date 27/8/1980

Collection Records of the Scottish Industrial Archaeology Survey at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Sco

Catalogue Number SC 751490

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of B 9496/9

Scope and Content Autoclave with load, Ballochmyle Brick Works, Knowehead Quarry, Dumfries & Galloway Ballochmyle Brick Works was established in 1935 at Knowehead Quarry, Locharbriggs, 3.2km north-east of Dumfries. Knowehead produced high quality red sandstone and the brick works made sand/lime bricks using large quantities of waste sandstone dust from the adjoining quarry. This shows a load of bricks inside an autoclave, a pressurised chamber in which the bricks were steamed under pressure for seven or eight hours to accelerate the chemical bonding of the sand/lime mixture used to form the bricks. The bricks were cured by this process, which brought them to the required strength. Knowehead Quarry was founded about 1890 and its red sandstone was popular at home and abroad. There were boom years from 1895 till 1910 but the quarry closed with the outbreak of World War I. It reopened in 1935, when the brick works was established. One quarry is still active. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/751490

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap