Turning Clay Into Bricks!

Step inside a working 20th-century brickyard and follow the complete process of traditional brick making — from raw clay in the pit to finished, fired brick. In this Aged Skills history episode, filmed in 1988 near Meckenheim, Germany, we document the full production cycle at a surviving Meckenheim Ring Kiln — one of the last operational Hoffmann-style ring kilns still working in regular service. The film begins at the clay face, where a bucket-wheel excavator cuts two centimetres at a pass, carefully controlling groundwater to maintain the right consistency for pressing. From there, side-tipping mine cars haul the clay to the press building, where rollers, an edge runner mill, and a de-airing auger press transform it into a continuous clay column. A fully automatic wire cutter slices the column into green bricks at a rate of up to 2,500 per hour. We observe how moisture is balanced by experience rather than automation — monitored through motor load, vacuum pressure, and the operator’s trained eye. Green bricks dry for up to two weeks in open sheds before being hand-set inside a 1907 oval ring kiln. Inside the kiln: • 14 chambers fire in a continuous cycle • The main fire travels counter-clockwise over 8–14 days • Temperatures reach 1,080°C in the peak firing zone • Lignite slack fuel is dropped through timed feed hoppers • Residual heat pre-warms incoming loads Original source material: Der Ringofen Published by Alltagskulturen im Rheinland © LVR-Institut für Landeskunde und Regionalgeschichte CC BY 4.0