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Fire brick in China: From mining to architecture
Chang-Xue Shu
University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgiu
Research Foundation Flanders, Brussels, Belgium
Ying-Bing Fang
Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China
ABSTARCT: Focusing on fire brick, an industry-based approach is adopted to address the development of refractory material in China. Fire brick was introduced into China in the mid-nineteenth century and stimulated wide application in modern structures afterwards, but it has received very little attention from historians. The study largely depends on different archival materials, rare books, and fieldwork. It reveals, for the first time, that fire brick was locally produced in China starting from the turn of the twentieth century, and that the development pioneered the path to modern ceramics in China thanks to coal mines and industrial constructions. The research opens a broad historical picture of knowledge circulation between Asia, Europe, and the USA, and exposes the scientific value in the historical materials today. It draws further conclusions regarding Chinaâs modern shift from traditional to western brickmaking system, as discussed in 5ICCH.
Keywords: Fire brick, China, Mining, Architecture, Industry
1 INTRODUCTION
Fire bricks, made from fire clay, had been seemingly never used in ancient China. The annually published statistics in the maritime customs archival collection âReturns of Trade at the Treaty Ports in Chinaâ, for the years 1859â82, show that both fire brick and fire clay were imported into China from foreign countries from the year 1864 at latest (Table 1). The applications of those imported firebrick/fireclay are unknown. The same archives also show, in contrast, that China largely exported all kinds of traditional ceramic materials including native bricks, pottery, china ware, and earthen ware to foreign countries. The contrast rises big questions: how was the novel technologyâthe production and use of fire bricksâcirculated into China? Why had the country to rely on foreign fire bricks despite its high ability in producing other ceramics? What has been the legacy of the new material? Very little has been said about fire bricks in terms of these questions, either in the field of construction or ceramics.
Table 1. Fire brick resources imported into China (via Shanghai Port) from foreign countries in 1864â81.*
Year | Total quantity | Imports from/re-exports to |
Fire brick (pieces) | Fire clay (piculs **) |
1864 | 17,036 | â | Imports from Great Britain |
1864 | 10,000 | â | Imports from USA |
1864 | 2540 | â | Imports from Australia |
1864 | 10,000 | â | Re-exports to Japan |
1866 | 6493 | â | Imports from Great Britain |
1867 | â | 15 | Imports from Great Britain |
1868 | â | 16.80 | Imports from foreign countries |
1871 | â | 420 | Imports from foreign countries |
1879 | â | 344.4 | Imports from foreign countries |
1881 | â | 1929.42 | Imports from foreign countries |
To study the issue, the authors have conducted a survey in related archives, rare science books, periodicals, and other published or unpublished technical materials throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For the early-time situation of producing fire bricks in China one should
turn to western sources; the Chinese materials about fire bricks exhibit a growth only from the 1910s and especially a sharp rise after 1930. An archival source discloses unknown details on the leading brand KMA fire bricks made in China. It is a collection of the communication between the Kailan Mining Administration
(KMA) and the Public Works Service (
Service des travaux publics of the French Municipal Council of Shanghai in 1926â33, conserved in Shanghai Municipal Archives. Freshly revealed are the factory history, international sale agencies, technical parameters of fire brick and fire clay products, as well as the technical limitation discussed with the French client. This new source was contextualised with other little-known historical facts based on the authorsâ field work, archival research and literature review.
Figure 1. Transformation of Kailan mining administration.
The KMA was a British-led company involved in engineering and mining in China with multiple resource-based services. The origin should be traced back to the Chinese-led mercantile stock company The Kaiping Mines
, which was under official control of the then Chinese government and relied on European expertise for mining. The Kaiping was established in 1878 in a top-down context of developing modern industries in late-Qing imperial China (Self-Strengthening Movement c.1861â95). In 1900, Kaiping was transferred to Chinese Engineering and Mining Co., Ltd. (CEMCL) that was newly registered in London, manipulated mainly by a few European financiers as well as Hebert C. Hoover who would become the 31st President of the USA. In 1912 CEMCL incorporated the Chinese-owned Lanchow Mining Company
at the fall of the Chinese Qing Empire, finally forming the KMA (
Fig. 1). The marked histories of these companies have formed a large
corpus of literature, either in English or Chinese language, epitomising the epoch-making period of modern China in the powers of empires, nations, and capitals. These histories are often addressed from political and economic points of view, and they provide another base for this specific study of fire brick.
2 NEW CONSTRUCTION, NEW DEMAND
In Europe, a wide range of specific constructions had to be erected in fire bricks and fire clays (used as mortar), because of their refractory resistance to high temperature. In China, the traditional blue brick was not especially made for this refractory character and was used as a seco...
