WASHINGTON BRICKS

Gladding, McBean and Company, Renton

View of the Gladding, McBean and Company Renton plant. From Gladding, McBean and Company, 1951.

History

In 1927, Gladding, McBean & Company, a California-based company with headquarters at San Francisco, purchased the Denny-Renton Clay & Coal Company and continued the manufacture of bricks at its Renton plant in King County, Washington. The company officers for the Pacific Northwest region were Raymond Smith, vice-president; Willis E. Clark, supervisor of factories; W. E. Lemley, general superintendent; and G. L. Rogers, chief engineer.

Eocene age Puget Group of shale and sandstone was mined at four locations. In the main quarry by the plant, 100 feet of nearly horizontal laminated dark-gray and brown shales were worked between two massive sandstone strata. Dark brownish gray clay was excellent for making paving and facing brick and hollow tile when fired to cone 06 to 02. The shale was mined in tunnels run for 10 feet into the base of the quarry face. Each tunnel portal was protected by timbering 15 feet out from the face over the track. The shale was blasted and caved down onto muck-boards above the tracks. The shale dropped into waiting cars by lifting the muck-boards. Formerly there were 22 of these tunnels and tracks in the 750 feet of workings. After 1936, a power shovel was used to load the cars. The cars ran 200 yards down by gravity to the tipple, where a gravity car-dump emptied the shale onto a grizzly, which was at jaw-crusher that reduced the oversized shale. The crushed shale was then conveyed by belt to a storage bunker. Other storage bunkers contained clays and shales from other mines and pits owned by the company. In 1936, these storage bins had a total capacity of about 8,000 tons.

A quarry 420 feet long was worked at the Newcastle shale quarry, by the county road just outside of Newcastle. Here thin-bedded unctuous shales, sandy shales, and a few sandstone layers were exposed. The shales were dark bluish gray and incline 35 degrees north. It was similar to the shale mined at Renton with a red-firing, low-fusing (cone 5) shale used for brick, drain tile, and all red ware. It was mined by power shovel and taken to Renton by truck. At the Harris clay mine, 200 feet south of the Superior coal mine of the Harris Coal Company, the company was mining a thick, hard claystone. The mine was a 750-foot long drift in the claystone and the clay was removed from rooms and pillars up dip (30-35 degrees) for 250 feet. This clay was a very compact dark-gray to nearly black carbonaceous sandy clay with refractory properties used for making No. 2 firebrick. The clay was taken by truck to the Renton plant. At the Issaqua clay pit, located a quarter mile west of Issaqua, Gladding McBean mined a blanket of gray and stained plastic clay and sandy clay derived from weathered strata of Eocene coal measures. This plastic clay was mined in a pit 100 by 125 feet. The clay was light firing and fused at cone 15. It was used as a bond and tightener in some refractory bodies. It was taken to the Renton plant by truck.

The plant was located one-half mile east of Renton on the south side of the Cedar River Valley. From the storage bins, underground conveyor belts transported the crushed shale to one of six 9-foot dry pans for further grinding. The grounded clay was then elevated, screened, and dropped into the ground-clay storage bunkers. In 1936, about 150 tons of raw clay was used daily. It was from these storage bunkers that clays were taken in certain proportions to be sent to three lines of pug mills and auger machines. In two of the lines, the clay was vacuum deaired for making paving brick and all structural materials. The third and larger line was used for all refractories. The plant also had one 4-brick dry-press machine and facilities for hand-molding of special firebrick shapes.

The bricks were placed on cars to be sent to two types of driers. One was an 8-track carrier drier of 120-car capacity that was heated by waste heat and steam. The second a 28-tunnel double track drier, with 30 cars to the tunnel, and heated by an auxiliary furnace.

A Harrop tunnel kiln was used for firing the refractory ware and also for buff face brick and glazed wall block. This kiln was 319.5 feet long and had a capacity of 52 cars, each car holding 1,200 firebrick or their equivalent. The cars took 104 hours to pass through the kiln. The hot zone, fired by six oil-burners on each side, reached a temperature of cone 13 in 1936, and was later to be increased to cone 16. Five rectangular periodic down-draft kilns, 16 feet wide and 70 to 150 feet in length, and four 30- to 34-foot diameter found down-draft kilns were used to fire all red-firing ware and some of the buff face brick. Temperatures in these kilns were measured using by thermocouple pyrometers and checked by optical pyrometers and cones.

This plant was a major producer of refractory products for Gladding McBean, forming 75 percent of the output. The brands for firebrick made at this plant in 1951 include its super duty OLYMPIC dry press, high duty COLUMBIA-X dry press, intermediate duty COLUMBIA JR. dry press, CASCADE dry press, and low duty FIRE BACK dry press. Earlier firebrick brand from the 1930s include PACIFIC. They also sold plastic firebrick in 100 pound cartons, and castable refractories, ground fireclay, and mortar in 75- and 100-pound bags. Other products in decreasing order of output tonnage included paving brick, acid brick, blowpit brick, face brick, roofing tile, glazed wall block, quarry tile, and architectural terra cotta. These products supplied the Pacific Northwest territory of Gladding, McBean and Company.

In 1962, Gladding, McBean and Company merged with the Lock Joint Pipe Company in New Jersey to form the International Pipe and Ceramics (Interpace) Corporation of New Jersey. Interpace continued to operate the Renton plant for two decades.

Gladding McBean Bricks Made at Renton

Firebricks

References

Garcia, Dave, written communication, 2019.

Gladding, McBean and Company, Refractories Handbook, 1951.

Glover, Sheldon L., Clays and Shales of Washington, Washington Division of Geology Bulletin 24, 1941.

Gurcke, Karl, Bricks and Brickmaking, University of Idaho Press, Moscow, Idaho, 1987.

Gurcke, Karl, written communication, 2017.

Hilding, Tina, Renton history built with bricks, Black Diamond History, accessed 3 November 2017, https://blackdiamondhistory.wordpress.com/2017/08/26/renton-history-built-with-bricks/.

Install 325 Ft. Kiln at Renton, Wash., Plant, Brick and Clay Record, v. 85, no. 6, 1934, p. 185.

Kennedy, George L., written communications, 2017.

Matsumura, JoAnn, written communications, 2017.

McWatters, Mike, written communications, 2017.

WASHINGTON BRICKS

Gladding, McBean and Company, Renton

History

Gladding McBean Bricks Made at Renton

Firebricks

Fireback

Columbia

Columbia 2

Columbia-X

Pacific

Pacific 8

Olympic

References

Contact Dan Mosier at danmosier@earthlink.net.