Brick is one of the few inventions we can actually trace to ancient Ur (a city in what was once Mesopotamia and is now Iraq), where an arch of sun-baked bricks was made back around 4000 B.C. When you consider that many homes even today are built with brick, this simple material becomes a bit more astounding. How many other inventions have survived 6000 years with few changes?

A few millenia later those clever folks in Ur discovered that they could make brick even stronger by baking it in a kiln (closed oven) instead of in the sun. Suddenly there were stronger bricks, and in an orgy of celebration they replaced the original sun-baked brick steps on their ziggurat with steps of kiln-breaked brick. After 2500 years it probably needed to be refurbished anyhow.

The use of brick spread in all directions from Ur. In the far east, it was used to build the Great Wall of China (around 200 BC). In Europe, the Pantheon and the Baths of Hadrian were both strenghened with brick behind the marble facades.

Eventually people noticed that brick had some distinct benefits over other building materials. For one, bricks make lousy fuel for fires. After the Great Fire in London (1666) the city was largely rebuilt from brick rather than wood, the remaining Londoners having learned their lesson.

Making bricks is actually pretty simple. The modern industrial process goes something like this: first, mine the clay and grind it up fine. Then, mix the clay with water and mold it into brick shapes. Then, dry the bricks in a kiln. Then, heat the kiln to a few thousand degrees and fire the bricks to their final hardness. This is really pretty much the same process that was used as far back as we have any records; it's been automated but not changed.

Most bricks are used to make buildings and other structures. A few are used by Ignatz the Mouse in his eternal beaning of Krazy Kat.