The substance of this little work was first published as a series of articles in the British Clayworker, in 1895–96, and I am indebted to the courtesy of the Proprietor of that Journal for permission to reproduce them.

An attempt is here made to furnish some information of an elementary character on a special branch of technical education which has been seriously neglected in this country. But the reader will understand that it is only an elementary treatise. Its publication in serial form, where each article must, more or less, be complete in itself, has to a large extent determined the method of handling the subject, and I am fully cognisant of the drawbacks of the work in that respect.

At the same time, it is hoped that the book will be useful to the more advanced class of brickmakers and clayworkers generally, many of whom have expressed a desire to see the articles in this form.