Mysterious Chinese brick stacking in enormous cylinder - GIF

[olderdan]

Most of you have guessed right that this is a brick firing kiln. First job I had when moving to the west country was in a brickworks, these guys were called setters and the unfired bricks were “green”. Our kilns were a continuous process as they were a giant oval and the fire travelled round fed by a coal trickle from above. Drawers would follow and remove the fired bricks often walking on hot ashes. My job was as a runner taking the green ones from the presses 50 at a time, running them to the wicket ways, returning with an empty wooden barrow before the green bricks started falling of the presses.
The whole place was a bit of a hell hole and there were many accidents. I was only there a year but as least I lost 3 stone and was the fittest I have ever been.