Bending building bricks

[ferrisbueller]

I was watching some brain killing daytime tv a while ago and someone took a brick, dunked it in a bucket for a minute or two, pulled it out and then bent it without breaking it or anything.

I'm struggling to find proof of this now - I have an £8 bet on it!

Were the lempsips making me hallucinate?!

[LuS1fer]

Was it Uri Geller with his rubber brick? Pay the man his £8. Could be one of those papier mache bricks.

If this were possible, garden walls would bend when they got wet and your house would be circular.

[Einion Yrth]

LuS1fer said:

If this were possible, garden walls would bend when they got wet and your house would be circular.

You are assuming that the dunking bucket was full of water. I don't know whether there is anything you could dunk a brick in to make it malleable, and frankly I doubt it, nonetheless your assumption was unwarranted.

>> Edited by Einion Yrth on Wednesday 15th February 08:27

[nervous]

liquid oxygen would do it. or do i mean nitrogen? i forget. anyhoo, one of them would allow the properties of which you speak.

[LuS1fer]

Einion Yrth said:

LuS1fer said: If this were possible, garden walls would bend when they got wet and your house would be circular. You are assuming that the dunking bucket was full of water. I don't know whether there is anything you could dunk a brick in to make it malleable, and frankly I doubt it, nonetheless your assumption was unwarranted. >> Edited by Einion Yrth on Wednesday 15th February 08:27

Yes but if you're being pedantic, there was nothing in the original post to warrant your assumption that there was anything in the bucket at all.

[nervous]

LuS1fer said:

Einion Yrth said: LuS1fer said: If this were possible, garden walls would bend when they got wet and your house would be circular. You are assuming that the dunking bucket was full of water. I don't know whether there is anything you could dunk a brick in to make it malleable, and frankly I doubt it, nonetheless your assumption was unwarranted. >> Edited by Einion Yrth on Wednesday 15th February 08:27 Yes but if you're being pedantic, there was nothing in the original post to warrant your assumption that there was anything in the bucket at all.

or indeed no empirical proof that the bucket was actually housing for a small kiln.

[nervous]

or a supply of rubber bricks.

[Yugguy]

nervous said:

liquid oxygen would do it. or do i mean nitrogen? i forget. anyhoo, one of them would allow the properties of which you speak.

Wouldn't they make it brittle rather than malleable?

[B17NNS]

Einion Yrth said:

I don't know whether there is anything you could dunk a brick in to make it malleable

[nervous]

well, it would after some time, I'm just wondering if a quick dip might relax whatever stuff combines the brick dust together enough to make it bendy. I'm probably wrong, it happens a lot.

beyond that i can only imagine its smoke and mirrors. or possibly witchcraft.

[Einion Yrth]

B17NNS said:

Einion Yrth said: I don't know whether there is anything you could dunk a brick in to make it malleable

Einion Yrth also said:

and frankly I doubt it

should perhaps have been 'but', I don't however see any particular cause for mirth.

>> Edited by Einion Yrth on Wednesday 15th February 08:55

[GreenV8S]

Perhaps they were showing you how you could make curved bricks? I imagine that if you took a lump of clay, dunked it in a bucket of water to soften it and then bent it by hand, it would then set in that shape when it was baked in the kiln.

[Yugguy]

yep but I think once it's been fired that's it.

[BliarOut]

nervous said:

liquid oxygen would do it. or do i mean nitrogen? i forget. anyhoo, one of them would allow the properties of which you speak.

Wouldn't your fingers snap off when you tried to bend the brick?

[nervous]

BliarOut said:

nervous said: liquid oxygen would do it. or do i mean nitrogen? i forget. anyhoo, one of them would allow the properties of which you speak. Wouldn't your fingers snap off when you tried to bend the brick?

only if you wore fingerless mittens (string across the shoulders optional)

[nervous]

Yugguy said:

yep but I think once it's been fired that's it.

hmm. clay has a water component right? does the water evaporate when fired?

[themaskedavenger]

A fired brick is not going to become soft on contact with water.

Our houses would melt if it rained otherwise.

Pre-fired maybe other than that I can think of nothing liquid that would do the job. (or anything non-liquid for that matter)

[RobM77]

If you looked in the bucket you'd probably find the real, fired house brick

[off_again]

BliarOut said:

nervous said: liquid oxygen would do it. or do i mean nitrogen? i forget. anyhoo, one of them would allow the properties of which you speak. Wouldn't your fingers snap off when you tried to bend the brick?

Yep - and the hands and probably onto the arms too... nasty stuff that....

[RobM77]

RobM77 said:

If you looked in the bucket you'd probably find the real, fired house brick

My suggestion is that it was a magic trick. The bucket contained a rubber brick. The guy banged a real house brick about, proving it was real, dunked it in the bucket, switches bricks and then pulls out the rubber one that's now all bendy!