John Clerk, Bonnybridge – fire brick ‘inventor’.
“Bonnybridge is now an important centre for this class of claywork. Messrs. Stein are among the largest producers of firebricks in particular and have the latest appliances and the most up-to-date continuous ovens to be seen in any fireclay factory in Britain, if not in the world. There are small fireclay works spread over the country too numerous to mention here. We can scarcely credit that this enormous industry was totally unknown to the pioneer manufacturers of pottery and glasswares, when constructing their furnaces. In 1763 a glassmaker, John Clerk, introduced the art
of using fireclay and converting it into refractory bricks and blocks; they had hitherto all been made in Holland, from which country they were Mee over here in large quantities”
Source – Scottish Pottery by J Arnold Fleming, OBE. 1923.
(Note – SBH – I cannot find any other references online to back up this claim that John Clerk was instrumental in producing the first fire bricks).