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I've been reading your posts about brick patterns with some interest as I've worked in a number of architects' offices and had access to a book called "Architecturral Graphic Standards," which is published under the auspices of the American Association of Architects. The oldest editions I saw were from the 1930s, and they illustrated various bond patterns and briefly explained the uses for each. What I recall is this: American masonry walls are built on 8-inch moudular sizes. Three courses of brick are 8 inches high, and each brick is 4 inches deep and 8 inches long. As discussed earlier, the header courses are used to tie layers of brick together. Around the 1900s or so, concrete masonry units, also known as cinder block, came into use as backing for a wall with a brick finish. CMU are 8x8x16 inches. Brick walls can be extremely thick. Two layers of brick would be adequate for about a 6-foot tall wall in the garden. At least three layers would be needed for a load-bearing wall of a one-story building. The tallest load-bearing masonry building in the U.S. is in Chicago, the Monadonak (guess on spelling) building. It dates from the early skyscraper years and is a brick building. From the street one can see the taper of the wall outward at the ground floor, mostly as a design detail, and I remember being told that the ground-floor walls were several feet thick. I don't remember how tall it was, but at least 10 stories and not more than 20, I would imagine. As your other sources pointed out, more frequent header courses make for a stronger wall, and as you've noticed, the older, industrial buildings would have a mostly running bond with as few header courses as possible, and buildings that were trying to show off a little would have fancier brickwork. It is also common to have plain brickwork on the sides and rear of buildings that were not facing the street as an economic measure. Unless you're building a particular structure, brickwork in most of the U.S. is probably very similar, and readily available brick sheet could be used. If I can uncover any links to brick associations or the AIA, I'll post them. Eric
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