IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SCREENING, TEMPERING, AND MOULDING CLAYS AND EARTHS INTO BRICKS, TILES, AND OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Isaac Roberts, of Liverpool, in the County of Lan
caster, Contractor, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR SCREENING, TEMPERING, AND MOULDING CLAYS AND EARTHS INTO BRICKS,
TILES, AND OTHER ARTICLES."
Sealed the 17th April 1866, and dated the 21st October 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Isaac Roberts at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 21st
October 1865.
I, ISAAC ROBERTS, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Contractor;.
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY POR SCREENING, TEMPERING, AND MOULDING CLAYS AND EARTHS INTO
BRICKS, TILES, AND OTHER ARTICLES," to be as follows:-
Machinery constructed according to my Invention although suitable for
effecting the various operations named above in the title on clays and
earths in different conditions, is specially adapted for screening,. tempering,
and moulding these materials as dug from their beds, or after they have
been slightly moistened with water and exposed to the air. And although
such machinery can be most advantageously and economically used when
the whole of the parts are connected together and worked in one compact
piece so as to perform the several operations automatically in the necessary

page_text: order, still the parts for screening and tempering can be used separately to
prepare clays or earths, and render them fit to be moulded into the desired
shape either by hand or machinery, and so also the other parts for moulding
can be used to form or shape clays or earths prepared in any ordinary or
convenient manner.
For screening and tempering, that is to say for the purpose of removing
stones, roots, and other extraneous matters, and for kneading or working
the clays or earths into a homogeneous condition, and making them ready
to be formed into the desired shape, I support on suitable framework a
tapering or cylindrical vessel, composed of skeleton outline pieces and bars
or plates, between or in which there are elongated openings of a size
sufficiently small to prevent stones and other extraneous matters of an objec-
tionable size from passing through them, but yet large enough to allow the
clays or earths which are fed into the said vessel to pass through. Through
the centre line of the said vessel a shaft supported on a suitable bearing or
bearings is carried, and rotatory motion is given thereto by any convenient
The said shaft has a number or series of arms or vanes fixed
thereon and set at such an angle or angles as will cause them when carried
round by the shaft to force the clays or earths through the elongated
openings above mentioned. The stones, roots, and other extraneous
matters being too large to pass through the openings will pass by their
weight and by the pushing action of the arms or vanes to the lower end or
bottom of the said vessel into a chamber formed thereat, and will be forced
out therefrom through a shoot by an arm or scraper carried round by the
said rotating shaft.
means.
The screened and tempered clays or earths after they issue from the said
tapering or cylindrical vessel, when the machinery is worked in one
connected and compact piece, fall on a plate in which there is a port or
ports; I prefer two, leading to the clay or earth chamber of the moulding
parts. A scraper made to travel by toothed gearing or otherwise over
the said plate collects the clay or earth into the moulding chamber by the
said. port or ports... The object now is to force such clay, or earth out from
the moulding chamber in a continuous and compact or.compressed.length
or lengths; I prefer two orifices.. This I, accomplish.by.using for each clay
port and moulding orifice two slides, the one to shut off and open alter
nately the clay supply port, and the other to act reciprocally as a ram or
plunger, to force the clay through the moulding or shaping orifice when
the first slide has shut of the supply. These slides are worked from cranks
or eccentrics on the rotating.shaft above-mentioned. ...The. orifices through

page_text: which the clay is forced may be of any desired section for producing bricks,
tiles, pipes, and other articles, and the lengths may be cut off by wires or
in any other convenient way.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Isaac Roberts in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 21st April 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ISAAC
ROBERTS, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Contractor, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty, Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand. eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Isaac Roberts, Her special license, that I, the said Isaac
Roberts, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Isaac Roberts, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time, and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR SCREENING, TEMPERING, AND MOULDING CLAYS AND EARTHS INTO
BRICKS, TILES, AND OTHER ARTICLES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Isaac Roberts, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing, under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to
be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next,
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Isaac Roberts, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the follow-
ing statement (that is to say) :- :
Machinery constructed according to my Invention although suitable for
effecting the various operations named above in the title on clays and earths
in different conditions is specially adapted for screening, tempering, and
moulding these materials as dug from their beds, or after they have been

page_text: slightly moistened with water and exposed to the air. And although such
machinery can be most advantageously and economically used when the
whole of the parts are connected together and worked in one compact
piece so as to perform the several operations automatically in the necessary
order, still the parts for screening and tempering can be used separately to
prepare clays or earths and render them fit to be moulded into the desired
shape either by hand or machinery, and so also the other parts for moulding
can be used to form or shape clays or earths prepared in any ordinary or
convenient manner. For screening and tempering, that is to say for the
purpose of removing stones, roots, and other extraneous matters, and for
kneading or working the clays or earths into a homogeneous condition, and
making them ready to be formed into the desired shape, I support on
suitable framework a tapering or cylindrical vessel, composed of skeleton
outline-pieces and bars or plates, between or in which there are elongated
openings of a size sufficiently small to prevent stones and other extraneous
matters of an objectionable size from passing through them, but yet large
enough to allow the clays or earths which are fed into the said vessel to
pass through. Through the centre line of the said vessel a shaft supported
on a suitable bearing or bearings is carried, and rotatory motion is given
thereto by any convenient means. The said shaft has a number or series
of arins or vanes fixed thereon, and set at such an angle or angles as will
cause them, when carried round by the shaft, to force the clays or earths
through the elongated openings above mentioned. The stones, roots, and
other extraneous matters being too large to pass through the openings,
will pass by their weight and by the pushing action of the arms or vanes to
the lower end or bottom of the said vessel into a chamber formed thereat,
and will be forced out therefrom through a shoot by an arm or scraper
carried round by the said rotating shaft. The screened and tempered
clays or earths after they issue from the said tapering or cylindrical vessel
when the machinery is worked in one connected and compact piece fall
on a plate in which there is a port or ports; I prefer two, leading to the clay
or earth chamber of the moulding parts. A scraper made to travel by
toothed gearing or otherwise over the said plate collects the clay or earth
into the moulding chamber by the said port or ports. The object now is
to force such clays or earths out from the moulding chamber in a con-
tinuous and compact or compressed length or lengths; I prefer two orifices.
This I accomplish by using for each clay port and moulding orifice two
-slides, the one alternately to shut off and open the clay supply port, and
the other to act reciprocally as a ram or plunger to force the clay through

page_text: the moulding or shaping orifice when the first slide has shut off the supply.
These slides are worked from cranks or eccentrics on the rotating shaft
above mentioned. The orifices through which the clay is forced may be
of any desired section for producing bricks, tiles, pipes, and other articles,
and the lengths may be cut off by wires or in any other convenient way.
That a knowledge of machinery constructed according to my Invention
may be readily obtained I have attached hereto Two Sheets of illustrative
Drawings of mechanism for performing the screening, tempering, and
moulding of clays and earths in the order just named.
Fig. 1 is principally a side elevation, part of the extraneous matter
apparatus herein-after mentioned being in section; Fig. 2, a plan drawn on
a plane at U, V ; Fig. 3, a vertical section at W, X; and Fig. 4, a view
looking down on the driving gear and part of the frame. In all these
views, as well as in Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, herein-after referred to, the same
letters denote like parts.
:
a is the supporting frame; b, driving pulley receiving motion from a
steam engine or other motive power. On the same shaft as b is the pinion
c which gears with wheel d fixed on shaft e. The said shaft rests in foot-
step, and is prevented from rising by screw. g; h are the skeleton outline
supports, and the bars of the screening and tempering vessel; between the
bars there are elongated openings or slits. The mode of securing the
bars or plates to the supports h is illustrated by Fig. 5; the bars or plates
i can be slidden down from the top of to their places. The mode of
securing the frame is shewn by Fig. 6, where ; represents the top of the
clay plate or pan. I would here state that when the screening and tem-
pering vessel h, i, is made cylindrical it does not answer so well. The clay
or earth is fed into the vessel h, i, from a shoot or belt, or in any other con-
venient way, and is pugged, pressed, tempered, and forced through the
elongated openings or slits between i by the vanes or arms k, fixed by bolts
or otherwise on or to the shaft e. The angle or pitch of these vanes or
arms can be varied, but it should be suitable for the size of the vessel
, i, and the angle, if any, of the line of the sides to the axis of the shaft
e, so as to pass the clay quickly through the elongated openings or slits
between the bars i. By their own gravity and by the pushing action of
the vanes or arms k, the stones, roots, and other extraneous matters too
large to pass through the slits, pass downwards to the bottom of h, i, and
through the opening in the bottom into chamber 1, from which they are
discharged through the passage m by the sweep n. As a considerable
quantity of clay passes out with the extraneous matters at m when it is left

page_text: open,
I have found it advisable to employ a slide capable of being opened
at intervals either by hand or by a slow motion, say worm and wheel,
worked from any convenient part of the machinery, and in this way to
discharge the chamber at intervals. The tempered clays or earths fall
from h, i, all round into the plate or panj, and by the travelling scraper or
sweep n (more than one can be used) fixed to the toothed or grooved ring
o revolving on the periphery of the pan j is carried or collected into the
ports p; two are shewn leading to the chambers q. The said ring o is
shewn fitted to be operated by pinion on shafts and pinion t geared with
spur wheel d. Although the scraper or sweep n will press to some extent
the clays or earths into the ports p, it is possible, indeed likely with stiff
clays, that a further pressure to force the said clays or earths into q will be
: necessary, and when this is the case a plunger or piston of the kind well
understood, with an intermittent motion and fitted to enter the ports pat
the proper time, could be employed. From the chamber q the clays or
earths have now to be forced out through the orifices u, at which shaping
dies of the ordinary kind, or movable moulds to form the required article,
are placed. To effect the said forcing out plungers v, operating alternately
right and left, are employed. These plungers are connected to rods w
coupled to crank x, which is part of and revolves with shaft e. Fig. 9
shews details; the space or grooves marked y is that in which the crank pin
works. At the time a plunger is travelling outwards the clay or earths
which have fallen or have been forced into q should not be allowed to
rise in pin p, and to provide for this I have fitted slides or shutters z, which
have the "lead" of v, that is to say, a slide z passes outwards and closes the
space between p and q just at the time a plunger v begins to travel on its
outward stroke. These slides are operated by a crank z¹ on the shaft e,
and the desired "lead" and rest are secured to slides or shutters z by the
groove 23, shewn in plan by Fig. 7, and in section at S, T, by Fig. 8.
When the said slides or shutters are drawn back a further supply of clays
or earths is allowed to pass into q.
-
wit
In Fig. 10 parts of screening and tempering apparatus are shewn; a¹ is
the shaft; b', the frame and bars; c¹, the chamber for extraneous and rejected
matter with scraper or sweep d'; e', the receiving plate or pan. On a¹ the
frustrum of a cone f¹ is attached for sustaining the vanes or arms g¹, and
when desired for containing water or other fluid for lubricating the said
vanes or arms and tempering the clay the water or other fluid can be
allowed to pass through the periphery of the cone.
Having now described the nature and particularized my said Invention,

page_text: I would have it understood that I do not confine myself to every detail
described herein and shewn on the Drawings, as many modifications can
be made without departing from the leading features of my said improve-
ments. What I claim is, in the manufacture of bricks, tiles, and other
articles of a like nature, screening, tempering, and moulding clays
and earths, or performing one or more of these operations singly or
together, by machinery constructed and operating substantially as herein
described and illustrated on the accompanying Sheets of Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Isaac Roberts, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
In the presence of
JOHN T. KING,
Patent Agent,
Liverpool.
ISAAC ROBERTS. (L.s.)