IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR FORMING BALLS OR MASSES OF SODIUM, CHLORIDE, OR OTHER SALT
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert John Thompson Hawksley,
Arthur Frederick Hawksloy, and Herbert Linney Hawksley at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 1st April 1880.
ROBERT JOHN THOMPSON HAWKSLEY, ARTHUR FREDERICK HAWKSLEY, and
HERBERT LINNEY HAWKSLEY, all of Oldham, in the County of Lancaster.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR FORMING BALLS OR
MASSES OF SODIUM, CHLORIDE, OR OTHER SALT."
Our Invention relates principally to the treatment of sodium, chloride, or common
salt in the manufacture of alkali. In the modern processes it is desirable to form
the sodium chloride into small masses, as, for example, into balls, and our Invention
has this object. To this end we employ an upper and lower table or moulding
plate, the lower plate being formed with cups or recesses to receive the salt, and the
upper plate being formed or provided with inverted cups, or with plungers which
enter the cups in the lower table. The lower table is fitted to swivel, so that it can
be inverted. To permit of this inversion the said table may be arranged to be raised,
or it may be provided with trunnions mounted in fixed bearings. The upper tablo
is arranged to rise and fall or to slide up and down in suitable guiding standards,
and is by preference balanced or partly balanced by incans of a weight or of weights.
The said upper table may be raised and lowered by the hand, or it may receive
motion from a shaft actuated by power, any suitable arrangement of cranks, levers,
connecting rods, or parts being employed to impart the desired movements to the
table. Each of the cups or recesses in the lower table is made of a capacity suitable
to receive a quantity of salt sufficient for the formation of one ball or moulded
mass, and a comparatively large number of cups are arranged as closely together as
is conveniently possible. The salt is supplied to the apparatus by means of a
hopper formed to deliver a measured charge for each operation, or is otherwise
supplied as found to be most convenient. The charge of salt delivered on to the
lower table is moved about and strickled, so as to fill all the cups or recesses.
The upper table is now brought down by the pressure of the hand or by the action
of a lever or appliance, or by the action of the driving motion, and the cups or
plungers enter the cups or recesses in the lower table and compress the salt contained
therein. The upper table now rises or is raised, and a tray formed with shallow
cups or recesses is inverted over the lower table, and is or may be secured by means
of catches, hooks, or bolts. The lower table is now inverted, whereby the moulded
balls are delivered into the tray and are received by the recesses therein. Wo may

page_text: employ a spur pinion and sector or other self acting means for inverting the said
table. The tray carrying the balls is now removed or received on to a carriage, and
is transferred to a stove or heated chamber in which is maintained a temperature
which will harden the balls without glazing their surfaces, and to aid in the obtain-
inent of a regular temperature we prefer to provide the said stove with a pyrometer.
The said stove is by preference heated by means of gas and air, but we do not
confine ourselves to this. The trays carrying the moulded masses are placed in
tiers in racks, or are arranged in tiers in a frame, which is provided with wheels
which may run upon rails, so that cach frame may be filled at the moulding machino
and be run into the stove. Means are provided for conveying away the mixture
liberated during the drying processes. When the stove is filled the gas is turned on
-and-lighted-and-the_heat_is_maintained until the balls are sufficiently dried and
hardened. We may modify the moulding apparatus by forming moulding-bars-or
parts which are arranged to slide or move horizontally, and which act in conjunction
with a removable tray, and with or without a rising and falling upper table, the
receding of the moulds leaving the moulded balls or masses on the tray.