IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS, TILES, PIPES
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Wimball, of Aldermaston, in the County of
Berks, Brick Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS, TILES, PIPES,
T
Scaled the 29th May 1857, and dated the 12th December 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Wimball at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
12th December 1856.
I, HENRY WIMBALL, of Aldermaston, in the County of Berks, Brick
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS,
TILES, PIPES, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF A SIMILAR NATURE," to bo as follows:-
This Invention consists in the application of a moveable carriage or platform,
or a series of such carriages linked together, caused to pass under or in
connection with a pug mill or other brick-making machine, so as that the
exuding stream of clay or other plastic material is carried away from it by
a continuous operation, in place of being removed by hand, or by an endless
chain, or a set of rollers, as is at present the case in machines now used.
When a pug mill or other machine is not employed, the clay or plastic
material may be forced either by hand or by treading into a peculiar moulding
box or long trough, such box or trough being fitted or not on to a carriage;

page_text: this box is furnished with hinged or moveable sides, and its bottom is composed
of a number of hinged pallets of the width of tho bricks to be made, for the
purpose of facilitating the removal of the finished bricks by hand. The
moveable sides and hinged pallets correspond to the width of the bricks, and
the cutting wires or plates works in the intervening spaces between them.
When this box is used with the moveable carriage and pug mill the sides
of the box may be dispensed with, and if it be required to mould drain pipes
or hollow bricks, the clay is traversed against and along fixed cores as
it passes out of the pug mill or other machine, in the ordinary well-known
manner.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters l'atent, filed
by the said Henry Wimball in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
12th June 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
WINBALL, of Aldermaston, in the County of Berks, Brick Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Iler most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Henry Wimball, Her' special license that I, the said Henry Wimball, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry
Wimball, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during tho
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 CR
APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS, TILES, PIPES, AND OTHER ARTICLES
OF A SIMILAR NATURE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Henry Wimball, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Wimball, do hereby declare

page_text: the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:
My said Invention relates to a peculiar construction, arrangement, and
combination of mechanism employed in the manufacture or production of.
bricks, tiles, and other similar articles; and consists in the application and
use of a moveable carriage or platform, or a series of such carriages linked
together, and caused to pass under or in connection with a pug mill or other.
brick-making machine of that class, so that the exuding stream of clay or
other plaster material is carried away from the machine by a continuous
self-acting operation, the motion of the clay itself imparting the requisite
traverse to the carriages, in place of such clay being removed by hand, or
by an endless chain, or set of rollers, as is at present the case in machines.
of this class now used.. When a pug mill or other similar machine is not.
employed, the clay or plastic material is forced by manual labor into a
peculiar moulding box or long trough, such box or trough being fitted or.
not on to a carriage. This box is fitted with hinged or moveable sides, and
its bottom is composed of a number of hinged pallets of the width of the
bricks to be made, for the purpose of removing the cut bricks by hand. The
moveable sides and hinged pallets correspond to the width of the bricks,
and the cutting wires or plates work in the interstices between them.
When this box is used with the travelling carriages and pug mill its sides
may be dispensed with, as the mouth of the pug mill will form the ends of
the bricks; and if it be required to mould drain pipes or hollow bricks the
clay is traversed against and along fixed cores, in place of the usual die plate,
as it passes out of the pug mill or other machine.. When round articles are to
be made, as in the manufacture of drain pipes, the surface of the travelling
table must be trough-shaped, to suit the rounded surface of the pipe, and the
mouth of the pug mill will be circular in place of rectangular.
And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood, I shall now.
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall
refer to the several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts throughout all tho
Figures.
Figure 1 of my Drawings represents a longitudinal vertical section of a
pug mill, and set of travelling carriages in connection therewith.
Figure 2 is a detached side elevation of one of the carriages, with a number
:

page_text: of the bricks removed therefrom to show the application and use of the
hinged pallets, berein-before more fully referred to; Figure 3 is a transverse
section of the same; and Figure 4 is a plan thereof. A is an ordinary pug
mill, the shaft B of which rests upon a footstep at C in the bottom of the
anill in place of passing through it, so as to leave a clear space beneath the
pug mill for the traverse of the carriages D, D. These carriages are mounted
on wheels, and run along trams so as to travel with as little friction as possiblo.
As the clay or plastic material exudes from the discharging mouth E of the
pug mill it enters upon the surface of the carriages beneath it, and by its
onward progress imparts a travelling motion thereto, and is supported and
carried along thereby. As it is proposed to employ a number of these carriages
connected together, as shewn at F, it follows that a continuous stream of
clay of any desired length may be forced out of the mill to be subsequently
subdivided by the ordinary cutting wires or plates into bricks or tiles.
The surface of these carriages is composed of a series of binged pallets G
(Figure 2), and these pallets are of width equal to the thickness of the brick,
the cutting wires or plates passing between the intervening spaces left for that
purpose between one pallet- and another. The bricks having been cut, they
are removed easily by hand by turning over the pallets, as shewn in Figure 2,
where some of the cut bricks have been removed and the pallets left turned up.
. In cases, where a pug mill or machine is not employed, 1 use a somewhat
similar carriage or moulding box to that shewn in Figures 2, 3, and 4, but
with this difference, that in place of being mado without sides it is furnished
.with a series of hinged sides, corresponding to the pallets herein-before
referred to.
Figure 5 represents a side elevation of a moulding box of this construction
imounted on wheels. Figure 6 is a transverse section of the same; and
Figure 7 is a plan thereof.
In using this box, the hinged sides H, I, must be held in a vertical
.position, so that the series on each side of the box or carriage D, in con-
junction with the hinged pallets G, will form a rectangular trough for the
reception of the clay, which is to be placed therein by hand or by treadding.
In order to fold up these sides H, and keep them elevated during the intro-
duction of the clay, I propose employing two fixed standards or frames I, I,
between which the moulding box or carriage D is run along suitable rails or
trams: The entrance or front end of these frames are spirally inclined, as
shewn at K, K, so that the open sides II of the moulding box as they slide up
these inclines, upon which they rest, will be gradually brought into a vertical

page_text: position, so as to form a trough for the reception of the clay which is now
introduced. The clay having been well kneaded or trodden down, and the
surface having been dressed off by a scraper level with the top of the box, is
cut transversely by means of the ordinary cutting wires into bricks or tiles,
suitable slits being made in the frames I, I, corresponding to the interstices
between the pallets G and hinged sides II, to allow of the passago of tho
cutting wires. The clay having been thus severed, the moulding box is
wheeled forward from between the frames I to make room for a second
box or carriage, and so on, throughout any desired number of carriages.
So soon as tho carriages leave the frames their binged sides II are free to
fall down or open, as shewn in Figure. 6, and admit. of the brick being readily
remored by the aid of the hinged pallets G, as herein-before described.
In some cases I propose making two sets of bricks from one pug mill, for
which purpose the delivery mouth is made double the width of a brick, and a
cutting wire is inserted vertically in the centre thereof, so as to divide the
exuding stream of clay into two separato and parallel continuous lengths,
which are then subdivided transversely by ordinary cutting wires, as herein-
before described, the width of the carriages being of course made to cor-
respond to the width of the delivery mouth.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe, in conclusion, that I do not confine or restrict
myself to the precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion to
describe or refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without
deviating from the principles or main features of my said Invention; but
what I consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,―
First, the general construction, arrangement, and combination of apparatus
for making bricks, drain pipes, and other similar articles, as herein-before
described.
Second, the application and use to and in ordinary pug mills or other brick-
making machines (when the clay is expelled in the form of a continuous length
or stream), of travelling carriages, which carry off the clay as fast as it exudes
from such pug mill or other machine, the traverso of the carriages being
derived partially or wholly from the onward movement of the clay, as herein-
before described.
Third, the application and uso of binged pallets for facilitating the removal
of the bricks, as herein-before described.

page_text: Fourth, the application and use of moulding boxes or troughs, mounted or
not on wheels, with hinged pallets and sides, for the purpose of making bricks
by hand labor, as herein-before described.
In witness whercof, I, the said Henry Wimball, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Seventh day of June, One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-seven.
HENRY WIMBALL. (L.E.)