IMPROVEMENTS IN BRICK-MAKING MACHINES
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Tomlinson Bousfield at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
8th October 1866.-A communication from abroad by Antoine McNair,
residing at the City of New York, United States of America.
I, GEORGE TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Loughborough Park, Brixton, in the
County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN BRICK-MAKING MACHINES," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to provide means for manufacturing bricks
with greater rapidity and in greater perfection than has been possible by the
means heretoforo devised. To this end a machine is constructed as repre-
sented by the Drawings, in which letter "A" is a cog wheel attached to tho
front end of a shaft "B"; this shaft "B" extends from the right-hand side
through the centre of the morter box, and revolves on boxes or bearings at
each end through the boxes being outside of and detached from the morter
box, knives are attached to this shaft which are made in the form of a right-
angle triangle, and extend from the shaft to near the top and bottom of the
morter box. The office performed by these knives is to mix and temper the
morter in the box. Being made in the form of a right-angle triangle, and
adjusted on the shaft at proper distances from each other, they perform their
functions with certainty and regularity, moving the mortar from the right to
the left, or from the left to the right as may be most desirable, the direction
given to the mortar depending upon the position in which the hypothenuso

page_text: sides of the triangular knives are placed. This mortar box is marked "C"
on the Drawings, has a hopper through which the mortar is introduced;
its top is made circular on the inside, and is so adjusted as to open easily on
hinges, the front side of the mortar box is also made in a circular form. The
rear side of the lower half of this box is made upright, and sometimes a slido
is placed therein by which to regulate to flow of the morter to the board
which divides the slide boards herein-after mentioned. Letter "D" is a
cog wheel and shaft, to which the crank or belt drum is attached by which
the machinery is moved. Its cogs mesh with the cogs on cog wheel "A."
"E" is a sliding board that carries the moulds under the mortar box and
delivers them on the platform on the rear of the machine. "E" is a similar
board, the office of which is to force the mortar into the moulds when they are
being moved under into the moulds when they are being moved under
the presser.
These boards "E" and "E" are constructed hollow, as
represented on the Drawings, to afford a space on the moulds for the moulds,
and the lower side of the front "E" is cut out to allow the moulds to fall on
the rear "E," and from thence one at a time on the bottom board of the
machine, which is effected by the front "E" being withdrawn from under the
pile of moulds "E" and "E" are connected together at these outer edges.
Between them is a piece of timber to which they are firmly attached, the
thickness of which is equal to the thickness of the board separating slide boards
"E" and "E," so as to allow the latter to slide easily in the spaces allotted
to them in the machine. The piece of timber separating "E" and "E" is
connected with and worked by a series of levers and shackle hinges, as shown
at "O," the lower lever of this series is placed in a horizontal position, and is
connected by an eccentric "F" with the shaft "G." The shaft "G" extends
across the lower side of the machine from right to left, and has a cog wheel at
its right hand marked "I," which meshes in a small cog wheel near the inner
end of the wheel and shaft marked "D." The shaft "G" has three eccentrics
one at each end, and the other at or near its centre. The central eccentric is
connected with the lever last mentioned, and the others are connected with
and operate the presser herein-after described. The presser is marked "H"
on the Drawings. It is a square frame of strong timbers or iron bars, the
sides of which work vertically in suitable bands or "T" slide heads attached
to the sides of the machine, and it has a firm central beam or board of the
same length and width as the top of the moulds respectively. It also has
hinges at the lower ends of the side beams by which it is connected with the
pitmen "K." The pitmen "K" are connected at their upper ends with
the said side beams, and their lower ends are attached to the eccentric wheels

page_text: "L" and "L." Sometimes the machine is constructed in such a manner as
to dispense with the small wheel on shaft D. In that case the cog wheels
"A," "D," and "I" are brought on a line and adjusted in such a manner
that the cogs of "D" shall mesh into those of "A" and "I," "D" being
between them. Sometimes the wheel "D" and its shaft are dispensed with;
in that case the cog wheels "A" and "I" are brought on a line and adjusted
is such a manner that their cogs shall mesh into each.
The machine is operated as follows, namely, the mortar is placed in the
hopper and the machine put in motion, the moulds are next placed in the
opening on the front side of the machine piled one upon the other; the
moulds are taken from the pile one at a time and moved backward under the
mortar box by the rearward of the lower sliding band; at the same time
the upward sliding board shoves the mortar from the board that separates the
two slide boards into the moulds, and the latter pass under the presser, after
being pressed the moulds are forced on to the platform on the rear of the
machine, and the bricks therein are ready to be taken to the yard for drying.
The device of feeding the moulds sideways and in a pile to the machine from
the front side possesses great advantages over the usual method of passing such
moulds through an opening in the side of the machine one at a time, and the
arrangement of the various parts enables the machine to work with greater
velocity, and turn out bricks in the mould at a rate of speed heretofore
unparallelled.