IMPROVEMENTS IN AND MACHINERY FOR CUTTING OR FORMING CLAY AND OTHER PLASTIC SUBSTANCES INTO BRICKS, BLOCKS, OR SLABS
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Topping and Joseph
Gregory at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 18th February 1874.
We, JAMES TOPPING, of Preston, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer,
and JOSEPH GREGORY, of Preston, aforesaid, Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND MACHINERY FOR
CUTTING OR FORMING CLAY AND OTHER PLASTIC SUBSTANCES INTO BRICKS, BLOCKS,
OR SLABS," to be as follows:-
The main object of our Invention is to perform in brick making the
operation of dividing into bricks or blocks the stream of clay expressed
from the orifice or die of the brick making machine, in a more reliable
and efficient manner than heretofore, and so as to facilitate the removal
from the machine of the bricks or blocks so produced.
The clay having been expressed from the orifice or die of the machine
in suitable sectional area by any of the ordinary methods, a portion
sufficiently long to make any desirable number of bricks or blocks is cut
off by means of a single wire mounted on a bow frame, moving radially
on an axis affixed to the framing of the machine in any convenient

page_text: manner.
The portion of clay thus cut off resting upon a series of rollers
is then pushed forward by hand on to a board suitably supported on a
table, on each side of which are rollers to guide the clay into proper
position, or the moveable board may be placed in the first instance on
the scries of rollers to receive the clay immediately on its expression
from the orifice or die; and after the portion of clay has been cut off, the
board may be pushed forward by hand to its position on the supporting
table.
For the purpose of dividing the clay into bricks or blocks of any
required dimensions we employ a horizontal frame arranged above the
clay, and having stretched across it a number of horizontal cutting or
dividing wires at intervals which correspond with the width of the bricks
or blocks to be made. These wires may be attached to the frame in any
convenient manner. The horizontal dividing frame with its wires has
imparted to it a vertical motion towards and from the table of the
machine. To this end the horizontal frame is operated from below by
means of a lever and a rack and pinion arrangement in connexion with
two arms placed on one side of the machine, which extend upwards and
over the horizontal dividing frame, the latter at its two ends being
supported by and attached to these arms.
The clay having been placed in position upon the moveable board
under the wires of the horizontal frame, is there divided into bricks or
blocks by causing the horizontal frame to descend so that its wires pass
down through the clay, and enter suitable grooves formed in the
moveable board to receive the wires in such manner that the latter may
pass entirely through the clay and leave the corners of the bricks or
blocks next the board smooth and square.
We use a loose iron plate or weight of suitable dimensions in conjunc-
tion with the dividing wires, in such manner that it rests upon them until
they enter the clay, whereupon the plate or weight rests upon the surface
of the clay that is being divided until the horizontal frame with its
dividing wires has cut through the clay, and is again raised; thus the
plate or weight prevents the bricks or blocks from being lifted out of
position by the wires during their return motion through the clay.
The horizontal dividing frame having been returned to its original
position by means of a weight and pulley in connexion with the lever,
the moveable board carrying the clay now divided into bricks may be

page_text: removed in any convenient manner, thereby avoiding undue handling of
the wet bricks, or if desirable the bricks may be carried away separately
in the ordinary way without removing the moveable board.
Although we have described our Invention as applied to the cutting or
forming of clay into bricks, it is obviously applicable for cutting or
dividing other analogous plastic substances into blocks or slabs.