IMPROVEMENTS IN, APPARATUS FOR MOULDING OR SHAPING CLAY FOR BRICKS OR OTHER LIKE ARTICLES
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left. by William Steven at the Office of
the Commissioners. of Patents, with his Petition, on the 8th April
1862.
I, WILLIAM STEVEN, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Brickmaker and Builder, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN, APPARATUS FOR MOULDING OR SHAPING CLAY FOR BRICKS OR
OTHER LIKE ARTICLES," to be as follows, that is to say:―
This Invention of improvements in apparatus for moulding or shaping clay
for bricks or other like articles has for object increased efficiency with
'simplicity and durability of details.
In apparatus constructed with a modification of the improvements, the clay
in a moderately plastic condition is put into a pig mill, resembling in its con-
struction those in ordinary use. If found necessary or desirable, the clay may be
passed between a pair of rollers on entering or prior to entering the pug mill.
The bottom of the pug mill is made flat or horizontal, and there is placed in
close contact with its under surface a kind of sliding block mounted in:hori-
zontal guides, and made to slide backwards and forwards across the pug mill
bottom by means of a connecting rod and crank. This crank may be con-
veniently formed or fitted on the central vertical shaft of the pug mill, this
shaft passing through the bottom of the mill and through a slot or elongated
opening in the sliding block, whilst the connecting rod is jointed upon a pin
projecting down from one end of the sliding block. The sliding block is
formed with, say, four matrices or moulds, and there are four corresponding

page_text: filling apertures in the pug mill bottom, à pair ou each side of the transverse
horizontal centre line. The pairs of matrices are situated so far apart in the
sliding block that when one pair is coincident with the filling openings and
receiving clay, the other pair is out clear of the mill delivering the bricks.
As each matrix moves outwards from its filling opening, a compressing piston
rises from below, and reaches its highest point just as the matrix finally quits
the filling opening, and the material in the matrix is thereby compressed
against the under side of the pug mill bottom. The pair of compressing
pistons at one end are mounted in a slide moving in its own guides beneath
the sliding block, and actuated by catches on the sliding block in such a
way as to move through only a part of the stroke of the latter. The pistons
are elevated and depressed by means of levers on a shaft or on studs beneath,
the movement being caused simply by the horizontal motion of the slide
turning the levers over through a limited angle. The other pair of com-
pressing pistons are actuated by similar details, at the other side of the
machine. After the compression the sliding block continues to move out-
wards, and the pistons descend until they clear the bottom of the block,
whereupon the motion of the piston slide ceases and the sliding block passes
onwards until it completely clears them. The bricks are then discharged
downwards from out of the matrices. by pistons which are, made to descend
from above by means of levers actuated by the movement of the block like
the levers of the compressing pistons, these arrangements: being, of course,
repeated at both sides of the machine.. For the purpose of preventing the
clay from adhering to the bottom of the pug mill to the sliding block,, matrices,
and other parts provision is made for maintaining these parts at an elevated
temperature, and this has at the same time, the advantage of hastening the
drying of the bricks. A convenient: mode, of applying heat, for this purpose
is by introducing steam into jackets or casings. formed round and in, the pug
mill bottom and in the sliding block, the introduction into the latter being
effected by means of a. flexible or jointed tube... The details of the apparatus
may be considerably modified without departing from the improved features
of the modification described.