AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR PRESSING BRICKS
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hector Auguste Dufrené, of the General Patent
Offices, 10, Rue de la Fidélité, Paris, in the Empire of France, and
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of
"AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR PRESSING BRICKS."-A communication from
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Hector Auguste Dufrené
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th January 1866.
I, HECTOR AUGUSTE DUFRENÉ, of the General Patent Offices, 10, Rue de
la Fidélité, Paris, in the Empire of France, and 4, South Street, Finsbury,
London, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR PRESSING BRICKS," to be as follows, that is
to say-
The Invention communicated to me consists in an improved construction
of pressing machine for the manufacture of bricks and other like articles
made of brick earth or clay, by which more uniformity is obtained in the
thickness of the articles than by the ordinary apparatus. This press consists
of two parts, an upper and a lower part, acting in the middle of a frame of a
form and dimensions suited to those of the article to be made. The press
receives a continuous motion from an excentric worked by steam or hand

page_text: power, and which in its rotation is made to move apart and bring together
the said two parts of the press, between which the brick earth is placed and is
compressed. The upper part is fixed to two rods united by a striker fixed by
four rods to a sliding piece united to the collar of the excentric which sets it
in motion. The lower part is free, and is raised by the striker during its
ascent, and falls back of itself during the descent of the striker. The
quantity of clay or brick earth exceeding that required is thrown back by the
press itself by means of a hole, which may vary in its dimensions, made in
one of the sides of the part of the press on which the pressure is exerted.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Hector Auguste Dufrené in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 11th July 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HECTOR
AUGUSTE DUFRENÉ, of the General Patent Offices, 10, Ruo de la Fidélité,
Paris, in the Empire of France, and 4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Civil
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Hector Auguste Dufrené, Her special licence that I, the said
Hector Auguste Dufrené, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Hector Auguste Dufrené, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times thereafter during the 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 Inven-
tion for "AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR PRESSING BRICKS," a communication
from Monsieur Louis Thelohan, a person resident at Redon, Ille et Vilaine,
France, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Hector
Auguste Dufrené, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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-immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: Figure 1 is a front elevation, and Figure 2 a side elevation of the improved
brick-pressing machine. This machine is principally composed, firstly, of an
excentric A, a crank handle giving by means of a slide block an up-and-
down movement to two rods united by a cross head at the top of the machine;
secondly, of a mould B, which may vary in form and dimensions according
to the form and size of the articles to be pressed, having this peculiarity,
videlicet, that of rejecting automatically the earth in excess of the quantity
required for each article. The press is mounted on a cast-iron frame, which
has four sides or may have only two, on which is mounted a platform C, on
which the mould is fixed by means of bolts. This platform has a hole. D)

page_text: made in the middle to allow the passage of the tail piece E of the bottom of
the mould. The excentric is' placed in the middle of the frame, on which is
supported its shaft, which passes outside' the frame and receives the gearing for
moving it, or a crank handle; the excentric is furnished with a collar or ring F,
the tail piece of which extends towards the lower part of the machine, and is
fixed by a moveable axis to the slide block'G; communicating the up-and-
down movement of the excentric to the two rods H, H. The slide block,
placed at right angles to the axis of the excentric, slides friction wise against
two slide bars I, I, fixed to the frame. Four rods J, J, between' which the
excentric moves, connect the slide block and the buffer / placed above the
excentric. The buffer, which has to raise up the bottom of the mould to
force out the article moulded, has a strong axis L passing through it; which
at each side enters an opening in the frame, serving as a guide. To this
axis, either outside or inside the frame, the two rods H, H, which support the
cross head M, are fixed; these rods rise above the table, passing through two
guide sockets on the two sides of the platform. The rods are united at their
upper part by the cross head M, which can be raised or lowered by means of
screw nuts. By this arrangement the machine can be regulated at will for
all thicknesses required. The cross head (M serves to receive the top N of
the mould, which is at least six inches high, so as to prevent the attendant's
hand being caught between the cross piece and the mould when drawing out
a brick. By turning the excentric an up-and-down movement is given to the
cross piece and buffer. The top of the mould being at its upper level the
cross head and the buffer fall; the cross head causes the brick to enter the
mould B, and the buffer leaving the tail piece of the bottom of the mould,
the latter then rests on the table, the pressure comes into play, and the cross
piece still continues to come down to the required point; the cross head
then rises, the buffer strikes against the tail piece of the bottom of the mould,
and by the same movement bring, back the brick to the point where it can be
taken by the attendant. The quantity of clay for each article never being
exactly the same there is a risk of having articles of unequal thickness and the
machine stopping frequently; to obviate these two defects I employ 'two' means.
Firstly, in one of the large sides of the moulds I make a hole about an
inch in diameter, which can be closed or narrowed at option by means of a
small key, and through which the excess of clay 'escapes without injuring
either the form or pressure. For bricks this hole is placed about the middle
of the thickness of the brick, and for paving tiles at the lower part.
Secondly, in lieu of a hole in the middle of the mould, I dispose one of the
sides of the frame of the mould, so as to leave a rectangular opening a half or

page_text: one-third of the length of the article to be pressed between the lower part of
the frame and the moveable plate forming its bottom when it is lowered.
This opening, the height of which is regulated at will by means of sheets of
sheet iron placed on the bottom of the mould, permits the excess of clay to
escape in the form of thin cakes. The brick is afterwards sufficiently pressed
by the the friction to cause the rupture to disappear entirely. At one of the
extremities of the excentric shaft a toothed wheel Q is placed, the diameter
of which should be at least equal to that of the circumference passed over by
the excentric. The wheel Qis worked by a pinion R in the ratio of four to
eight, according as it is desired to work habitually by hand or by steam. The
arbor of the pinion receives a fly wheel U at the opposite extremity. To work
by steam I add near to the pinion and on its arbor two pullies S, S, one fixed
and the other loose. To work by hand, the fly wheel U receives a handle
upon one of its spokes. The size of the fly wheel varies according to the
power required and the position the machine is to occupy.
Having now described the nature of the Invention communicated to me,
and the manner of performing the same, I wish it to be understood that I do
not confine myself to the precise details herein laid down; but what I claim
is, the improvements herein-before described in the construction of a brick-
pressing machine, reference being had to the annexed Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Hector Auguste Dufrené, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
H. A. DUFRENE, (L.S.)
10, Rue de la Fidélité,
Paris.