IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR FINISHING AND DRESSING TILES AND SIMILAR ARTICLES OF CLAY
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Hill Thomson, at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th November
1862.
I, JAMES HILL THOMSON, of Glenboig, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, Brick Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR FINISHING AND DRESSING TILES
AND SIMILAR ARTICLES OF CLAY," to be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to the arrangement and construction of machinery or
apparatus suitable for finishing and dressing slabs, or generally similar articles
formed of clay. Under one modification or system of arrangement the
machine consists of an open rectangular framing formed of wood or other
suitable material. On the middle longitudinal rails of the framing are
arranged the pedestal blocks and bearings of a transverse horizontal shaft,
which is driven from a steam engine or other prime mover. A pinion on the
end of this shaft gives motion to a wheel which is fast to a second shaft parallel
to the driving shaft and nearer to the end of the framing. At each end of
this shaft, but inside the framing, is fitted a pulley, and the two are
connected together by transverse bars so as to form an open drum.
ponding arrangement is fitted at the other end of the machine, and round the
two is carried an endless band or traversing platform on which the article to
be finished and dressed is laid. The endless band is formed of links of metal
of a rectangular figure connected to each other by transverse pins, or arranged
in any other convenient manner. To the links of this chain metal slabs are

page_text: bolted, on the surface of which the plastic material is laid. A portion only of
these slabs are used for laying on the plastic material, and these slabs are
each fitted with a bracket piece or stop which prevents the clay from being
carried off the slab by the action of the dressing and finishing apparatus.
This consists of a pair of A-shaped standards, which are bolted down to the
top rail of the framing, and are connected by a transverse tie rod. One of
the angular faces of each standard is slotted so as to admit of fitting thereto
an adjustable tool, which is somewhat similar to a plane iron in its action.
A mass of the clay or plastic material having been laid on one of the slabs
fitted with the back piece, as the endless chain moves forward the plastic
material is cut to a uniform thickness, and at the same time dressed and
finished by the action of the dressing tool, meanwhile the workman places
another supply of clay on the next operating slab, and in this way the manu-
facture of tiles, fire-clay, flue covers, furnace blocks, and other generally
similar articles proceeds with great rapidity. The dressed and finished articles
are carried forward to the other end of the machine, from whence they are
removed in any convenient manner. At the back of each operating slab, the
contiguous slab of the chain is omitted, so that the refuse clay removed by
the dressing tool falls through the aperture thus provided on to a shoot
beneath. By shifting the dressing tool up or down tiles or slabs of any
required thickness may be readily made.