IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MOULDING BRICKS AND TTY O PROAL SPATION
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas le Poidevin of the Island of Guernsey for an
invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MOULDING BRICKS AND
TTY O
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas le Poidevin at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th February 1882.
THOMAS LE POIDEVIN of the Island of Guernsey,
MACHINERY FOR MOULDING BRICKS AND TILES.
"
"IMPROVEMENTS IN
My Invention relates to an improved apparatus for moulding bricks or tiles, and
the Invention consists essentially in the combination with a pug mill of a series of
moulds supported on travelling platforms or trucks running on a railway beneath
the pug mill and receiving the clay direct therefrom the train of carriages and
moulds being made to travel along as fast as the moulds are filled by gear from
the pug mill itself or otherwise. The moulds are preferably of the construction
hereafter described, and the moulded bricks are conveyed by the trucks to the hack
and the trucks when unloaded are returned by another line of rails to again carry
an empty mould beneath the pug mill. The trucks may also be employed alone for
conveying the dried bricks from the back to the kiln.
The pug mill may be placed in the clay pits whereby the expense of cartage is
avoided. It is provided with an adjustable slide behind and a scraper in front to
prevent the exit of the clay except into the moulds and is constructed to allow
the passage beneath it of the trucks and moulds next described. A box of sand is
placed in advance of the mill for the purpose of sanding the moulds previous to
their being filled with clay and a striker at the opposite side for the purpose of
removing any excess of clay from the moulds. The trucks consist of low horizontal
platforms mounted on small wheels or rollers running on rails, and of sufficient
strength to carry a load of say 400 or 500 dried bricks when to be used also for
conveying the bricks from the hack to the kiln.
The trucks are caused to travel successively beneath the mill by means of a gear
wheel driven from the pug mill near which it is mounted and gearing into a rack
fixed to the trucks, the truck actually passing beneath the mill being driven thereby
and in its turn pushing onwards those in front of it.

page_text: The mould frame is separate from and is merely placed upon the pallet boards
which are laid down on the surface of the truck; the frame is made fast to the
truck by small iron pegs, the pallet boards are laid down side by side on the
truck itself before the frame is placed on, and each pallet board with the swell or
kick upwards forms the bottom of each mould; the brick is thus made on the flat
with the hollow underneath.
The mould frame which comprises a number of brick moulds is constructed of
longitudinal wooden bars lined with iron plates, the cross divisions between the
bricks are also made of iron plates. The mould frame may be of any convenient
dimensions and is made of the same length as the trucks. It is preferably equal
in depth to the thickness of a brick, the longitudinal bars being the length of a
brick apart, the iron moulds dividing the bricks which are made on the flat, the
hollow downwards. The clay is forced down by the action of the pug mill into
the moulds thus formed as they are carried in succession beneath the mill, the
excess being removed and the bricks completed by the striker under which the
moulds pass on leaving the mill. As soon as the truck has passed out of the pug
mill, the frame is raised by both ends, leaving the bricks on the pallet boards, the
truck is then pushed to the hack and the bricks taken up one at the time by
placing a plain pallet board on the upper surface of the brick and so put on the
hack in the usual way.
The frame when taken up is placed on another truck covered with another set
of pallet boards and again pushed under the pug mill.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Thomas le Poidevin in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
28th August 1882.
THOMAS LE POIDEVIN of the Island of Guernsey
MACHINERY FOR MOULDING BRICKS AND TILES."
"IMPROVEMENTS IN
My Invention relates to an improved apparatus for moulding bricks or tiles and
the Invention consists essentially in the combination with a pug mill of an endless
sories of moulds supported on travelling platforms or trucks running on a railway
beneath the pug mill and receiving the clay direct therefrom, the train of carriages
and moulds being made to travel along as fast as the moulds are filled, by gear
from the pug mill, the moulded bricks being left on the trucks by the moulds and
conveyed to the hack by the trucks which are returned unloaded by another line
of rails to again carry empty moulds beneath the pug mill. The trucks may also
be employed alone for conveying the dried bricks from the hack to the kiln.
The pug mill may be placed in the clay pits whereby the expense of cartage is
avoided.
In order that the Invention may be more readily understood, I have illustrated
it in the accompanying drawings, in which Figures 1 and 2 are side and end
elevations, and Figure 3 a horizontal sectional plan of my improved apparatus.
Figures 4 and 5 show details of the moulds.
A is the pug mill worked by horse or steam power. It is so constructed as to
allow a train of trucks and moulds to pass beneath the bottom which is provided
with two discharge orifices a a corresponding in width to the length of the moulds
through which the clay is forced by the action of the mill into the moulds passing
beneath it. B is a train of trucks running on a railway beneath the pug inill A.
The trucks are low horizontal platforms on wheels or rollers and of sufficient
strength to carry a load of 400 or 500 dried bricks when to be used also for con-
veying the bricks from the back to the kiln. C are two endless chains of brick
moulds running round tumblers D D1 D2 D3 and also passing beneath the pug mill,
the two chains running side by side and passing over the pug mill at either side of
its shaft. The portion of the chains of moulds between the tumblers D2 and D³ rest
upon the trucks B as shown, the moulds being carried along by the trucks. E is a
weighted roller resting on the edges of the moulds at the exit side of the pug mill
by which the clay is pressed down into the moulds. F is a striker (which may be
provided with an adjusting screw for regulating its height) by which the excess of
clay is removed from the moulds. G are pallet boards which are laid down on the
trucks side by side in regular order before the truck is pushed beneath the moulds,
so that the moulds will come down truly upon them as shown. The pallet boards
are formed with a swell or kick upon their upper surface and they form the
bottoms of the moulds (which are merely open or bottomless rectangular frames as
hereafter described) the bricks being thus made on the flat with the hollow under-
neath. Hare the moulded bricks as left on the pallet boards on the trucks by the
moulds. The trucks with the pallet boards laid on them are pushed up to the pug
mill by hand, after which they are successively driven beneath the pug mill by a
pinion on a shaft I gearing with a rack b fixed longitudinally beneath the
platform of each truck at one side, the shaft I being driven by an endless chain K
running on chain wheels kk' operated by bevel gear from the pug mill shaft, as
shown in Figure 2. The truck actually being driven pushes those in front of it
along beneath the roller and scraper as above mentioned until they are clear of the
machine. The trucks are then pushed onto the hack and the bricks taken up one
at a time by placing a plain pallet board upon each brick and so put on the hack

page_text: in the usual way. The correct register of the chains of moulds with the pallet
boards may be ensured by providing lugs (not shown) upon the chains at intervals
corresponding to the length of the trucks which shall project downwards between
the ends of the trucks instead of the latter abutting close together as shown.
The tumbler D³ is driven by a spur wheel L upon its axis gearing with a pinion
on the shaft I, the other tumblers being driven by the moulds. Mare drums con-
taining sand mounted to rotate on horizontal axes above the chains of moulds.
These drums have perforations or apertures in their peripheries through which the
sand is discharged for the purpose of sanding the moulds, and they are driven by
gear wheels m m³ from the adjacent tumblers D. D¹.
The moulds are open rectangular frames and have each only three sides, as shown
in Figures 4 and 5, the fourth side being made by the adjacent mould so as to
enable the moulds to open as they pass round the tumbler D* to free the moulded
brick and leave it on the truck. These mould frames C are jointed together in
endless series by rule joints c as shown. c' are pairs of downwardly projecting
lugs at either side of each mould which come between the pallet boards and push
each one onwards slightly with the brick upon it to free the brick of the mould as
the latter rises in turning round tumbler D³.
Having described the nature of my Invention and the manner of performing the
same, I declare that what I claim as my Invention to be protected by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is.
The improved machinery for moulding bricks and tiles consisting of a pug mill
having suitable discharge orifices in the bottom, of series of moulds and of trucks
supporting and carrying the moulds in succession beneath the pug mill so as to
receive the clay therefrom and of suitable devices for pressing the clay into the
moulds and removing the excess, all combined arranged and operating substantially
as hereinbefore described and represented in the drawings annexed.
In witness whereof I. the said Thomas le Poidevin have hereunto set my
hand and seal this 22nd day of August, A.D. 1882.
THOMAS TE DOLDETAT