IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS AND TILES
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Peter Bawden at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 17th February 1880.
PETER BAWDEN, of 49, Norland Square, Notting Hill, in the County of Middlesex,
Brick Manufacturer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF
BRICKS AND TILES."
This Invention relates to improvements in brick and tile making machines,
whereby bricks and tiles may be made of a better quality and in greater numbers
with less power and less labor than heretofore. The machine is as nearly as possible
self acting, it is driven by horse or steam power, and grinds or pugs the clay or
brick earth, washes sands, and fills the brick moulds, cleans the pallet boards,
sands them, and pushes them under the brick moulds to receive the bricks; the
pallet board with the brick on it is then lowered down gently onto a "page
formed of two pieces of angle iron, on which they are received and pushed away
from the machine to be loaded onto the wheelbarrows.
The machine is constructed as follows:-The pug mill, tub, or box is about 3 feet
4 inches square inside and about 4 feet high to contain the clay or brick earth.
It may be made either with wood or iron, and has a round shaft supported in a
bearing near the top and resting in a cup bearing at the bottom. The pole or lever
to which the horse is harnessed (if the machine is worked by horse power) is
fastened to the top of the mill shaft and gives motion to the whole machine. There
are two clay knives, each having two blades fastened to the mill shaft which passes
through them and they cut and grind the clay and press it downwards. There are
also near the bottom of the pug mill two moro clay knives each having 4 blades
which force the clay out through two holes, one in each side of the pug mill near
the bottom by which the clay is forced out and into the press box, there being a
hinged press which presses the clay through a die down into the moulds which pass
underneath the die.
At the bottom end of the vertical clay mill shaft is attached a bevel cog wheel
which drives 4 smaller bevel cog wheels, each being one fourth of the size. Two of
these small bevel wheels are attached to horizontal shafts which run across the
machino underneath the pug mill, a crank being fastened to the end of each of the
shafts which each work a connecting rod made with two flat bars at one end which

page_text: is connected to a slotted safety lever. This lever has a sliding weight which keeps
it down to its proper place, but should there be any obstruction the weight will
rise and allow the bolt which passes through the end of the crank connecting rod
to slip and run along the slotted safety lever and thereby prevent breakage. This
safety slotted lever is bolted to an arm which is also bolted to the long flat bar, the
crank giving to the horizontal flat bar a to and fro motion, and this motion brings
forward the chain of moulds as well as the pallet boards. The other two small
bevel cog wheels are attached to the ends of two other horizontal shafts which run
run the whole length of the machine underneath the long tables or frames which
extend each side of the pug mill to carry the chain of moulds. To each of these
horizontal shafts are attached 4 cam wheels, of which one is for pressing the clay
into the moulds, the second for lowering the bricks down one at a time onto two
bars of angle iron forming the page to receive the bricks, the third for washing the
moulds, and the fourth for sanding the moulds which pass over a box of sand with
a loose botton which rises up and forces the sand up and fills the mould, thereby
sanding it.
the
The brick moulds are made of cast iron or other metal; there are about 38 of
these moulds which form an endless chain round the machine. The moulds have
each two bosses on each side, there being holes in these bosses through which a
bolt, with a round eye, forming a joint or hinge at the corner of each mould on the
inside, thereby connecting the moulds together and forming an endless chain;
moulds pass round horizontally outside of the pug mill, there being 19 on each
side of the machine. There is a square hole at each side of the machine, as before
mentioned, through which the clay passes from the pug mill into a press box.
The hinged press then forces the clay down through the press die, thereby filling
the brick mould which is in a state of rest. When the mould has been filled with
clay it is then pushed forward underneath a plane or strike formed of an iron box
containing water, the bottom of which box is formed of a grating under which is
placed Brussels carpeting or strong canvas, or other strong cloth, through which
water will penetrate but slowly. This cloth being kept wetted by the water
passing through the bottom of the plane box will smooth the top of the brick which
is in the mould as it passes underneath. At the next movement the mould rests
on flanges at its top edges, and the pallet board which holds the brick in the mould
rests on a piece of flat iron forming a part of the brick loader, which lowers the
brick down gently as it rests on the pallet board and places it on the page. The
brick is then pushed along the page and carried away from the machine finished
and ready to be loaded on the wheel barrows from the page and to be taken to the
drying ground. The next movement brings the empty brick mould over a box of
water, when a cleaner or scraper made of a piece of thin indiarubber the size of a
brick, or rather larger, is pushed up through the mould, thereby washing it and
leaving the mould wet, the indiarubber cleaner again falling into the water.
next movement brings the empty wet mould over a box containing dry sand; this
box has a loose bottom which is pushed up and fills the mould with sand, the mould
resting on its top flanges. The sand falls out of the mould after it has been
thoroughly sanded down again into the box to be again forced up with the loose
bottom of the sand box for sanding the next mould. The next movement turns the
mould towards going up the other side of the machine; the next brings the empty
sanded mould over the sanded pallet board; the next advances the mould from its
top flanges and sends the empty mould in front to be filled with clay again, but
this time not on the same side of the pug mill, the moulds going around in a flanged
grating to the other side. All the moulds are similarly and successively filled with
clay or brick earth, emptied over the page, washed over the water box, sanded
over the loose bottom sand box, and so on as above described.
The
There are two iron press boxes outside of the pug mill, one on each side of th
machine, as above mentioned. Close under these boxes the moulds are filled wit
clay, there being in the bottom of each of these boxes, forming the die for the cla

page_text: to pass through into the moulds. There are regulating levers to the presses of these
boxes to give the clay more or less pressure into the moulds. There is a small door
hinged on the top which forms a loose end to the end of the press box or die where
the moulds come out filled; these doors are kept down by pressure, but in case a
stone or any hard substance should get partially into the mould the door is free to
rise up and allow the stone to pass, and afterwards shut again in its proper place
for the next mould to be filled.
The pallet boards are placed at each end of the machine in a box which is placed
on the same table or frame as the moulds rest on; this box is lower at the back and
outside than in front and the inside, in order that the pallets may be put into it
without trouble, and as the pallets are put into the box flatwise one upon the other
they fall to the bottom. The pusher pushes the bottom pallet board along a groove
close under the pallet box, the two long grooved bars forming the bottom of the
pallet box, as well as guiding the pallets to the press die. The pallet boards are
pushed under a scraper, which cleans them before they pass under a sand box at the
same movement; this sand box having no bottom the saud rests on the pallet board
which is beneath it, there being in the front of this box a regulating scraper to allow
a thin coating of sand to remain on the pallet board. The pallet pusher goes back in
the groove and allows the pallet boards to come to the bottom of the box again, the
pusher always pushing the bottom pallet board along the groove.
At the next
movement the sanded pallet board is brought under the empty sanded mould, where
it remains until the mould is filled with clay, the pallet board forming the bottom
of the mould. The mould, when filled again with clay, passes on over the page,
where the pallet board is lowered down gently on to the page with the moulded
brick on it.
There is a lever from the press which has a connecting rod to the cam arm; this
has a friction roller which runs on the cam which is on the long horizontal shaft.
The door in the end of the press has a hole above it which is covered with leather,
forming a valve to allow air to enter the clay box when the press is rising, to prevent
the clay being drawn out of the mould again after being pressed into it.
The two horizontal shafts which run the whole length of the machine underneath
the pug mill, and which are driven by the pug mill shaft as above mentioned, make
four revolutions to one of the pug mill shaft, and at every revolution of the hori-
zontal shafts one brick is made on each side of the machine, thereby making 8
bricks to one revolution of the pug mill shaft. When the machine is to be driven
by steam power there is a bevel cog wheel fastened to the top end of the pug mill
shaft which is driven by a cross horizontal shaft on which is fastened a small bevel
pinion wheel. On the end of this horizontal pinion shaft is fastened a spur wheel
which is driven by a spur pinion loose on the shaft, but having cast on the back of
it a snap catch or clutch, which fits into a snap catch or clutch which slides in and
out of gear by means of a feather key on the shaft, and a lever to the clutch for
starting or stopping the machine; this clutch is so constructed that it would throw
itself out of gear if started to go the wrong way. On the other end of the same
shaft is a pulley to receive the belt from the steam engine.
There are four arms on each side of the pug mill which are hinged on one side of
the machine, and each provided at about the middle of its length with a friction
roller; these friction roller arms rest on the 8 cams on the long horizontal shafts,
and these cams give an up and down motion to the arms. One arm is for pressing
the clay into the moulds by means of the press arm; the second arm lowers the
brick down on the page, the third arm is for washing the moulds, and the fourth
arm is for sanding the moulds. As the horizontal shafts revolve with the cams all
the arms must rise and fall as required for their different purposes. Supposing
those arms to be each in one piece, to be hinged on one side of the machine, and to
reach quite across to the other side of the machine to connect to the press arin, brick
loader, mould washer, and loose bottom of sand box, there would be liability of
breakage in case there should be an obstruction in either of these four places at each

page_text: end of the machine, and to guard against the possibility of breakage these arms
reach but little more than half way across the machine, that is to say, but a little
past the cams, and each arm is formed in two parts, being hinged near the middle
as well as at the end. The middle hinge is to hold a second arm or bean with a
heavy and a light end to each, the light ends continuing across the machine to the
press, brick loader, water box, mould washer, and to the loose bottom sand box.
The heavy or weighted ends of these safety weighted arms or beams will rise up
and prevent breakage in case there should be any obstruction, the weights being
just heavy enough to overcome the work to be done.