AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS FOR BUILDING PURPOSES
Year: 1832

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
RHODES, of The Grange, Leyton, in the County of Essex, Brickmaker, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Fourteenth day of February, in the third year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said William Rhodes, His especial licence, that I, the said William
Rhodes, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Rhodes, my exors, adñors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Inven-
tion of "AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS FOR BUILDING PURPOSES;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said William
Rhodes, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His
said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six.calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said. proviso, I, the said
William Rhodes, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to

page_text: consist in manufacturing bricks, the earth of which has been soiled with
pulverized coke.
And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said William
Rhodes, do hereby describe the manner in which my said Invention is to be
performed, by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
Figures on the margin of these Presents (that is to say):-
:-
I proceed in the usual mode to manufacture my bricks until I arrive at
that process called in the trade soiling the earth, and then instead of soiling
it with ashes, or what is called London soil, small coal or a mixture of these
substances, or, as has sometimes been done, with a mixture of coke ashes
with London soil (the coke ashes not being pulverized, and bearing but a
small proportion to the other ashes or other soil), I soil my brick earth with
finely pulverized coke only, in the proportion of one inch and three quarters
depth of pulverized coke over one foot depth of solid brick earth.
In order the better to explain the nature of my said improvement, it may
be as well as to state that the finest sieves now in use for sifting the soil are
composed of wire meshes, of the size shown at Figure 1 on the margin;
whereas I use sieves composed of wire meshes of the size shown at Figure 2
on the margin, the consequence of which and the use of pulverized coke is,
that I avoid the internal honeycomb appearance of ordinary brick when
broken. I pulverize the coke which I use either by crushing the large
piece coke between rollers and sifting it, or else by sifting coke breeze and
rising the fine particles that sift out of the breeze; or I bruise and break the
coke or breeze by hand, and then sift it. And I prefer that none be used
to soil the brick earth with but such as is fine enough to pass through a sieve
of the fineness of that shown on the margin at Figure 2, though coarser will
answer the purpose, but not so well,-in fact the finer it is the better. And
it may be as well here to observe that in order to use the said sieve No. 2
to advantage, it and the coke should be kept as dry as possible, for which
purpose I generally hang the sieves in damp weather before fires to heat,
and dry and keep the coke under cover.
Now whereas I claim as my Invention soiling the brick earth used in making
bricks for building purposes, either wholly with pulverized coke obtained in
manner aforesaid, or otherwise, or with pulverized coke mixed with other firing.
And such my Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
entirely new, and never before used within that part of His said Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His said
Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare
this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe that this

page_text: my said Specification doth comply in all respects fully, and without reserve or
disguise, with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent contained. Wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right
and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Rhodes, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-three.