IM- PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS, PIPES, TILES, AND OTHER ARTICLES CAPABLE OF BEING MOULDED
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Gilbert Elliott, of Blisworth, in the
County of Northampton, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS, PIPES, TILES, AND OTHER
ARTICLES CAPABLE OF BEING MOULDED."
Sealed the 9th March 1853, and dated the 5th October 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Gilbert
Elliott at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 5th October 1852.
I, WILLIAM GILBERT ELLIOTT, of Blisworth, in the County of
Northampton, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS,
PIPES, TILES, AND OTHER ARTICLES CAPABLE OF BEING MOULDED," to be
as follows:-
My Invention consists in using.common brick earth, clay, marl,
loam, sand, chalk, limestone, ironstone, oyster shells, and all other
matters capable of igneous fusion, in such combinations and proportions
as found most economical and suitable in the locality in which the

page_text: bricks and other articles are being manufactured. And I melt such
materials or combination of materials.
If a reverberatory furnace with a heating stove attached is used, the
material should be ground fine, and placed first in the heating stove to
be partly melted by the waste heat, and afterwards pushed or scraped
into the melting hearth, and when in a liquid or fused state should be
run into moulds, particular care being taken to exclude the atmo-
sphere from the material on its passage from the furnace to the moulds.
When the moulds are nearly full they are to be passed on to a press
stamper or roller of suitable sizes, proportions, or dimensions for the
different kinds of articles to be manufactured.
The press stamper or roller should be made so as to finish the article
by pressure to give solidity. When the materials have set; the moulds
are to be opened and the articles taken out and placed in an oven or
hot closet to be gradually cooled or annealed, and when cool they will
be fit for use.
If a blast furnace is used, the material is to be broken and used
similar to the smelting of iron ore. The oven or closet may be made
long with a flat arch, about 5 feet high and from 1 to 2 feet in depth;
along the floor of the oven may be placed a small railway, upon which
two rows of iron trays travel; when one tray is full it is moved onwards
by means of a windlass, another tray is laid in its place similarly filled,
and similarly wheeled on, and so on, one tray after another. The oven
may be heated by the waste heat of the furnace. As some of the above
materials are to be found in every locality the manufacturer may
choose a mixture of all, or such of them as he finds cheapest and most
suitable; no general rule can be laid down, as the materials will be
found to vary in every locality, but it is recommended always to use a
mixture of lime, iron, clay, and sand.
In the making of pipes and other hollow articles the bottom of the
mould should be placed on a small bed of sand, about an inch in depth,
so as to finish the pipe or other article to be made at the bottom end,
by the pin or core running through the mould into the sand, the top of
the pipe or other article may be finished by a shoulder or projection on

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said William Gilbert Elliott in the Great Seal Patent
Office, on the 5th April 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
WILLIAM GILBERT ELLIOTT, of Blisworth, in the County of North-
ampton, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the sixteenth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said William Gilbert Elliott, Her special licence
that I, the said William Gibbert Elliott, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Gilbert Elliott,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS, PIPES, TILES,
AND OTHER ARTICLES CAPABLE OF BEING MOULDED," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Gilbert Elliott, by an in-
strument in writing under my hand and seal, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Gilbert Elliott, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, that is to say:
My Invention consists in manufacturing bricks, pipes, tiles, and other
articles capable of being moulded from the slag of the smelting or blast
furnaces of iron works, or from a fluid mass of the nature of such slag,
by running the same into moulds of any desired form or shape, and

page_text: pressing, stamping, or rolling, and gradually cooling or annealing, the
moulded masses so as to be fit for use for the various purposes to
which such articles have usually been applied. The slag from the blast
or smelting furnaces of the iron works has usually been run to waste,
and its disposal is a source of expence to the proprietor of the works;
and although the slag has occasionally been run into large lumps,
blocks, or masses, direct from the furnaces which have been employed,
for rough walls and similar purposes, the slag of the iron works has
usually been regarded as refuse, and become a great incumbrance to
the land in the vicinity of the works. Now I have discovered that
such slag may become and be converted into profitable and useful com-
modities, as follows:-I provide, as close as convenient to the furnace
from which the slag runs, in an enclosed building similar to a glass
manufactory, moulds of metal or other materials of the desired forms or
shapes, as is well understood, and run the slag in a melted or fused
state into such moulds; when the moulds are full or nearly full, accord-
ing to the form of the article being manufactured, I subject the molten
material to pressure by means of a roller or stamper on the top of the
mould, thus giving a proper finish to the open face of each casting, and
insuring more uniform density and coherence to the product than if the
gases are allowed to escape and the slag is allowed to cool without such
the moulded or cast articles are then removed from the
moulds, and gradually cooled or annealed in an oven or furnace so as to
be free from the brittleness which would otherwise render the articles
comparatively useless.
pressure;
The construction of suitable ovens or annealing furnaces, moulds and
presses, stampers and rollers, is well understood amongst the manufac-
turers of glass, and the heat for such annealing oven or furnace may be
derived either from the smelting furnace, or from an independent source,
if more convenient.
The annealing oven or furnace should be so constructed as to allow
of the use of cranes or of trucks conveying the articles, going in and
out in succession without interference with the process; by thus mould-
ing and gradually cooling or annealing, instead-of-producing-rough-and-
irregular or brittle masses, such as have heretofore been occasionally

page_text: made, the slag is converted into bricks, pipes, tiles, and other articles
fit for the purposes to which such well-finished articles are commonly
or may be applied; and as the strength of the material so moulded and
gradually cooled or annealed will admit of less thickness in the solid
parts, articles equally strong will be lighter than those now made from
the ordinary materials.
The manufacture herein-before described is from the slag in a fluid
state as it leaves the blast or smelting furnaces of the iron works; but
as the manufacture becomes general cases may occur in which, regard
being had to the heterogeneous composition and cost of the materials
and labor, and the value of the articles produced, it may be com-
mercially profitable to construct furnaces for the express purpose of
remelting the refuse slag, or of obtaining from the raw or natural
materials in any particular locality the liquid mass analogous to slag,
and employing it in and for the manufacture of bricks, pipes, tiles,
and other articles, as before described.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not
claim as of my Invention presses, stampers, rollers, and moulds for
pierced and hollow bricks, pipes, or other articles of any other shape or
form, nor annealing ovens, nor furnaces, their construction being well
understood; but I claim as my Invention the manufacture of bricks,
pipes, tiles, and other articles from slag or from a liquid mass analogous
to slag in a melted or fused state by moulding, pressing, and gradually
cooling or annealing them, as before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Gilbert Elliott, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Second day of April, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
WM GT ELLIOTT. (L.S.)