Improvements in Trays for Clay Presses used in the Manufacture of China and Earthenware.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 13th July, 1897
Complete Specification Left, 28th Feb., 1898-Accepted, 2nd Apr., 1898
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Trays for Clay Presses used in the Manufacture of
China and Earthenware.
I, SAMUEL BOURNE FURNIVAL, of Cobridge, Burslem, in the County of Stafford,
Managing Director of Furnivals, Limited, Earthenware Manufacturers, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
In the manufacture of china and earthenware the prepared slip or clay and
ground flint mixed with water to the consistence of cream is introduced into and
treated by pressure in a clay press by which it is deprived of the greater part of its
water and made ready for treatment in the pugging mill. The said clay press is
composed of a series of trays or blocks of wood having ribs or flutes on each side.
The slip is enclosed in folded cloth or fabric in portions and several of these portions
say twenty four are alternated with the said trays and the whole bound tightly
together by screws and screw nuts or otherwise. The slip is pumped into the folded
fabric by a hydraulic pressure pump, and the superfluous water, squeezed out of the
slip by the pressure of the pump, runs from the clay press.
My invention consists of the improvements hereinafter described in the construc-
tion of the clay press whereby the manufacture and working of the press is
facilitated and the slip operated upon more rapidly prepared for the pugging mill
than by clay presses of the ordinary kind. Instead of making the press trays of
blocks or slabs of wood having ribs or flutes on each side, I make each tray of a
series of separate strips of wood connected together by their ends being fixed to a
frame. The said strips are fixed at a short distance apart say one quarter of an inch
so as to permit of the ready escape of the water pressed from the slip. The frames
in which the strips of wood are fixed are also provided with holes or passages for per-
mitting of the ready escape of the expressed water. The cloths in which the slip
is folded and the appliances connecting the folded cloths with the hydraulic or
pressure pump for supplying the slip under pressure to the clay press are of the
ordinary kind.
1 L
mth dow of July, 1807
Improvements in Trays for Clay Presses used in the Manufacture of
China and Earthenware.
I, SAMUEL BOURNE FURNIVAL, of Cobridge, Burslem, in the County of Stafford,
Managing Director of Furnivals, Limited, Earthenware Manufacturers, do hereby
ED 17

page_text: declare the nature of my invention and in what manner the same is to be performed
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:
1
In the manufacture of china and earthenware the prepared slip or clay and
ground flint mixed with water to the consistency of cream is introduced into and
treated by pressure in a clay press by which it is deprived of the greater part of its
water and made ready for treatment in the pugging mill. The said clay press is
composed of a series of trays or blocks of wood having ribs or flutes on each side.
The slip is enclosed in folded cloth or fabric in portions and several of these portions
say twenty four are alternated with the said trays and the whole bound tightly
together by screws and screw nuts or otherwise. The slip is pumped into the folded
fabric by a hydraulic pressure pump, and the superfluous water squeezed out of the
slip by the pressure of the pump runs from the clay press.
My invention consists of the improvements hereinafter described in the construc-
tion of the trays of clay presses, whereby the manufacture of the trays and working
of the press is facilitated and the slip operated upon more rapidly prepared for the
pugging mill than by clay presses of the ordinary kind. Instead of making the
press trays of blocks or slabs of wood having ribs or flutes on each side, I make each
tray of a series of parallel bars of wood. The said barred tray may be made by
taking a series of strips of wood connected together by their ends being fixed to a
frame. The said strips are fixed at a short distance apart, say one quarter of an
inch, so as to leave spaces between them and permit of the ready escape of the water
pressed from the slip. The frames in which the strips of wood are fixed are also
provided with holes or passages for permitting of the ready escape of the
expressed water. The cloths in which the slip is folded and the appliances con-
necting the folded cloths with the hydraulic or pressure pump for supplying the
slip under pressure to the clay press are of the ordinary kind.
Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings represent in side and end eleva-
tion respectively and Figure 3 in plan, a clay press tray made according to my
invention Figures 4, 5 and 6 represent respectively in elevation, section and plan
of underside, a portion of the said tray drawn to a larger scale than Figures 1, 2
and 3.
Figures 7 and 8 represent elevations of modified trays made according to my
invention.
The same letters of reference indicate the same parts in the several figures of the
drawings.
and
I will first describe the tray Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.
The said tray consists of a rectangular frame a, a, a¹, a¹, a³, a to the upper
lower bars a¹, a¹ and a³, a of which a series of vertical bars or strips b, b, b, b are
secured by nails, screws, or the like, parallel to the end bars a, a of the rectangular
frame, the said vertical bars 6 being so arranged as to leave between them spaces for
the expressed water to escape from the press (see the enlarged views Figures 4
and 6). The upper bars a¹, a¹ of the frame are provided with metal plates c, c
above the semi-circular recesses d, d in the said upper bars which recesses when two
trays are put together, side by side, constitute the leading or pipe holes of the cloth
bags or folded fabric confined between the pair of trays.
The metal plates c, c constitute no part of my invention but I prefer to employ
the said plates in conjunction with trays constructed according to my invention.
The lower bars a², a² of the said frame have grooves or notches e, e made in the
sides or faces which constitute, when two or more trays are put together, the meeting
faces of the trays, which coincident grooves in adjacent trays constitute holes in
the bottom of the trays for the escape of water expressed from the slip under treat-
ment.
Clay press trays made according to my invention are alternated with folded fabric
or cloth bags into which the clay to be treated is pumped, through the holes d, d
in the upper bars of the frame and the said trays are used in essentially the same
way as ordinary clay press trays.
The said parallel barred frames may be made by taking slips of wood and sawing

page_text: a series of slits therein from the bottom to near the top and thereby giving to the
said strips a comb like figure. Each of the comb like strips is secured to a frame a, a,
a¹, a¹, a³, a² as is represented in the modified tray Figure 7, the longitudinal
edges of the comb like strip being connected by nailing or otherwise between the
bars a', a' and a³, as of the frame.
Or a series of slits are made in the strips of wood from near the bottom to near
the top as is represented in the modified tray Figure.8, the drain holes in connection
with the bottoms of the slits being indicated in dotted lines.
In other respects the trays Figures 7 and 8 differ in no essential respect from the
tray Figures 1 to 6 both inclusive and corresponding parts in the three trays are
marked with the same letters of reference.
Trays constructed according to my invention are applicable to all kinds of clay
presses used in the manufacture of china and earthenware whether the slip be
supplied by separate taps and nozzles to each separate chamber or bag or by a con-
tinuous supply through or by one main conduit similar to the method used in filling
"self emptying" clay presses.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that I claim as
my invention:-
Clay press trays to be used in the manufacture of china and earthenware consist-
ing of a rectangular frame within which is secured a series of vertical parallel bars
or strips at a short distance apart so as to leave spaces to permit of the ready escape
of the water pressed from the slip substantially as hereinbefore described and
illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
Dated this Twenty-fifth day of February 1898