IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS, TILES, AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES OR FORMS THAT MAY BE PRODUCED BY MOULDING CLAYS, EARTHS, AND OTHER LIKE
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Jones, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS, TILES, AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES OR FORMS
THAT MAY BE PRODUCED BY MOULDING CLAYS, EARTHS, AND OTHER LIKE
i
...
Sealed the 30th September 1864, and dated the 21st April 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Jones at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 21st April/
1864.
: !
17
I, JOHN JONES, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS, TILES, AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES OR FORMS THAT MAY
BE PRODUCED BY MOULDING CLAYS, EARTHS, AND OTHER LIKE MATERIALS, AND IN
APPARATUS OR MACHINERY TO BE EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows,. that is to
say
My Invention consists in moulding clays, earths, and other materials
capable of being so treated in a dry or comparatively dry state by passing
the material through a furnace of peculiar, construction, and thence through a
machine by, which it, is moulded. My furnace is of the reverberatory description,
and in the body or bed of the furnace is placed a drum around which an endless
chain works by motion received through spur gearing from the engine which

page_text: +
drives the moulding machine. The material is fed on to this endless chain, upon
which chain are teeth or tines that tear it up and well amalgamate it. By the
progress of the chain the material is carried out of the end of the furnace and
is deposited upon a circular disc revolving horizontally and provided with a
vertical scraper that throws the material in a hopper or drum revolving
vertically upon the crank shaft of the machine. Upon one end of this
crank shaft is the fly wheel, and upon the opposite end are two cone drums
or pullies, the one being connected to the endless chain, by which with a band
and adjusting fork the speed of the chain through the furnace can be
regulated. The hopper is divided internally into four segments, two of which
are hollow to act as receivers, and the other two are solid acting as dies;
under this hopper is an upright cylindrical case containing the whole of the
moulding apparatus, the steam cylinder, and the piston, which are those of a
vertical engine, with the cylinder above, and above the cylinder again and
below the hopper are fixed in suitable slides the moulding dies; these are four,
corresponding to the two beds and two sides of a.brick in the case of moulding
bricks, or of any suitable shape for moulding other forms; these dies are
worked to and fro by the piston being linked to the bottom end of it by a
system of links, rods, levers, and rule joints.
The operation is as follows:-Described as in moulding a brick, the clay
being received from the furnace in a dry state passes into one of the hollow
chambers in the hopper; this revolving shoots it into the machine between the
moulding dies, by which dies advancing the beds and sides are pressed, the
top end being at the same time pressed by the solid segment of the hopper
which follows the receiver, the bottom end being pressed by the top end of the
piston, by which also the brick completely moulded is forced upwards into the
second receiving chamber in the hopper, and is thence discharged as the hopper
revolves at the side of the machine.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Jones in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 21st 3
October 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN.
JONES, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of April,' in the year of our Lord 3
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of Her

page_text: reign, did, for Herself, Her beirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Jones, Her special license that I, the said John Jones, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as: I, the said John
Jones, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter 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 Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN. THE MANU-
FACTURE OF BRICKS, TILES, AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES OR FORMS THAT. MAY BE
PRODUCED BY MOULDING CLAYS, EARTHS, AND OTHER LIKE MATERIALS, AND IN APPA-
BATUS OR MACHINERY TO BE EMPLOYED THEREIN," upon the condition, amongst
others, that I; the said John Jones, by an instrument 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
5 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.
I
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Jones, do hereby declare. the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and
to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:
This Invention consists in moulding clays, earths, and other materials
capable of being so treated in a dry or comparatively dry state by passing the
material through a furnace, and thence through a machine, by which it is
moulded. The description of furnace I prefer to employ is of the reverbatory
kind. In the body of the furnace is placed a drum, around which a flat
endless chain works by motion received through spur gearing, or in any other
suitable way from the engine which drives the moulding machine; and when
clay is employed, as for instance in making bricks, the clay is first passed
through edge rolls placed at one end of the furnace, whence it is passed on
'to the endless chain, upon which chain are fixed teeth or tines that tear it and
well amalgamate it, leaving it in a thin sheet upon the chain. By the motion
of this chain the clay.is delivered at the opposite end of the furnace to that at
which it entered in a partially dry state, and is deposited upon a circular disc
revolving horizontally and provided with a vertical scraper to remove the
"material into a hopper. By this operation the steam is thrown off from the
clay, before moulding, or or as shewn in the Drawings, the clay may be taken
from the ground as it is left by the furnace, and by means of elevating

page_text: buckets raised to the level: necessary, for passing into the moulding machine
through the hopper before named.
:
This moulding machine is illustrated in the annexed; Drawings, in which
Figure 1 is a side elevation; Figure 2, an end elevation; Figure 3, a plan
upon the line A; B'; Figure 4, a plan upon the line C, D; and Figures 5 & 6,
transverse.vertical sections through portions of the machine as adapted to the
manufacture of bricks.. (1, Figure 1,) is the elevator, by which the clay is
taken as it has left: the furnace and conveyed into the hopper (2); thence it
passes into the cavities (3), Figure 6, upon the revolving drum (4) mounted
upon the crank shaft (5), upon which crank shaft is also mounted the ratchet
wheel (6), Figure 1, each tooth in which corresponds with the traverse of one
of the cavities (3),: Figure .6; (7) are the cranks; (8), the connecting rod
attached to the cross head (9), to which are also attached the links (10)
connected to the levers (11); these levers are four in number and are double,
so as to work both sides of each die; the dies are marked (12); the
cylinder (13), and the piston rod (14); (15) is the steam pipe, and (16) the
exhaust pipe; (17) are the standards of the machine; (18), the fly wheel; (19)
the bed plate; and (20) the delivery platform with an endless band worked by
the crank shaft of the machine, and actuating the platform; (21) is the body
of the machine containing the moulding apparatus. .
7
The operation of the machine is as follows:-The clay, as before stated, is
thrown from the hopper into the cavities (3) by the revolution of the, drum
(4), the charged cavities are brought in succession to the moulds, the escape
of the loose clay from the cavities during such revolution being prevented by
the casing or cover (22) of that portion of the drum; the cavity immediately.
over the moulds now discharges its clay between the dies (12) during the
time the drum stands, when the cams (23) are brought into operation; these
cams are mounted upon the crank shaft (5) and bear upon the roller (24).
which governs a plunger (25) which forms the top die of the mould; the
other roller (26) is connected with rods (27) and works in a crank plate (28),
Figure 5, upon the crank shaft (5); cams (shewn in dotted lines at 29, Figure
6,) are formed upon this plate (28), and the roller (26) travelling up the cam
(from a to y) raises the lower die of the mould and also the top die or
plunger (25), which being thus removed from the cavity occupied by the clay
leaves that cavity free to receive the moulded brick, which is thrust into it by
the upward motion of the lower die (30); in this position the brick is carried
round. by the revolving drum until it reaches such an angle as will allow it to
slip from the cavity on, to the inclined plane of the travelling platform, whence
it is carried away for delivery. As soon as the brick is clear of the bottom

page_text: die (30) that die by the action of the cam falls back in its original position
at the bottom of the mould, and the mould is ready to receive another charge
of clay brought round by the revolving drum. The brick is thus compressed
on all sides and both ends, the pressure being by means of the four dies (12)
on the sides of the brick, and the brick being also confined between the lower
die (30) and the plunger or upper die (25) governed by the cam (23) is
moulded on the two ends as well. The moulding and delivery of each brick
occupies half a revolution of the crank shaft; thus two bricks are formed at
each revolution. In manufacturing other forms than bricks. it is merely
necessary to alter the form of the pressing sides of the dies, and to adjust them
suitably, and in manufacturing bricks or blocks of fuel the only deviation
necessary would be in the travelling chain in the furnace, which would require
no teeth or tines to tear up the material, as it merely has to be for a time
upon the face of the chain under the operation of heat to render the bitu-
minous properties of the material capable of producing adhesion under the
moulding process.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I do not confine myself to the precise
details herein shewn and explained, but I claim generally the improvements.
in the manufacture of bricks, tiles, and other similar articles or forms that may
be produced by moulding clay or earths and other like materials by the aid of
machinery or apparatus constructed substantially as herein more fully set
forth and specified, and which machinery or apparatus I claim as my
Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Jones, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Nineteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.