IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING BRICKS OR TILES
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Buck and William
Watkin at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 30th November 1870.
We, WILLIAM BUCK and WILLIAM WATKIN, of Halifax, in the
County of York, Engineers, and Machine Tool Makers, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR MAKING BRICKS OR TILES" (to be as follows) :-
This Invention relates to that class of machine used for making bricks
or tiles or for moulding the forms therefor from or of dry or partially
dried clay, shale, or other brick making material in a granulated state,
and the improvements in such machinery are in the peculiar construction
and mode of operation thereof. Betwixt two standards or side frames
is fixed a cross framed, suitably constructed to receive one, two, or a
series of moulds of any desirable shape or form and size, open at top and
bottom, and provision is made for readily changing said moulds. Also
above said frame and moulds is a slidable feeder or frame, having
openings of form and size suitable to the moulds. This feeder is moved
intermittently and alternately, with its openings immediately over the
moulds, then clear of them and under a hopper which supplies the

page_text: clay or other materials. A presser or block with projecting parts corre-
sponding to the number and form of the moulds is provided above,
and another below the moulds, each capable of being moved up and
down in slots of the side frames so that the projections will enter
and work in the moulds. On the outside of each side frame is fixed or
formed a projecting stud or arm, on which is mounted, and capable of
rotating thereon, a disc or circular plate which also forms a cog or toothed
spur wheel. On the inner sides of these discs are formed or fixed pro-
jecting cams or tappets suitably formed and arranged to act upon arms
on the pressers projecting through the slots of the standards in such
manner that as the discs rotate the said cams will lift or lower the
pressers, or lift them and permit them to fall by gravitation at proper
times, and on one of the said discs is also a cam or tappet which by
means of shaft and levers with connecting rod gives motion to the feeder
at times suitably arranged for, in relation to the action of the pressers.
Motion is given to the discs by shaft and spur pinions gearing into
the teeth of the said discs. In order to adapt this machine to the various
states or condition of the material supplied to it to produce bricks or
tiles of uniform density, we have an adjustable packing placed under
the bottom presser by means of which a greater or lesser quantity of
the material can be admitted into the moulds. As in one part of the
rotation of the said discs considerable power is required for the pressing
of the brick or tile forms, the connection of the driving power with the
· machinery is rendered positive, and as during the other part of the
rotation there is but little power required and yet there is a liability
· by interruption in the free action of the feeders to breakage, both in
this and similar machinery, we introduce in any convenient place and
manner betwixt the driving power and the machine, a friction box or
catch box, or other similar coupling or connection, so arranged that any
interruption will disconnect the said box or coupling, and thereby the
machine will cease to rotate.
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