CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS, TILES, PIPES, AND OTHER ARTICLES COMPOSED OF PLASTIC MATERIALS, AND IN THE PREPARATION OF PLASTIC MATERIALS TO BE USED FOR SUCH PURPOSES
Year: 1846

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, FREDERICK
RANSOME, of Ipswich, in the County of Suffolk, Engineer, and JOHN CRABB
BLAIR WARREN, of Little Horksley, in the County of Essex, Clerk, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Sixth day of July, in the tenth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Ier heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said Frederick
Ransome and John Crabb Blair Warren, Her especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that we, the said Frederick Ransome and John Crabb
Blair Warren, our executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others as
wc, the said Frederick Ransome and John Crabb Blair Warren, our executors,
administrators, 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 mentioned, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Planta-
tions abroad, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and
Man, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS,
TILES, PIPES, AND OTHER ARTICLES COMPOSED OF PLASTIC MATERIALS, AND IN THE
PREPARATION OF PLASTIC MATERIALS TO BE USED FOR SUCH PURPOSES;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging us, the said Frederick Ransome
and John Crabb Blair Warren, by an instrument in writing under our hands
and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to

page_text: be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her 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, refer-
ence being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Frederick Ransome, on behalf of myself and of the said John Crabb Blair
Warien, do hereby declare that the nature of our said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had to
the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon
(that is to say) =
Our Invention of Improvements in the Manufacture of Bricks, Tiles,
Pipes, and other Articles composed of Plastic Materials, and in the Preparation
of Plastic Materials to be used for such Purposes, consists, first, in incorporating
with the clay or other plastic material certain ingredients before the said clay
is formed into the required articles, whereby the plastic materials so prepared
are rendered more applicable to the manufacture of tiles, pipes, or bricks, for
draining land and other similar purposes; and, second, in a certain novel or
improved arrangement of machinery or apparatus for forming bricks, tiles, and
other articles of clay or plastic materials, either prepared in the manner here-
after described, or in the state in which they are usually employed for these
purposes.
The first part of the Invention consists in incorporating and intimately
mixing with the clay or plastic materials of which bricks, tiles, or other similar
articles are usually composed any description of vegetable, bituminous, or other
substances that are susceptible of being destroyed by fire, or burnt out of the
bricks, tiles, pipes, or other articles, when the said articles are submitted to
the ordinary process of burning. The vegetable, bituminous, or other materials
we employ for the above-mentioned purposes, and which will be found to
answer exceedingly well, are sawdust, spent tanners' baik, shavings, wood
chips, charcoal, sticks, or refuse wood bioken or cut up into very small pieces,
chopped straw, chaff, or other vegetable substances, small coal, asphalte, pitch,
or other suitable bituminous or mineral substance that may be burnt out by
fire or decomposed. The proportions in which these matters should be mixed
with the clay or plastic material will depend upon the nature of the material
to be added, care always being taken that the destructible matters should not
be added in so great a proportion as to destroy the tenacity of the clay or
plastic material or indestructible substance of which the body of the brick, tile,
or pipe is composed when the brick, pipe, or tile has been properly burned,

page_text: and the destructible substances thereby removed or decomposed, as that would
render the article useless for the purpose to which it is intended to be applied,
as its strength would be much impaired As the sole object of adding these
destructible ingredients is to render the article porous, the addition of one
tenth pait by weight, more or less, of the destructible to the indestructible or
plastic ingredients will be found to effect this object These materials, in the
above or any other suitable proportions, according to the nature of the ingre-
dients employed, should then be intimately mixed together in a pug mill. or
other suitable apparatus, or, if thought desirable, they may be ground in a
mill to ensure their thorough admixture or incorporation, after which the
plastic compound may be formed either by hand in the ordinary manner, or by
the assistance of any suitable machinery, such as that herein-after described,
or any other, into the articles that may be required; and, when sufficiently
dry, the articles so made must be well burnt, by exposure to an active fire,
so as to effectually burn away all or the greater part of the destructible
vegetable, bituminous, or other matters, leaving the brick, tile, or pipe in
its original shape or form, and sufficiently strong for the purpose to which
it is intended to be applied. Tiles, bricks, and pipes made in this manner
will, if well made, be found to be exceedingly porous, and, when em-
ployed for draining, will allow the water from the adjacent earth to percolate
or filter freely through them into the hollow space within, but will effectually
prevent any sand or extraneous matters from entering the drain Tiles,
bricks, or pipes of the ordinary description employed for subsoil draining, are
so slightly porous that, in order to render them effective in draining the land,
it has generally been found necessary to make a bad joint, or leave the joints a
little apart, so as to allow the water to enter the pipe, which it could not other-
wise do very readily The consequence is, that in some soils the passages very
soon get choked up by an accumulation of mud or sand that is carried into the
pipe by the water through the openings of the joints, and the drainage is com-
pletely stopped; or, if the joints are too close so as not to admit the water
very readily, it will not get into the pipes at all, but will accumulate around
them, and can only be removed by natural drainage or evaporation
our improved draining tiles, pipes, or bricks, however, we propose to make
the joints as accurate as possible, preferring in fact that no water should enter
the pipes by the joints, but that it should be allowed to percolate freely through
the body of the pipe, tile, or brick, through which it would be almost impossible
for it to carry any earthy matters, which would form a deposit. And by this
simple means it will be seen that we can construct a subsoil drain which will
last without attention or repair for many years.
With

page_text: The second part of our Invention, consisting, as before stated, in a novel or
improved arrangement of machinery or apparatus for forming bricks, tiles,
pipes, and other articles of clay or plastic material, is shewn in the accom-
panying Drawing. Figure 1 is a side elevation of the machine, partly in section,
to shew the interior construction, and Figure 2 is a plan or bird's-eye view
of the same. In this arrangement of brick and tile machine two horizontal
fixed cylinders are employed, furnished with dies at their outer ends, and doors
at their upper pait, for the admission of clay, which is forced out through the
dies by the action of pistons working within the cylinders in the manner
commonly practised. The peculiarity of this part of our Invention consists in
the mode of actuating the pistons which press the clay or other plastic
material through the dies to form the kind of tiles or bricks as required a, a,
are the horizontal cylinders firmly secured to a bed plate by bolts or otherwise;
b, b, are suitably formed dies, bolted respectively to the outer ends of the cylin-
ders a, a; c, c, ale doors hinged to the cylinders a, and provided with a bolt d,
for securing them at certain times of the operation of the machine; e, e, are the
pistons attached together by a plate f, f, and, when actuated, moving simulta-
neously; upon one face of this plate is a series of pins g, g, into which a pinion h
takes alternately on the upper and under side thereof; i, i, are semicircular
guides attached to the plate off, f, and intended to keep the pinion, when it has
arrived at the end of the series of pins, still in gear therewith, in order that the
traverse of the pistons may be continuous. The pinion h is mounted in a
slotted bearing k, and its axle may be provided with a winch handle for com-
municating a rotating motion to the pinion. The cylinders a are filled alter-
nately with clay or other plastic material by withdrawing the bolt d, and opening
the door c. When the cylinder is filled the door is closed and fastened, and
the rotation of the pinion h will then bring forward the piston, and cause the
clay just filled in to find an exit through the dicb While this is being effected,
the other cylinder is ready charged with clay, which, in its turn, will be forced
out by the return motion of the pistons. It will now be understood that the
continuous rotation of the pinion h in one and the same direction will force the
pistons alternately forward into their respective cylinders, and cause them to
press the clay contained therein through the dies attached to the ends of the
cylinders. In some cases, instead of filling the cylinders by hand, as is the
plan generally adopted, we propose to attach a hopper to each cylinder, whereby
the clay may be fed in by the rotation of "sweepers" or arms set radially from
the centre shaft, and at an inclination from the perpendicular When these
hoppers are used it will be necessary to stop the supply of clay as the pistons
advance to press it through the dies; this may be done by a sliding plate or a

page_text: valve opening inwards, being made to close the bottom of the hopper, or the
pistons may be provided with a shield, to shut out the further supply of clay as
they advance. In either case it will be requisite to stop the rotation of the
sweepers or arms of the pug mill. It is obvious that any form of die may be
used as required, and the machine may be driven by manual or other power.
Having now described our Invention, and the manner of carrying the same
into effect, we would observe, that we are aware that ashes or cinders have
been mixed with the plastic materials of which bricks, tiles, pipes, or other
similar articles have been made, but for a very different purpose, and with a
different effect, to that which is contemplated by our improvements. We do
not, therefore, wish to claim the use of such ingredients as constituting any
part of our Invention, nor do we intend to confine ourselves exclusively to the
ingredients herein named, or the proportions in which they are to be added to
the plastic materials, as various other destructible matters may be doubtless
found that would answer the purpose equally well, and therefore may be used
in place of the above mentioned, and the proportions in which the materials
should be mixed must in a great measure depend upon circumstances and the
nature of the materials, and may, with the explanation above given, be safely
left to the judgment and discretion of the manufacturer, care always being
taken that the destructible matters are not added in too large a proportion,
otherwise the strength of the bricks, tiles, or pipes would be too much im-
paired or weakened to withstand the pressure to which they would be subjected
in actual use.
In conclusion, we claim as the Invention secured to us under the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent,―
First, preparing clay or plastic materials for forming bricks, tiles, pipes, and
other similar articles, by the admixture or incorporation with the other ingre-
dients of which such articles are usually composed of vegetable, mineral, or bitu-
minous substances, which, being destructible or partially destructible by fire, may,
when mixed with other ingredients, and acted upon by fire or other destroying
agents, be consumed, burnt away, or decomposed from the clay or indestructible
plastic materials, leaving the latter exceedingly porous, and particularly appli-
cable to subsoil draining and all purposes where filtration and porosity is
required.
With respect to the second part of the Invention, it is obvious that several
modifications might be devised for effecting the improvement which we con-
template, viz, giving a forward motion to two pistons alternately by a con-
tinuous rotary motion, for instance, the pinion h might be made to work in a
hollow rack, and take alternately into an upper and under set of teeth. We

page_text: Inrolled the Sixth day of January, in the year above written.