IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION AND COMBINATION OF CERTAIN MATERIALS, AND THE PRODUCTION THEREFROM OF BRICKS, BLOCKS, TILES, SLABS, AND OTHER ANALOGOUS ARTICLES
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Jonathan Arthur Davies at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 18th November 1881.
JONATHAN ARTHUR DAVIES, of Ebbwvale, in the County of Monmouth.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION AND COMBINATION OF CERTAIN MATERIALS,
AND THE PRODUCTION THEREFROM OF BRICKS, BLOCKS, TILES, SLABS, AND OTHER
ANALOGOUS ARTICLES."
My Invention relates to the manufacture of bricks, blocks, tiles, and other similar
articles, from slag and clay suitably prepared and combined.
I am well aware that the slag obtained from blast furnaces has already been
combined with clay for the production of building materials, but the articles
hitherto manufactured have not been of the requisite good quality for a commodity
of commercial value.
I believe these failures to be attributable to the fact that the slag has been used
without other treatment than pulverization or disentegration.
I have found by experiment that to produce from a mixture of slag and clay a
brick of superior quality in appearance, hardness and imperviousness to moisture, I.
must separate the slag into two distinct portions, which I propose to effect as
follows: Firstly, when I use the slag new from the furnace, by throwing a jet or
stream of water upon it before it becomes thoroughly cold, say, in about eight or
ten hours after it is discharged from the furnace, which causes a separation of the
particles of the slag, the lighter and more porous falling away from that which is
harder and more solid. The lighter portion from the nature of its chemical
composition is not suitable for making a good brick, and therefore must be cast
aside. Secondly, when I use old slag from the tip, I break up the large blocks which
have been partially separated by the action of the atmosphere and weather, and
cast aside as before the lighter portions.
Having thus obtained a slag suitable for my purpose, I pulverize or disentegrate
it by any known method to a greater or less degree of fineness, in accord with
the character of the article desired.
I pulverize the clay to the same or about the same degree of fineness as the slag
with which it is to be mixed. I now mix the slag and the clay as intimately as
possible in a dry state, in the proportion of, say, 2/rds slag, and rd clay, or

page_text: thereabouts, using for mixing the best known apparatus, the water required to
bring the mixture to the required plastic condition, say from 15 to 20 per cent of
water, not being added to the dry mixture until the same has passed at least
6 feet through the worm. Any excess of moisture may be drained from the mass
or be expelled when moulding the article.
My improved brick is then manufactured by any of the known processes used in
brick making.
I may make bricks of an inferior quality by taking the lighter portion of the
slag, after separation as aforesaid, and mixing it with any refractory clay,
treating the slag and clay as above described for the manufacture of best brick.
I have described my Invention as applied to the production of bricks, but I need
scarcely observe that blocks, tiles, slabs, and other articles for building, paving,
and other purposes, may be produced in like manner.