IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE COMPRESSION OR CONSOLIDATION OF BLOCKS OF FUEL OR OTHER MATERIAL
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Felix John Hamel, of 78, Avenue Road, Regent's
Park, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE COMPRESSION OR CONSOLIDATION OF BLOCKS
OF FUEL OR OTHER MATERIAL.”
Sealed the 16th July 1872, and dated the 7th May 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Felix John Hamel at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 7th May 1872.
I, FELIX JOHN HAMEL, of 78, Avenue Road, Regent's Park, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE COMPRESSION OR CONSOLIDATION
OF BLOCKS OF FUEL OR OTHER MATERIAL," to be as follows:
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for the
compression or consolidation of blocks of fuel or other material.
The plan is to have a horizontal circular rotating table containing
moulding cavities perforated completely through to the number of 6,

page_text: 9, 12, or any multiple of threc.
With one solid bed to every three
cavities the beds are equidistant from each other under the table, so
that as the table revolves each cavity will in succession come over a
bed. There is also one descending plunger to every three cavities
exactly over the bed, so that when a cavity charged with materials for
compression comes over the bed the plunger may descend into the
cavity and squeeze or consolidate the material into a block; likewise
there is one expeller to every three cavitities working simultaneously
with the plunger and entering the next cavity to expel the block
carried by the motion of the table from the place of compression, so
that simultaneously with the compression of each block its predecessor
will be expelled and ready to be carried away. Thus 2, 3, or more
blocks are made at the same time. To explain and shew more clearly
the mode of operation supposo a table containing 9 moulding cavities,
three solid beds equidistant from cach other under the table, a
descending shaft above the centre of the table with 3 pairs of diverging
arms, one of each pair being a plunger and the other an expeller, so
adjusted that when the table is at rest with one cavity over each bed
the plungers will range with those cavities and the propellers with the
next, thus one cavity between each pair of arms will be free to receive
from the hopper or feeder a charge of material for compression. As
each of the three free cavities receives its charge of material from the
feeders it passes by the rotating movement of the table under a fixed
scraper (which sweeps off the surplus) until it comes to the place of
compression over one of the beds, and to prevent the charge from
falling out a slab or plate extends from under the cavity to the bed.
When the three charges arrive at the place of compression the 3
plungers descend into the 3 cavities containing them, and simulta-
neously consolidate three blocks, during which operation 3 other cavities
receive their charges to come in their turn to the place of compression
by the next rotating movement, which at the same time carries the
compressed blocks to the place of expulsion, when the 3 pairs of
arms again descend by which 3 blocks are compressed and three expelled
and so on. The rotating and alternate stopping of the table may be
effected by a wheel with cogs at proper intervals acting upon indeň-
tations around the table, and to secure the accurate stopping of the table
at the right place a catch may be used.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,.
filed by the said Felix John Hamel in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 7th November 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FELIX
JOHN HAMEL, of 78, Avenue Road, Regent's Park, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-fifth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Felix John Hamel, Her special license that
I, the said Felix John Hamel, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Felix John Hamel, my executors, admi-
nistrators, 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 MACHINERY
FOR THE COMPRESSION OR CONSOLIDATION OF BLOCKS OF FUEL OR OTHER MATERIAL,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Felix John Hamel,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Felix John Hamel, do hereby
declare the naturo of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for the
compression or consolidation of blocks of fuel or other materials.
The plan is to have a horizontal circular rotating table containing
moulding cavities perforated completely through to the number of
6, 9, 12, or any multiple of three, with ono bed to every three cavities.
The beds are equidistant from each other under the table, so that as the
table revolves each cavity will in succession come over a bed. There is

page_text: h
of the places where the three moulding cavities are shewn uncovered
1, 1, 1, in Figure 3 is a feeder from a hopper above not shewn in the
Drawing, but the position of which is over each of the three cavities I, I, 2.
Each motion of the table places three of the moulding cavities beneath
the feeders and the fuel descends from the hoppers into them. The next
motion of the table places the filled cavities under the plungers f,f,f, and
in their passage any superfluous portion of the material is swept off the
cavities by the lower edge of the feeder or a scraper as they each pass
beneath leaving the material in the cavity level with the surface of the
table. At the same time that the upper or descending plungers f.fƒ
descend the lower or rising plungers e, e, e, ascend to meet them by
the action of the plugs / upon the levers d. The double action of the
descending and rising plungers causes the fuel to be pressed between
them more regularly than with fixed beds below, the use of which,
however, for simplicity or other reason is optional. At the same time
that the three plungers descend the three expellers k, k, k, expel from
their cavities in the table the three blocks which were moulded at the
previous stroke of the machine, and they fall upon endless bands worked
by drums or running on rollers or both, but not shewn in the Drawings,
which bands conduct the blocks away or upon small hinged tablets
riding upon a spring or lever equal only in resistance to a smaller
weight than the block of fuel, tipping it up in its descent so as to
slide the block on to a smooth inclined plane down which it may slide
to the endless band to be carried away, the chief object of this being to
guard against injury to the newly made block in its fall from the moulding
cavity when expelled, and to facilitate its removal, as shewn in Figure 4.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood that I claim,
the construction of machinery for the compression or consolidation of
blocks of fuel or other material substantially as described, and the novel
appliances for carrying them away.
In witness whereof, I, the said Felix John Hamel, have hereunto
hand and seal, this First day of November, in the year of
set my