IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS, TILES, PIPES, AND OTHER ARTICLES FORMED OF PLASTIC MATERIALS
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Eccles, of Blackburn, in the County of
Lancaster, Cotton Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS, TILES, PIPES, AND OTHER
ARTICLES FORMED OF PLASTIC MATERIALS."
Scaled the 28th August 1860, and dated the 3rd March 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Eccles at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd March 1860.
I, JOSEPH ECCLES, of Blackburn, in the County of Lancaster, Cotton
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS, TILES, PIPES, AND
OTHER ARTICLES FORMED OF PLASTIC MATERIALS," to be as follows:-
Firstly, my Invention relates to machines expressing clay through moulding
orifices of the character of that illustrated by Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 of the
Drawings accompanying the Specification of the Patent granted to myself, and
numbered 826, and dated the Fourth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, and consists in an improved form and
construction of the wiper (9) employed in such machines, which is obtained by
forming a flange (9') on each side of the wiper (9), instead of having a flange
only on one side of it, by which means the clay is not only prevented from

page_text: escaping at the end of the cylinder past the shaft (6) with which the wiper
rotates, but is also concentrated and more evenly directed and expressed
through the moulding orifices than when such wipers are formed with one
flange only.
Secondly, my Invention relates to machines for pressing or dressing bricks
or tiles, either solid or perforated, which have been first moulded in the form
required and partly dried, the principal object of this part of my Invention
being to facilitate the placing of the moulded and partly dried brick or tile
into the box or mould in which it has to be pressed or dressed. And my
Invention consists in arranging the mould box so that two of its sides are
moveable, for the purpose of giving room to place in the box the moulded
brick or tile without damage, the sides of the box being made to expand and
contract by screws or cam inclines actuated directly by handles, or from the
mechanism effecting the pressure on the brick or tile when placed in the
mould box, the machine being actuated by hand or power.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Eccles in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
3rd September 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
ECCLES, of Blackburn, in the County of Lancaster, Cotton Manufacturer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her reign, did,
'for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Joseph
Eccles, Her special license that I, the said Joseph Eccles, my executors,
.administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph Eccles, 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 MACHINERY FOR THE MANU-
FACTURE OF BRICKS, TILES, PIPES, AND OTHER ARTICLES FORMED OF PLASTIC
MATERIALS," upon the condition, amongst others, that I, the said Joseph
Eccles, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should par-

page_text: ticularly 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 Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immedi-
ately after the date of the said Letters' Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph Eccles, 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 and accompanying Drawings (that is to say):-
Firstly, my Invention relates to machines expressing clay through moulding
orifices of the character of that illustrated by Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 of the
Drawings accompanying the Specification of the Patent granted to myself, and
numbered 826, and dated the Fourth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, and consists in an improved form
and construction of the wiper (9) employed in such machines, which is
obtained by forming a flange (9') on both sides of the wiper (9) instead of
baving a flange only on one side of it, by which means the clay is not only
prevented from escaping at the end of the cylinder past the shaft (b) with
which the wiper rotates, but is also concentrated and more evenly directed
and expressed through the moulding orifices than when such wipers aro
formed with one flange only. This part of my Invention is illustrated on the
accompanying Sheet of Drawings by Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of the pug cylinder; and Figure 2, a cross
section of the same; and Figure 3 is a side, and Figure 4 an end view of the
wiper detached.
a is the pug cylinder; a³, feet; a' and a ends of pug cylinder; b, pug
shaft; d, pug blades; e, mouth-pieces; f, moulding orifices. It will be scen
that the flanges g' and g² of the wiper g nearly fill the interior diameter of the
pug cylinder; the forward edge of the flange g is constructed and arranged
to scrape or clear the clay from the end (a) of the cylinder as it rotates; the
breadth of the wiper between the flanges at the part g³ is a little more than
the width of the mouth-pieces (e), and the distance between the flanges
gradually increases, as shown, the flange (9') being made of the screw form.
The pug blades (d) are placed 90 degrees apart round the shaft, the first blade
next to the wiper (g) being fixed 90 degrees in advance of the entering edge of
the flange g', and the other blades after it in succession, the last blade furthest
from the wiper being arranged to scrape or' clear the end of the cylander a³.
It will be obvious that my improved wiper may be used in machines with
vertical pug cylinders, and where the clay is fed to the pug cylinders otherwise
than by rollers.

page_text: Secondly, my Invention relates to machines for pressing or dressing bricks
or tiles, either solid or perforated, which have been first moulded in the form
required and partly dried, the principal object of this part of my Invention
being to facilitate the placing of the moulded and partly dried brick or tile
into the box or mould in which it has to be pressed or dressed.
And my
Invention consists in arranging the mould box so that two or more of its sides
are moveable, for the purpose of giving room to place in the box the moulded
brick or tile without damage to it, the sides of the box being made to expand
or contract by screws or cam inclines actuated directly by handles, or from the
mechanism effecting the pressure on the brick or tile when placed in the
mould box, the machine being actuated by hand or power.
The particular manner in which I prefer to carry my Invention into effect
is illustrated by Figures 5 and 6; Figure 5 being a longitudinal section, and
Figure 6 a plan view.
My Invention is shown applied to a brick-pressing machine in common
use, the well-known parts of which I shall point out before describing the
modification and additions required to carry out my Invention.
a, the side frames; a', central cross stays; a³, lower cross stays; a³, cross
shafts upon which the wheels a are placed, which render the machine.
portable; b, table; c, c', c, mould boxes; d, lid or cover hinged to the
division between the mould boxes; d', latches for securing the lid when.
pressing; e, spring, by which the hinged lid (d) is held vertical when placing
or removing the bricks; f, pistons forming the bottom of the moulds;.
g, toothed racks attached to the pistons, the racks geering with a wheel h
on a shaft h', which has another wheel h³ upon it geering with a pinion ³
upon a shaft h, upon one end of which the hand wheel h³ is placed, by which
the toothed racks are actuated; ; are antifriction pulleys carried in brackets.
secured to the cross stays a¹, and acting against the toothed racks to keep
them in their places; and a is a bracket also secured to the same cross
stays (a), which bracket forms a stop against which the ends of the toothed
racks come when sufficiently lowered. It will be understood that the machine
is double-acting, that is, while the brick last pressed is being removed from
one box another brick may be at the same time placed in the other box
to be pressed, and as the mechanism applied to both boxes is the same, my
description need only to refer to one box. c are the fixed sides of the mould,
box; and c¹ and are the moveable sides, which have projections from
them having slots, so that they can slide, while at the same time they are held
down by the heads of the studs c' secured in the table. These moveable sides
are actuated by the screws c, which rotate in nuts secured in brackets cfixed.

page_text: to the table, the screws being attached to cross, heads
connected to the
moveable sides, as shewn. In operating with this machine, assuming a brick
or tile has just been pressed and delivered, and the piston lowered, the work-
man then takes in each hand one of the screw handles, and draws back
each of the two moveable sides about a quarter of an inch, then he places in
the box the brick or tile to be pressed, and then screws back the, sides till
their ends come in contact with each other and the fixed sides of the box (it
will be best to bring one side to its place and then the other); the workman:
then turns the hinged lid (d) from the vertical position in which it is held by
the spring over the box just filled, and pushes in the handle (d¹) which
securely latches the lid when the hand wheel h³ is turned, giving sufficient
upward movement to effect the pressure, then the hinged lid (d) is unlatched
and placed in the central position, and the motion of the hand wheel h³ is then
continued, and the brick or tile is thereby delivered from the box, when the
operations described are repeated for the other box, the brick delivered being
removed..
Though my improvements are advantageous for the pressing of solid bricks
and tiles, they are most useful for pressing or dressing hollow or perforated
bricks and tiles, as by having the moveable sides the mould box need not be
larger than the exact size of the brick or tile to be pressed, so that a small
pressure will give the correct form with the least possible disturbance or
derangement of the material forming the brick or tile. In pressing perforated
or hollow bricks I find it necessary to provide an escape for the air from the
holes or hollows in the brick or tile, and this I accomplish by making small
holes in the lid, or the bottom, or sides of the mould box, these holes being
placed so as to come opposite the centre of the perforations or hollows in the
brick or tile when it is placed in the mould box and the lid is shut. I also
find that for pressing perforated bricks (the perforations being perpendicular to
the broad side of the brick) that it is necessary to make the mould box wider
across the centre than at the ends, and to gradually diminish in breadth from
the centre to the ends, as an unequal amount of contraction takes place in the
burning of the brick, and this shape of the sides of the mould box compensates
for it, and renders the brick when burnt, straight, equal, and parallel in width.
The allowance to be made in the form of the mould box will depend upon the
nature of the material, and will be found by experiment.
I have now particularly described the nature of my Invention and the
manner of carrying the same into effect, and wish it to be understood that I
claim as iny Invention,―
Fistly, the improved form, construction, and arrangement of the wiper (9)

page_text: when used, substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein-before
described.
Secondly, I claim in machines for pressing or dressing bricks or tiles which
have been moulded and partly dried, mould boxes with moveable sides, sub-
stantially as herein-before described.
Thirdly, I claim the use of holes in the top, bottom, or sides of mould boxes
when pressing hollow or perforated bricks or tiles, to allow the escape of air,
arranged substantially in the manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Eccles, have hereunto set my
band and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
מבד ACT
JOSEPH ECCLES. (L.B.)