IMPROVEMENTS IN BRICK-MAKING MACHINES
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Wright, of Perseverance Works, Mas-
borough, in the County of York, for the Invention of “IMPROVEMENTS
IN BRICK-MAKING MACHINES."
Sealed the 2nd August 1870, and dated the 3rd May 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Wright at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd May 1870.
I, GEORGE WRIGHT, of Perseverance Works, Masborough, in the
County of York, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN BRICK-MAKING MACHINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in brick-making
machines. For this purpose I cause the clay to be delivered through a;
die in a stream to a pair of rollers with recesses in their circumference.
The recesses are rectangular, and as the rollers revolve the recesses in
one roller meet the recesses in the other roller, and when they so meet
the pair of recesses enclose between them a space of the form of a
brick to be moulded. The rollers revolve continuously and at the same

page_text: speed, and the axis of one roller alternately approaches to and recedes
from the axis of the other roller. The stream of clay as it issues from
the die is caught between the projecting edges or ridges between the
recesses in the rollers. Two of these edges or ridges in meeting as the
rollers revolve detach a piece of clay from the stream sufficient to make
one brick, and as the rollers travel on the recesses close together and
form a moulding cavity, they compress the piece of clay so as to
compel it to take the form of the cavity, the one roller approaching
the other roller, so as at the same time to close the mould and give the
requisite pressure to the clay. The escape of the clay at the ends of
the moulding cavities is prevented by guard plates at the extremities of
the rollers. After the brick is moulded, as the rollers still move
continuously round, the moulding cavity again opens and the brick falls
from it on to an endless apron, which carries it away; so the work
goes on continuously, and a number of bricks equal to the number of
recesses in the rollers is completed at each revolution. In order that
the one moulding roller may alternately approach and recede from the
other the rollers are geared together by means of pinions having twice
as many teeth as there are moulding recesses in rollers. One pinion
has alternately short and long teeth, and the other is made with deep
and shallow spaces between the teeth to correspond therewith. When
the long tooth and the shallow recess are together in the line of the
axes of the rollers the rollers are at their greatest distance apart, and
when on the other hand the short tooth and the deep space meet the
rollers are at their closest. The pinion on the axis of the moving roller
also gears with another pinion on the other side of it to prevent it
rising out of contact with the pinion on the other moulding roller.
I generally arrange four sets of moulding rollers around a central
feeding mill. As the moulding rollers revolve they are lubricated by
means of a brush supplied with oil or spirit.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said George Wright in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 3rd November 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
WRIGHT, of Perseverance Works, Masborough, in the County of York,
send greeting.
:

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Third day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said George Wright, Her special licence
that I, the said George Wright, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said George Wright, 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
BRICK-MAKING MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said George Wright, my executors or administrators, by an instru
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and scals,
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 Seal Patent Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Wright, do hereby declare
the nature 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 brick-making
machines. For this purpose I cause the clay to be delivered through a
die in a stream to a pair of rollers with recesses in their circumference.
The recesses are rectangular, and as the rollers revolve the recesses in
one roller meet the recesses in the other roller, and when they so meet
the pair of recesses enclose between them a space of the form of the
brick to be moulded. The rollers revolve continuously and at the same
speed, and the axis of one roller alternately approaches to and recedes
from the axis of the other roller. The stream of clay as it issues from
the die is caught between the projecting edges or ridges between the
recesses in the roller. Two of these edges or ridges in meeting as the
rollers revolve detach a piece of clay from the stream sufficient to make
one brick, and as the rollers travel on the recesses close together and
form a moulding cavity they compress the piece of clay so as to compel
it to take the form of the cavity, the one roller approaching the other

page_text: In the Drawings I have for the sake of clearness shewn the moulding
rollers applied to one orifice only. Each orifice c from the pug mill is
fitted with a damper c¹, as shown at Figure 4, so that any one of them
may readily be closed when desired.
In the machine shewn in the Drawing the clay is supplied to the pug
mill through two pair of preparing rollers d and e, the upper pair of
rollers e being fluted, as shewn. Above the fluted rollers is a hopper f,
into which clay is supplied by an endless band g which passes over a
drum gabove the hopper. The workman throws the clay or other
plastic material on to the lower end of the endless band, and the clay
or material is carried up by it and thrown over on to the fluted rollers e
at the bottom of the hopper f; the workman attending the machine
supplies water to the clay as required by a flexible hose fitted with a
rose end.
The clay passes down through the fluted rollers, and is by
them partially ground or crushed, one of the rollers being driven at a
somewhat quicker surface speed than the other. The clay next passes
between the plain rollers d, and is by them thoroughly ground before it
descends into the hopper above the pug mill; one of these rollers is
also similarly driven at a greater surface speed than the other. The shaft
of the pug mill is furnished in the ordinary way with blades projecting
from it for thoroughly masticating the clay, and for forcing it out
through the die orifices at the lower end of the pug mill. The several
parts of the machine are carried in the manner shewn by a frame h
standing up from the bed plate k.
a
'Motion is given to the parts of the machine in the following
manner-Below the level of the bed plate is placed the driving shaft 7,
on which are fast and loose pullies, as shewn. On the shaft is a toothed
wheel gearing with a toothed wheel m³ on shaft m. The toothed
wheel m¹ also gears with a wheel n¹ on a shaft n. The wheels m' and n'
are of equal diameter, so that the shafts m and n are driven at the same
speed. On each of these shafts is a worim o gearing into a worm wheel p
on the lower end of the pug mill shaft. The pug mill shaft is thus driven
continuously. Near each end of each of the shafts m and n is a bevil
wheel; each of these wheels gears into and drives a bevil wheel s¹ on a
shafts, there being one such shaft at each corner of the machine. On
each shafts are two wormis & and s³. The worms 2 gear with worm
wheels on the ends of the axes of the plain preparing rollers d and the
worms 3 gear in a similar manner with worm wheels u on the axes of

page_text: the fluted preparing rollers. The worm wheels t are of smaller diameter
than the worm wheels u, and the pitch of the screw thread upon them is
also greater, so that the lower rollers are driven at considerably quicker
speed than the upper fluted rollers. The preparing rollers d, d, and also
the preparing rollers c, e, can be set nearer to or further from one
another, as required, by adjusting screws e¹ and f¹, as shown, and the
shafts & are carried in adjustable bearings to allow of this. The drum g¹
around which the elevating band g passes is driven by a band g² from
the axis of one of the upper preparing rollers; the band g² is pressed
against by the roller g³ to keep it sufficiently tight to drive the elevating
band. When the elevating band is not required to be driven the roller
g³ is drawn away from the band g². The rollers a, a, by which the
streams of clay are moulded into bricks have motion given to them from
the pug mill shaft in the following manner on each side of the rollers a,
and fast upon their axes is an irregular toothed wheel a¹, as herein-
before described. The toothed wheels on the axes of the two rollers
gear together and the toothed wheels on the upper roller also gear with
irregular toothed wheels x1, x¹, on a shaft x above it. On the axis of the
lower roller a and on the axis x are two worm wheels, into which are
geared worms w¹ on upright shafts w; on the lower ends of these shafts
are toothed wheels w² which gear with a toothed wheel v on the pug mill
shaft. The pug mill shaft thus transmits motion to the lower roller a
and shaft x, and these by the irregular toothed wheels upon them drive the
upper roller a.
As will be seen at Figure 2 of the Drawings the toothed
wheels on the rollers a, a, and shaft x have twice as many teeth as there
are moulding recesses in the rollers. The toothed wheels on the lower
roller and shaft x have alternately short and long teeth, whilst the
toothed wheels on the upper roller a have alternately deep and shallow
spaces to correspond therewith. In Figures 2 and 4 the rollers a are
shown in the position when they are closest together; a recess in the
lower roller is then opposite a recess in the upper roller, and the two
recesses together form a mould of the shape of a brick. The projecting
edges or ridges y, y, and y', y', of the two rollers being then close
together. The clay or other material is prevented from escaping from
the ends of the mould by the side plates, , against which the ends of
the rollers a, a, fit closely. A small hole may be formed through cach
side plate to allow any excess of clay to pass away from the mould, as
the brick in it is compressed by the two rollers approaching one another.
When the brick has thus been compressed, and as the rollers continue to

page_text: revolve, the upper roller rises sufficiently to allow of the rollers revolving,
but yet to keep the ridges y, y, close together whilst the ridges y' pass
away from one another and liberate the brick that has been moulded,
and the brick is allowed to drop on to an endless travelling band by
which it is carried away. As the ridges y, y, are by the revolving of
the rollers a moved away from the orifice die of the pug mill the stream
of clay issuing therefrom follows them up closely, and as the ridges
y², y, approach one another they gradually cut off the end of the issuing
stream, and the piece so cut off is moulded into a brick, as the rollers
a, a, again approach one another, each bearing of the shaft has clastic
material placed above it, and over the elastic material a plate pressed
down by a set screw, as shewn.
To clean the surface of the recesses in the rollers a I prefer to employ
a brush such as shown at Figure 4; this brush is free to turn as the
roller against which it acts revolves. The brush has also an endway
motion given to it by a cam marked A, in Figure 1; one end of the
axis of the brush is for this purpose carried by a link, on which is a pin
working in the cam groove; the brush is also kept up against the roller
by means of a spring.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and the manner
of performing the same, I would state that other means than those
above described might be adopted for causing the moulding rollers a to
approach and recede from one another at the required times; the shapes
of the recesses in the rollers may also be varied so as to form bricks of
various shapes; but what I claim is,—
First. The general combination or arrangement of brick-making
machine, substantially as herein described.
Second. The combined arrangement herein described for moulding
a continuous stream of clay or other plastic material into bricks, such
combined arrangement consisting of two rollers, such as a, a, with
recesses formed in them, and which are caused to revolve at the same
surface speed, and to approach and recede from one another, substantially
as herein described.
Third. I also claim the gearing together the rollers a, a, with
irregular toothed wheels, substantially as herein described, to cause

page_text: the rollers to approach and recede from one another at the same time
that they are revolved at an equal surface speed.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Wright, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Second day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
GEO. WRIGHT. (L.S.)