A NEW AND IMPROVED MODE OF MAKING o: MOULDING TILES, BRICKS, RETORTS, AND SUCH WORK, FROM CLAY AND OTHER PLASTIC SUBSTANCES
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
AINSLIE, Farmer, Redheugh, North Britain, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Ier
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-second day of May, in the fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Ainslie, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said John Ainslie, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said John Ainslie, my 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 expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England and Wales,
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and all Her Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, my Invention of "A NEW AND IMPROVED MODE OF MAKING
o: MOULDING TILES, BRICKS, RETORTS, AND SUCH WORK, FROM CLAY AND OTHER
PLASTIC SUBSTANCES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said John Ainslie, to cause an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, particularly describing and ascertaining the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
enrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancellary in England within
four calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Ainslie, do hereby declare that my Invention consists in forming clay,
and such like plastic substances, into the different articles contained in the
Title of my Patent. In aid of my description I have annexed an Engraving,
on the margin hereof, of my apparatus, which will enable any competent
workman to construct it; in which certain parts are broken off, in order to
shew more clearly the form and position of the frames.
The Engraving is on a scale of three eighths of an inch to the foot, that to
the right being the compressing and moulding frame, and the left the conveying
and cutting one. I have deemed it unnecessary to give letters of reference, as
the arrangements are clear to inspection.
To the right is seen one of two feeding rollers, which should be accurately
turned;
the other, which is in juxtaposition, is in all respects the same; these
are placed nearly half an inch asunder to admit the clay, and immediately
below this space there is a ductor or scraper to each roller, for guiding the
clay. These rollers have no play in the direction of their axes, but are
confined within check plates, placed between them and the frame, which are
adjustable by screws.
It will be seen that there two toothed wheels upon
the same axes with the cylinders, which, on motion being imparted to either,
carry round the other cylinder, and thereby lead down the clay. After it has
been led down the ductors, it is acted on by a screw, either double or single,
and so calculated that for one revolution of the rollers the screw will make a
third more; this screw must revolve in a case accurately bored with a slit on
its top to admit the clay. The clay, by the action of this screw, proceeds
through a peculiarly constructed chamber, here exhibited, which is combineil
with the moulds, also exhibited; this chamber is attached to the frame by
bolts, and, when constructed for making drain tiles, is formed on the roof with
diverging arches, each arch diverging to its corresponding mould, so that the
clay in its progress to the mould receives an embyro shape, and is enabled to
discharge itself in straight lines; this, however, does not apply to tubes and
retorts and house tiles. It is obvious that in constructing moulds for retorts
that there must be a provision for suspending the core; this may be done in a
variety of ways. The core may have one or more suspenders to affix it in rela-
tion to the external circle. When house tiles are to be made, there must be
provision for leaving on the knob or button thereon. This I effect by a sluice
or stopper, applied in such a way that when the tile is at the proper position
for the knob being left on it, the sluice is raised for an instant so much as
the thickness of the knob, until the knob is left, and then it drops down again
when the mould resumes its proper figure, and so on in succession. This sluice

page_text: may be actuated in a variety of ways. I recommend that these chambers
should not be too short, because there would not be time for the clay to attain
a proper direction; nor too long, which would add materially to friction, with-
out advantage. I would suggest that the chamber should in no case exceed
fourteen inches, nor be less than ten, according to the different clays.
Having now described my apparatus, I shall next explain the conducting
and cutting frame. It will be observed that there is a pulley on the axle of
the right-hand roller; from this pulley a belt gives motion to the cutting appa-
ratus by imparting as much help as overcomes its friction, it being capable of
yielding or slipping to suit variations in the motion of the clay, and working
upon another pulley upon the cutting frame; this last pulley gives motion
through a mitre wheel working into another mitre wheel; this second wheel is
upon the same axle with the pinion wheel, but affixed to it; this pinion drives
the large toothed wheel above it; this large wheel is affixed upon the same
axle with the cutting wheels, one on each side of the frame.
As these cutting wheels form a peculiar feature of my Invention, I think it
proper to give a minute description of them. These should be about an inch
broad on the tire, with a flange on one side about three cights of an inch
broad, that is, on the sides next to the frame. On the tire are small grooves cut
across, about a quarter of an inch in breadth and somewhat less in depth, and
about two inches apart all around, to obtain adhesion. There is another pair of
these wheels placed next to the other frame, in every respect like the former.
Over the tires of these wheels two chains are stretched; these chains may be
composed of links, of the form shewn on the margin, about the sixteenth of an
inch in thickness, and when complete it has alternately five and four plates in
each link; these chains are led over the wheels, and down under a small fluted
roller, one on each side of the frame; their use is to keep the cutting wires
distended; therefore, supposing that there were six wires placed equidistant,
each wire would be about eighteen inches and three fourths apart, and would
cut the articles to about the length of fifteen inches and a half. In inserting
these wires into the chains one of the pins of the chains is taken out, and a
hook, like that shown on the margin, is inserted. It is obvious, however, that
on these hooks and wires being inserted they would draw the chains off the peri-
pheries of the wheels; to prevent this, and to keep the chains abutted to the
flanges, to every wire there is attached a steel spring, four of which are indicated
on the Engraving, and the application of a thong or cord to the whole. Each
of these springs approaches near to the axles of the wheels, for by so doing, on
the thong being applied, they are prevented falling down at their depressed
position, which, but for this provision, they would necessarily do. On the

page_text: apparatus being impelled by applying. the power either to the screw or to the
axle of one of the rollers, I prefer the former, the clay is urged out of the
moulds and received upon the endless web. This web is placed as near the
moulds as possible. These wires, from the nature of their movement, do.not
appear calculated to make a perpendicular cut, yet they nevertheless do it very
completely as the clay and the wires are travelling simultaneously, when the
latter has descended as low as the endless web; the cut being completed it
ascends therein at the same angle, and consequently follows the cut previously
made. In aid of this operation there is a pulley affixed on the axis of the first of
the series of rollers of the cutting frame, that is, the one nearest to the mould;
this is driven by a belt from alike pulley on the mitre wheel.
make the cut correctly, the apparatus must be properly, adjusted.
need not be broader than to afford sufficient room for the articles.
web travels over the series of rollers placed near each other to support the
articles, and should be capable of being distended by screws, as seen to the left;
and below that part where the cut is effected, I recommend there should be a
roller capable of raising and falling.
In order to
The frame
The endless
Javing now described my Invention, I declare that I do not claim all the
parts herein-before described, as many of them are known and in use, such as
rollers, screws, endless webs, and the like. But I claim the general combina-
tion of the whole for the purposes of my Invention; and in particular I
claim,
First, the use of the various chambers placed in a line with the screw and
moulds, and the diverging figures on their roofs, to impart an embyro shape to
the articles.
Second, the position of the screw, in connection with the rollers and
ductors.
Third, the ductors for guiding the clay from the rollers to the screw.
Fourth, the embyro figure given to the roof of the chambers to direct the
clay, previous to its entering. the moulds.
Fifth, the leaving a knob or button on house tiles by sluices or stoppers.
Sixth, the making retorts and tubes.
And, lastly, the cutting off or dividing the tiles and bricks, and other articles,
except retorts, into the required lengths during the uninterrupted motion of the
ȧpparatus.
In witness whereof, I have affixed my seal to and subscribed these
Presents, this Fourteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-one.
JOHN (L.S.) AINSLIE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of September, in
the fifth year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said John
Ainslie came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknow-
ledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained
and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument aforesaid
was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-fifth
year of the reign of His late Maiesty King George the Third.