IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING CONCRETE AND OTHER BRICKS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Wood, of the Tees Ironworks, Middlesbro'- :
on-
n-Tees, in the County of York, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING CONCRETE AND OTHER BRICKS."
Sealed the 4th May 1875, and dated the 13th November 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Wood at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th November 1874.
"
I, CHARLES WOOD, of the Tees Ironworks, Middlesbro'-on-Tees, in the -
County of York, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING CONCRETE AND OTHER BRICKS," to be
as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the machinery for
making bricks of concrete, shale, or any other substances.
My improvement consists in the construction of a press for the
purpose of compressing the bricks of concrete, shale, or other material..

page_text: The power required for compression is obtained in the same manner as
in an ordinary punching machine.
The dies or moulds containing the material to be acted upon are
recessed in the periphery of a vertical disc wheel, either singly or in
pairs, having an intermittent revolving motion which is connected by a
horizontal shaft to the driving gear placed at the back of the machine.
This shaft is immediately under and parallel to the pressure shaft which
is fixed into the same frame.
The action of the machine is as follows:-A wheel having as many
teeth as there are moulds or pairs of moulds in the disc or mould wheel,
and fixed upon the same shaft is moved forward by a single tooth fixed on
the pressing shaft. This tooth comes into gear only when the rams are
out of the moulds. By this means the disc or mould wheel is impelled
forward, presenting each mould or set of moulds successively for
compression. This driving tooth has a strong spring placed at the back
of it, so as to relieve the violence of a direct blow which would
otherwise be brought to bear upon the driven tooth.
In order to hold the disc or mould wheel rigid during the act of
compression a stop pin impelled by a spring is so arranged that it will
drop into a notch immediately before the die enters the mould. As the
die is raised the stop pin which receives its motion from a cam fixed on
a spur wheel is drawn out and the disc or mould wheel is free to move
forward as before.
The bricks are pushed out of the moulds and the mould bottom plates
restored to their places by means of a strong lever connected with the
pressure slide, and working simultancously with it.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Wood in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 13th May 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES 3
WOOD, of the Tees Ironworks, Middlesbro'-on-Tees, in the County of
York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her

page_text: year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in
the thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Charles Wood, Her
special license that I, the said Charles Wood, my executors, admini-
strators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Wood,
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 MAKING CONCRETE AND OTHER BRICKS,”
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles Wood, 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 Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Wood, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to bo
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 the machinery for
making bricks of concrete, shale, or any other substances.
My improvement consists in the construction of a press for the
purpose of compressing the bricks of concrete, shale, or other material.
The power required for compression is obtained in the same manner as
in an ordinary punching machine.
The dies or moulds containing the material to be acted upon are
recessed in the periphery of a vertical disc wheel, either singly or in
pairs, having an intermittent revolving motion which is connected by a
horizontal shaft to the driving gear placed at the back of the machine.
This shaft is immediately under and parallel to the pressure shaft which
is fixed into the same frame.
-
The action of the machine is as follows:-A wheel having as many
teeth as there are moulds or pairs of moulds. in the disc or mould wheel,
and fixed upon the same shaft is moved forward by a single tooth fixed

page_text: on the pressing shaft. This tooth comes into gear only when the rams
are out of the moulds. By this means the disc or mould wheel is
impelled forward, presenting each mould or set of moulds successively
for compression. This driving tooth has a strong spring placed at the
back of it, so as to relieve the violence of a direct blow which would
otherwise would be brought to bear upon the driven tooth.
In order to hold the disc or mould wheel rigid during the act of
*compression a stop pin impelled by a spring is so arranged that it will
drop into a notch immediately before the die enters the mould. As the
die is raised the stop pin which receives its motion from a cam fixed on
a spur wheel is drawn out and the disc or mould wheel is free to move
forward as before.
The bricks are pushed out of the moulds and the mould bottom plates
restored to their places by means of a strong lever connected with the
pressure slide and working simultaneously with it.
=
In order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect I will proceed to describe the Drawings here-

page_text: that would be caused by the sudden action of the tooth, M striking
against the teeth of the wheel L. A spring N is fixed at the back of the
single driving tooth M. The mould wheel I is held in exact-position,
whilst the dies G enter the moulds H by a sliding bar or bolt O which
slides into notches or recesses P in the toothed wheel L... The sliding
.bar or bolt O is held in its place by the spring. R. This bar or bolt O is
made to withdraw (to allow the wheel L to move) by the 'cam O' on the
side of the spur wheel D.
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.
The bricks are pushed out of their moulds by the action of the lever S
which receives its motion through the bell crank T. from the sliding
block F. The lever S is attached to the sliding bar U; this bar Ū
pushes against the followers V, to which are attached plates forming the
bottom of the brick moulds H. The bricks are consequently pushed out
on one side of the mould wheel I, as shown at W, whence they are
taken away by hand. The followers V are drawn back into position
again ready to receive more material by the same horizontal bar U, a
hook cast on the followers V comes in-contact with the horizontal bar.
These followers could be acted, upon by an eccentric or crank passing
through the hollow horizontal shaft K which would be geared direct
from the pressure shaft O, but I prefer the lever motion.
When a very 'light compressible material, such as, say sand is being
made into bricks it is found that ramming is necessary properly to fill
the moulds before applying the pressure.
The ramming apparatus X is worked by the cam lever Y coming into
contact with a series of small friction wheels or stops Z fixed upon the
side of the spur wheel D. The small friction wheels Z keep lifting the
rammer X up, and each time it falls, with its own weight into the
moulds H, thus ramming the material. If preferred the rammer X
could be worked from a crank working off a shaft which would gear into
the spur wheel D attached to the pressure shaft C, the rammer X is held
up out of the moulds H by the flange Z whilst the mould wheel I is in
motion.
The way I fill the mould is by the usual mode of having a pug mill
with knives attached to the machine immediately above the moulds, and
which works the sand or clay down into a small hopper in which the
rammer acts. When pressing semi-dry clay bricks it is intended to put
the clay bricks into the moulds by hand.

page_text: Having thus described the nature of my Invention and the manner
of performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not
confine myself exactly to the mechanical details shown, nor do I confine
myself to the number of moulds in the mould wheel, or the dies, or the
number of bricks pressed at a time, but what I claim is the general 6
arrangement of machinery for making concrete and other bricks, sub-
stantially as described.
In witness whereof, I,. the said Charles Wood, have hercunto
set my hand and scal, this Twelfth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
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