IMPROVEMENTS, IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FIRE-BRICKS.”
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Patrick Conniff, of Kidwelly, in the County, of
Carmarthen, Fire-brick Maker, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS,
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FIRE-BRICKS.”
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Patrick Conniff at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd December 1872.
I, PATRICK CONNIFF, of Kidwelly, in the County of Carmarthen,
Fire-brick Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FIRE-BRICKS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists, 1st, of improvements in the mode, or method
of preparing and mixing the materials of which fire-bricks are composed,
and especially of that species of fire-brick known as Dinas fire-bricks;
and 2ndly, of an improved method of drying fire-bricks.
The mode or method of preparing and mixing the materials of which
fire-bricks are composed, which is the obiect of the first branch of my

page_text: Invention, consists of dispensing altogother with the use of crushing
rolls for the purpose of crushing or reducing to powder the silica stone
of which fire-bricks are mainly composed. The silica stone after having
been broken by a stone-breaking machine into pieces of about the size
of the stones used for repairing macadamized roads, that is to say, about
the size of a hen's egg, is taken to an edge runner and then ground to
powder. The edge runner for this purpose must be constructed of
unusual size and strength, and the roller thereof must be furnished with
rings of chilled iron. The pan of the edge runner must have a false
bottom of chilled iron.
As the grinding of the silica stone proceeds sufficient water must be
· poured into the pan of the edge runner with the silica stone to make
the pulverized silica stone into a paste. When the pulverized silica stone
has been in the edge runner long enough to be sufficiently ground and
tempered it may be removed to the moulding room where the ordinary
process of moulding the bricks may be adopted.
The chief advantages to be gained by the use of this my improved
method of preparing and mixing the materials of which fire-bricks are
composed are, first, the dispensing with the crushing rolls and screens,
and consequently the labour required for supplying, employing, and
working them ordinarily that of five men; secondly, the quality of the
material when it goes to the moulder is improved, its adhesive properties
having been increased by the method of crushing, mixing, and tempering
employed; thirdly, the wear and tear of material are very considerably
reduced, the grinding, mixing, and tempering being effected by a single
operation.
My improved method of drying fire-bricks consists of the use for this
purpose of an oven constructed of the required size, and similar in most
respects to an ordinary iron founders' drying house. The interior thereof
is fitted with supports or moveable racks one over the other on which to
lay the plates containing the bricks. A fire-place is to be constructed
at one end of this oven open on one side to the oven and capable of
being fed and attended to from the outside. At the other end of the
oven there are to be two flues or openings level with the ground in order
to draw the hot air downwards, and on each side at the end of the oven
furthest from the fire there is to be an iron door to admit the workmen.
The bricks to be dried are to be brought from the moulders on flat

page_text: wrought-iron plates, and these plates with the bricks on them are to be
placed on the racks. The doors of the oven are then to be closed and
the temperature allowed to rise.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Patrick Conniff in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 18th June 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PATRICK
CONNIFF, of Kidwelly, in the County of Carmarthen, Fire-brick Maker,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Patrick Conniff, Her special licence
that I, the said Patrick Conniff, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Patrick Conniff, my executors,
administrators, or 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 THE MAnu-
FACTURE OF FIRE-BRICKS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Patrick Conniff, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, 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 Patrick Conniff, dọ hereby declare

page_text: be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement (that is to say) :-
My Invention consists first of improvements in the manufacture of
the species of bricks known as Dinas fire-bricks, and relates to the
materials used in the composition of the said Dinas bricks and the
method of compounding such materials, and (secondly) of an improved
method of drying fire-bricks.
As regards the first branch of the said Invention the nature of the
said Invention will be more clearly explained by comparing the process
in common use with that which is the subject of my said Invention. In
the method in common use the silica stone of which the Dinas bricks
are mainly composed is first broken in a stone breaking machine, then
crushed between crushing rolls, and then passed through a circular
screen in order to separate the finer from the coarser particles. The
finer particles are then taken to the mixing room and mixed with lime
wash, and the mixture "tempered" by kneading and working with the
fcet. The larger or coarser particles are again passed through the
crushing rolls and screened, and go through the process just described.
By the method which is the subject of my Invention the crushing
rolls are dispensed with, and the silica stone after having been broken by
a stone-breaking machine into pieces about the size of the stones used
for repairing macadamized roads, that is to say, about the size of a hen's
egg, is taken to an edge runner and there ground to powder. For this
purpose an edge runner of the usual construction, but of unusual size
and strength, is required. The rollers should be six feet or thereabouts
in diameter, and at least two and a half tons in weight, and should be
shod with rings of chilled iron. The pan should be about nine feet in
outside diameter; the path of the runners should be about three feet six
inches in width, and should have a false bottom of chilled iron. The edge
runners work in the usual way, the runners being moved by the revolu-
tion of the pan.
The silica stone in the manner above described is
conveyed to the edge runner and placed in the pan, and is there ground
to powder by the runners. In this process the runners should make at
least twelve revolutions per minute, speed being a more powerful agent
in crushing the stone than the weight of the runners.
As the grinding of the silica stone proceeds sufficient water is poured
into the pan to make the powder into a paste. It is not necessary in

page_text: this process as it is in the one ordinarily adopted that lime should be
used. The grinding of the silica stone with a little water as above
described has the effect of making the powder of sufficient consistency.
or adhesiveness to be workable without lime, and the only use of lime
in this method of manufacture is to improve the appearance of the
bricks. If lime is used at all it should not be in a larger proportion
than two per cent. When the stone has been in the edge runner long
enough to be sufficiently ground and tempered it may be removed to the
moulding room, when the ordinary process of moulding the bricks may
be adopted, after which the bricks may be dried and burned.
The advantages of the method of manufacture which is the subject of
this part of my Invention are these:-First, the crushing rolls and
screen are dispensed with, and consequently the labour required for
supplying, emptying, and working them, ordinarily that of five men;
secondly, the quality of the material when it goes to the moulder is
improved, its adhesive properties having been increased by the method
of crushing employed. It can be moulded better, it holds together
better in the oven, and the fire-resisting properties of the brick aro
increased twenty per cent. if lime is used, and forty per cent. if lime
is not used; thirdly, the wear and tear of material are very considerably
reduced, the grinding, mixing, and tempering being.effected by a single
operation.
The second part of my said Invention relates to an improved method
of drying fire-bricks, and is peculiarly applicable for the drying of Dinas
bricks. For this purpose an oven is constructed of the required size
similar in most respects to an ordinary ironfounders' drying house, but
differing therefrom in this respect that it is to be fitted at the sides with
supports for moveable racks or rods for the purpose of sustaining flat
plates on which the bricks to be dried are laid. The above supports,
O moveable racks, or rods, and flat plates may be made of any suitable
material, but I have found that wrought iron is the strongest, lightest,
The size of oven for
and most suitable, and therefore prefer to use it.
drying three thousand bricks at one time, seven feet wide, six feet high
(to base of arch), and thirteen feet six inches long. A fire-place is to
5 be constructed at the end of this oven similar to that ordinarily used
in ironfounders' drying houses, i. e., open one side to the oven, and
At the other end there
capable of being tended from the outside.
should be two flues or openings level with the ground in order to-draw

page_text: the hot air downwards, and on cach side at the end furthest from the
fire there should be an iron door to admit the workmen. The bricks
after having been moulded are to be brought on the flat plates above
mentioned, which plates with the bricks on them are laid upon the rods
or racks. The racks are so arranged that the flat plates with the bricks
on them may be placed one above another to the height of the oven.
The oven having been filled with bricks placed upon successive rows of
racks the doors are closed. Dinas bricks can be dried at a temperature
of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred degrees (Fahrenheit) in
two hours; other fire-bricks at from seventy to eighty degrees (Fahren-
heit) in about twelve hours. The heat is regulated by dampers in the
usual way. After two hours, where Dinas bricks are being dried, the
doors are thrown open, and supposing the drying to have taken place as
usual at night the oven is cool and comfortable for the workmen in the
morning.
The
By the mode of drying bricks thus discovered by me I am enabled to
effect a considerable saving in space in the stove or oven, and also in the
The
consumption of coal to be used in heating the stove or oven.
amount of coal used necessary to dry two thousand five hundred Dinas
bricks in the ordinary mode is two tons five hundredweight.
amount required by my process of dying is from three to four hundred-
weight only, according to the quality of the coals, a fact which shews
the prodigious saving which must result from this Invention. I have
found that the best coal to be used for drying bricks is anthracite, and
the heat within the oven should not be allowed to exceed two hundred
degrees (Fahrenheit), as too rapid drying makes the bricks unshapely.
The heat and smoke of the fire being confined to one small chamber and
the fire being very small, the difference between the temperature in
various parts of the oven is inappreciable.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention and the mode or manner in which the same may be per-
formed or practically carried into effect, I wish it to be distinctly under-
stood that I desire to make no claim to the apparatus herein described
separately and apart from its use for the purposes of this Invention ;
but what I do claim as the Invention which I desire to be secured to
me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
First. The mode or method herein-before described of manufacturing
Dinas fire-bricks, whereby the grinding, mixing, and compounding, or

page_text: tempering the materials of which the said bricks are composed are
effected by one operation.
And, secondly. The mode or method herein-before described of drying
fire-bricks.
In witness whereof, I, the said Patrick Conniff, have heretofore set
my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
PATRICK CONNIFF. (L.s.)