IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MOULDING ARTIFICIAL FUEL, APPLICABLE ALSO TO THE MOULDING OF BRICKS OR BUILDING BLOCKS
Year: 1869

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by Sydney Hall at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and Declaration,
on the 20th July 1869, pursuant to the 9th Section of the Patent
Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, BE IT
KNOWN, that I, SYDNEY HALL, of Swansea, in the County of
Glamorgan, am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR MOULDING ARTIFICIAL FUEL, APPLICABLE ALSO TO THE MOULDING
OF BRICKS OR BUILDING BLOCKS," and I, the said Sydney Hall, do hereby
declare that the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, are particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for
moulding artificial fuel, applicable also to the moulding of bricks or
building blocks.
The material to be moulded to form bricks or blocks is fed into a pug
mill supported on brackets projecting up from the sides of the 'main
framing, and firmly secured to the same. This pug mill has an opening
in the bottom, through which the material escapes from it, and under-

page_text: neath the pug mill there is a moveable tube or mould resting on V guides
formed on the top of the sides of the main frame, and on which the tube
is caused to traverse in the direction of its length. On the upper side of
this tube is an opening, and when this opening either in whole or in part
coincides with the opening in the pug mill the material enters the tube.
When the requisite amount of material has thus been fed into the tube
the tube is moved along the guides until the opening in the tube is no
longer under the orifice of the pug mill and until the end of the tube
comes against a fixed abutment at the end of the framing of the
machine. The opposite end of the tube has fitting within it a ram,
which as the tube approaches the abutment comes rapidly forward, and
as the tube and the ram complete their strokes the material in the tube
becomes compressed between the face of the ram and the abutment.
The tube is now drawn back over the ram, whilst the ram remains
stationary until the tube is free from the brick or block; the ram then
commences its retrograde movement, allowing the brick or block to fall
on to a plate or support fixed to the abutment. The moulded brick
or block may be removed by hand or in other convenient manner to
give the reciprocating to-and-fro motion to the tube. I form the tube
with a strong lug or lugs on its under side, by means of which one end
of a connecting rod is securely attached to the tube, the other end of the
same connecting rod being secured to a lever firmly fixed on a shaft
carried by brackets on the under side of the main frame. At another
place on the same shaft a second lever is fixed, the extreme end of which
is formed into a long slot, and connected by means of a pin with a disc
or crank driven by a steam engine, or in other convenient manner,
which by its revolution gives a reciprocating movement to the lever, and
so a to-and-fro reciprocating movement is communicated to the tube
below the pug mill. The ram may be actuated directly by a steam
cylinder. The steam is admitted to the cylinder by means of an
éccentric fixed to same shaft that carries the disc giving motion to the
levers by which the reciprocating action of the tube is given, and by
means of a slot in the eccentric rod the ram is held stationary for a time
at either end of its stroke.
In the Drawing hereunto annexed I have shewn so much of a
machine arranged as above described as is necessary to enable my
Invention to be readily carried into effect.
Figure 1 is a side elevation, partly in section, of the machine; Figure 2

page_text: is an end elevation, partly in section; and Figure 3 is a plan of the same
with the pug mill removed, its position being indicated by dotted lines.
a, a, are the sides of a strong frame cast in one piece with the
abutment B on the top of the sides a, a. Between the points c and d
V guides are formed. The pug mill F is carried by blocks e, e, bolted to
brackets g, g, standing out from the sides a, a, of the main frame; H is
the moulding tube, to which a reciprocating to-and-fro movement is
communicated; I are the lugs underneath the same; J is the connecting
rod; K is the lever on the shaft L; L, L', are the brackets carrying
the shaft; M is another lever on same shaft with the long slot N in its
upper end; O is the pin working in the slot N, and fastened to the
disc Q, which is on the end of the shaft P, to which motion is com-
municated by spur gear from the shaft T, which is driven at a rapid
speed directly by a steam engine, or in any other suitable manner; the
shaft T also by bevilled wheels drives the axis of the pug mill; R is the
ram working within the tube H; this ram is by preference connected
directly to the piston of a steam cylinder carried by the framing of the
machine, and I give motion to the valves which admit steam alternately
to the two ends of the cylinder by an eccentric rod worked by the
eccentric S on the shaft P; this eccentric rod has a slot formed in it to
allow the ram to remain stationary at either end of its stroke during the
greater part of the time the tube H is moving, the motion of the ram
being rapid.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, I would have it understood that what I claim is,
the general combination or arrangement of apparatus herein described
for moulding bricks or blocks.
I also claim the combination of an abutment B, moveable tube H,
and ram R working therewith and with a pug mill, substantially in
the manner herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Sydney Hall, have hereunto set
my hand and scal, this Nineteenth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.