IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR MIXING CLAY FOR THE PURPOSE OF MAKING BRICKS, TILES, OR OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Short Batley at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd March 1870.
WILLIAM SHORT BATLEY, of Leeds, in the County of York. "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR MIXING CLAY FOR THE PURPOSE OF MAKING
BRICKS, TILES, OR OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES."
This Invention relates to pug mills, in which clay or other material is mixed for
the purpose of making bricks, tiles, or other similar articles. It has for its objects
improvements in constructing and arranging such pug mills or machinery, so that
they are more durable, easy of access, and economical and effective in action, than
as heretofore constructed and used.
I take a shaft, preferably of wrought iron, revolving horizontally in suitable
bearings, and having at or about the middle of its length a spur-toothed wheel or
other appliance, by which it can be made to revolve by means of a steam engine or
other convenient source of power. On either side of this spur wheel a cylinder,
preferably of cast iron is arranged, and firmly fixed in such a position that the axis
of each cylinder is concentric with the shaft, one end of which passes into ono
cylinder and the other end into the other cylinder through openings in their inner
ends. At the inner end of each cylinder is fixed above it a hopper, through which
the clay which is to be operated upon is fed into the cylinder, and the revolving shaft
(which I prefer to make square in section), is provided with mixing knives or arms
arranged radially upon it so as to cut up, disintegrate, and mix the clay which is
so supplied. The revolving shaft in the remaining part of each cylinder beyond
the hopper is also provided with mixing arms, one or more of which are arranged
helically so as not only to mix the clay but to force it towards the outer end of the
cylinder, at which part an arm or arms forming a complete helical revolution may
be fixed. Beyond the outer end of each cylinder I form or attach a cylinder of less
length, but of considerably greater diameter, closed by an outer end through which
the end of the mixing shaft may pass, and work in a suitable bearing or bush
attached to the outside of such cylinder end, or the shaft may end within the
cylinder without passing through its end.
In the circumference of the cylinder of larger diameter described I form one or
more openings (preferably one at each side), and these openings are formed of such
a shape that the clay is discharged through them in a column, circular, rectangular,
or of other desired shape in section, or the openings may have moveable discharge

page_text: pipes of such desired shape attached to them. In order to discharge the mixed
clay through such openings I fix to the revolving shaft at the part where it passes
through the enlarged cylinder one or more arms of a radial or spirally curved shape
so that in their revolution they tend to force the clay radially outwards, and
through the openings.
The helical mixing arms are arranged with an opposite helical pitch in the two
cylinders, so that when both are in use any end thrust upon the revolving shaft is
neutralized, and the two cylinders being entirely distinct and separate a different
quality of clay may be operated upon in each at the same time.