IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS AND TILES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Barlow Wright, of Parkfield Stone, Stafford-
shire, and Henry Thomas Green, of Moreton, Staffordshire, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS AND TILES."
Sealed the 8th January 1856, and dated the 19th July 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Barlow Wright
and Henry Thomas Green at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 19th July 1855.
We, SAMUEL BARLOW WRIGHT, of Parkfield Stone, Staffordshire, and HENRY
THOMAS GREEN, of Moreton, Staffordshire, do hereby declare the nature of the
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS AND TILES" to
be as follows:-
In the process of making moulded and plain bricks and tiles, the screening
of the clay is the first process, which is done by passing it into a pug mill of
peculiar construction. The pug mill shaft is surrounded by and made fast to
a perforated cone or barrel, to which blades or knives are attached for pugging
ard forcing down the clay. The tub or exterior of the pug mill is also a per-
forated cone or barrel. On making the shaft revolve in the usual manner,
the clay will be forced down and through the perforations, while the stones,

page_text: roots, &c. will be carried down and driven out at the bottom of the mill
through an aperture, which may be enlarged or diminished at pleasure.
The clay is then passed between a pair of conical rollers (or, rather, frus-
trums of cones), which are likewise perforated. Underneath the rolls, so
placed as to receive whatever is carried between them, is a hopper, with a
slide to open or close the bottom of it at pleasure. The clay will be squeezed
into the interior of the rolls, which by a scraper will be made to clean them-
selves, and deliver the clay and the stones or other matters collected by the
hopper and discharged by the sliding aperture. The clay will then be driven
by any of the usual means through a die of peculiar construction. The die
to be of metal or lined with metal, and the interior lubricated with water in
the following manner:-Plates of metal arc fastened in the interior of the dic,
overlapping each other like the scales of a fish, and water is admitted under-
neath. The clay passing over or by these plates carries with it sufficient water
for lubrication, which causes the brick or tile to issue in a smooth state.
The clay on issuing from the die is caught by a stop, which is attached to
the frame carrying the cutting wires and the pallets, the pallets, stop, and
cutting wires being pushed along by the thrust of the olay. The wires are then
forced down through the clay by means of a lever worked by the foot (as has
been heretofore done), which divide the clay into bricks, the stop also descending
with them out of the way of removing the cut bricks. As soon as the bricks
are removed, the foot is taken off the lever; the wires and stop then imme-
diately ascend, and are carried back by means of a weight running over a roll,
and attached for that purpose to the face of the clay.
The stop is set the thickness of a brick from the first cutting wire. The
pallets are pieces of flat wood, the width equalling the thickness of the brick
to be made, covered with perforated zine or other material, such as vulcanized
india-rubber, which receive the clay on issuing from the dic, and between
which the cutting wires descend, cutting the clay the same size as the pallets,
their size being altered according to the thickness of the brick required. The
bricks are then dried by any of the usual means, and when sufficiently dry
the plane surfaces are made perfect-in shape by being held against a revolving
grindstone and polished by a revolving wood disc, covered with emery or other
abrasive material. The moulded part is made true by being passed by a
revolving circular block of wood covered with abrasive material, the external
contour of which block agrees with the required mould.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Barlow Wright and Henry Thomas Green in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 19th January 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, SAMUEL
BARLOW WRIGHT, of Parkfield Stone, Staffordshire, and IENRY THOMAS
GREEN, of Moreton, Staffordshire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Iler
reign, did, for Herself, Ier heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Samuel Barlow Wright and Henry Thomas Green, Her special
license that we, the said Samuel Barlow Wright and Henry Thomas Green,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Samuel Barlow Wright and Henry Thomas Green, our executors, adminis-
trators, 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 In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS AND TILES," upon
the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Samuel Barlow Wright and
Henry Thomas Green, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals,
or under the hand and seal of one of us, 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 Scal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Samuel Barlow Wright, on behalf of
myself and the said Henry Thomas Green, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof (that is to say):-
The first part of our Invention consists of a method of screening clay, to
separato from it any roots or stones which it may contain, by passing the clay
through a pug mill with a perforated barrel, through which the clay is expressed,
the clay and roots being discharged at the bottom.
Figure 1 of the Drawing hereunto annexed shows a vertical section of a

page_text: pug mill arranged for screening clay according to our Invention. a is the iron
barrel, which is perforated all over with holes of about inch diameter; and
b is a hollow cone, similarly perforated, and mounted on the axis c, on the end
of which is the bevilled wheel c', which takes into another bevilled wheel
driven by any suitable power; d, d, and e, e, are screw knives, which pug the
clay and force it through the perforations in the barrel a and the hollow cone b;
f is an opening at the bottom, through which the stones and roots escape, and
are conducted away by a suitable shoot. In connection with the opening f
there are slides, by which it may be more or less closed, according to the pro-
portion of stones and roots contained by the clay under operation. 9 is a
hopper, by which the clay is fed into the mill; is the floor, on to which the
clay which passes through the barrel a falls. The clay which passes through the
perforated cone 6 is brought down by a fixed scraper working in the cone, and
falls through the holes i on to a floor below the mill. I would remark, that in
place of using the perforated iron barrel a, as already described, a barrel of
very strong wire-work may be employed; and also in place of using the per-
forated cone b, the screw knives may be placed directly on the axis c, which in
some cases will be the most convenient arrangement.
The second part of our Invention consists in a method of applying water to
lubricate the dies of brick and tile machines. For this purpose the lic is
lined with plates of metal overlapping each other, and the water is admitted
and passes between the plates so overlapping each other.
Figure 2 is a front view, Figure 3 a horizontal section, and Figure 4 a
vertical section, of a die arranged in this manner. is the die, constructed of
wood; it is lined all round the mouth with a strip of brass l, about 1 inches
in width. At the back of this strip a groove is formed in the wood all round
the mould, to which water is admitted by the pipe m. n, n, are plates of metal,
of which there are four, one attached to each side or end of the mould. These
plates overlap the strip 7, and come to within about five-eighths of an inch of
the mouth of the mould; and where the plates of metal come in contact, the
-surfaces should be roughed or grooved, so as to allow the water to escape
between the plates of metal. In order to supply an additional quantity of
water to the corners of the mould where most lubrication is required, there
are grooves formed in the wood k at each corner, which lead into the main
water groove, as shewn by dotted lines in Figure 4.
These grooves are
covered by angular plates of metal o, at the ends of which the water escapes.
The third part of our Invention consists in finishing the mouldings on bricks
formed with mouldings thereon, by bringing them, when in a dry but unburnt

page_text: state, into contact with a revolving block with a similar moulding on its
periphery. For this purpose a block of hard wood may be employed, on to
the surface of which a coating of sand is attached by cement; but it is pre-
ferable to employ a grindstone, on the edge of which the moulding is turned.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Barlow Wright, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of January, in the
year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
FRED HARRIS.
SAM B. WRIGHT. (L.S.)