Improvements in Carriages for Conveying and Drying Bricks and other Plastic Articles.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 2nd Apr., 1897
Complete Specification Left, 3rd Jan., 1898-Accepted, 5th Feb.,
1898
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Carriages for Conveying and Drying Bricks and
other Plastic Articles.
I, OLIVER HOWL, of Princes End, Tipton, in the County of Stafford, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of my invention to be as follows:-
My invention has for its object to dry bricks or other plastic articles in the
counse of conveying them from the moulding machines or moulding sheds to the
kilus or other place of manufacture without the necessity of removing them from
the carriages onto heated stoves or other drying surfaces; thereby preventing dis-
tortion and damage of soft goods and at the same time reducing the cost of the
delivering and drying processes.
According to my invention I provide the carriages, on which the green bricks or
other plastic articles are placed for conveying them to the kilns or other place of
manufacture, with pipes, through which steam or hot water may be caused to pass.
The said pipes are preferably arranged as a continuous coil or nest and may be
made flat at top to receive the pallets or plates on which the bricks or articles are
placed.
The steam or hot water may be conducted to the pipes in the carriage from a
boiler or other source of supply by any suitable means, for example the pipe on the
carriage may be connected to the pipe from a boiler by a union coupling or other
suitable connection, and the pipe in one carriage may be connected to the pipe of
another carriage and in this manner the steam or hot water may be caused to
traverse the pipes of several carriages.
When the articles are sufficiently dried the carriage may be detached from the
boiler or other source from which the steam or hot water is supplied and the
carriage with its contents be conducted to the kiln or other place of manufacture.
Dated this 2nd day of April 1897.
Improvements in Carriages for Conveying and Drying Bricks and
other Plastic Articles.
I, OLIVER HOWL, of Prince's End, Tipton, in the County of Stafford, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to
Price 8d 1

page_text: be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement: -
My invention has for its object to dry bricks, or other plastic articles, removed
from moulding machines, or moulding sheds, for conveyance to kilns, or other
place of manufacture, without the necessity of removing the said bricks or articles
from the carriages, onto heated stoves, or other drying surfaces; thereby prevent-
ing distortion and damage of the said bricks or other articles whilst in the soft
state or unburnt, and reducing the cost of the delivering and drying processes.
According to my invention I provide the carriages, on which the green bricks,
or other articles, are placed for conveying them to the kilns, or other place of
manufacture, with pipes, passages or chambers through which a heating agent,
such, for instance, as steain, or hot water can be passed. The said pipes, passages
or chambers may form a continuous coil or nest of piping, and may be made flat
at top to receive the bricks or pallets, or plates, on which the bricks, or articles,
are placed.
The heating agent can be conducted to the pipes, passages or chambers of the
carriage from a boiler, or other source of supply, by any suitable means; for
example the said pipes passages or chambers may be connected to the pipe from a
boiler by a union coupling, or other suitable connection, and the piping or the like
in one carriage can if desired be connected to the piping or the like in another
carriage, and in this manner the heating agent can be caused to traverse the pipes
or the liko of several carriages.
When the articles are sufficiently dried the carriage may be detached from the
source from which the heating agent is supplied and the carriago with its contents
be conducted to the kiln, or other place of manufacture.
Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings represents in side elevation and Fig. 2 in
end elevation a carriage constructed according to my invention for drying and con-
veying bricks, or other plastic articles. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal vertical section
taken along the line 33, Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a transverse vertical section along the
line 44 Tig. 1, and Fig. 5 is a horizontal section along the line 55 Fig. 2.
Figs. 6 and 7 shew, in views at right angles to each other, one of the carriagos con-
nected to pipes communicating with a boiler, or other source of heat supply, and
Fig. 8 shews in side elevation two carriages connected together by communicating
pipes, or passages, whereby the heating agent can be caused to traverse several
carriages, from one pipe, or passage, in communication with the source of supply.
A carriage constructed according to my invention comprises a platform, or base, A,
mounted on wheels B, which may have plain rims, or peripheries, to run on roads,
or (as shown in the drawings) flanges, like ordinary railway carriage wheels, to
run on rails. On the opposite ends of the base A are fixed two hollow vertical
columns C C. The said columns are connected together by hollow shelves, or
chambers, D, at suitable distances apart, ono above another, to accommodate
between them, the articles to be dried. The hollow shelves or chambers, D, com-
municate by lateral passages a with the interior of the vertical columns CC, and
in the said vertical columns are horizontal partitions by which the heating agent
admitted to the interior of the column C, as hereinafter described, is caused to
travel in a circuitous direction through the superposed hollow shelves or chambers.
In the arrangement illustrated by Figs. 1 to 7, the inlet passage c for the heating
agent is shewn at the upper part of the vertical column C and the outlet d is shewn
at the lower part of the said column, but the said inlet and outlet passages may be
arranged at any other suitable parts of the apparatus.
I will describe the use of the carriage, for drying and conveying green bricks,
it being understood that it may be similarly employed for drying and conveying
other articles. The carriage is arranged in position in close proximity to the
brick making or moulding machine, or shed, so that the bricks, as they are formed
ur moulded, can be readily placed in position on the carriage. The said bricks
as they leave the brick making or moulding machine may be placed or slidden
directly onto the hollow shelves, or chambers, D, or they may be arranged on sheet

page_text: iron, or other suitable pallets, e, as shown in the drawings, and the pallets, so
charged with the bricks, be placed on the hollow shelves or chambers, D. The
carriage when charged with bricks is moved into position for connecting it with a
steam or water pipe in connection with a boiler, or other source of heat. The con-
nection of the carriage with the source of heat may be effected in any convenient
manner for example as shown in Figures 6 and 7.
EE are pipes communicating with the interior of a boiler, the pipe E through
which the steam, or water, passes from the boiler, having a branch pipo F, extend-
ing to a suitable height for connecting it, by means of union joint, flange, or other
suitable coupling, with the inlet passage c, in the vertical column C, of the
carriage. The pipe E for conducting the steam or water from the carriage back
to the boiler, has a branch which is connected to the vertical column C at d
by union joint, flange, or other suitable coupling. The branch pipes F and F
are each provided with a cock f f'; the pipes E El also having cocks if desired, for
governing the passage of steam or water to and from the boiler, and carriage.
When the carriage is charged with bricks, as hereinbefore described, and the con-
nection made between the carriage and pipes FF1, the cocks f f¹, in the pipes FFI
(and also the cocks in tho pipes E E', if they be used) are opened, whereupon the
steam, or water, will enter the column C by the passage e and traverse through the
hollow shelves, or chambers, D, and out through the outlet at d, into the pipe F1,
and thence back to the boiler by the pipe E, and so maintain a circulation of the
hot water, or steam, through the hollow shelves 1), as long as necessary to effect
the drying of the bricks placed on the hollow shelves, or chambers, D. In the
columns CC are vent holes a¹ for the escape of air from the interior thereof. Two,
or more carriages may be separately connected, in the manner hereinbefore
described, to the pipes E El at suitable distances apart, and the steam, or hot water,
may be caused to circulate simultaneously through all the connected carriages or
through any one, or more, of them, as desired. When the bricks are sufficiently
dried the circulation of the steam, or hot water, through the carriage can be dis-
continued, or cut off, by closing the cocks f f in the branches FF, and tho
carriage can then be disconnected, and moved to the kiln or other place of manu-
facture; the bricks being then removed from the carriage and placed in the kiln
to be burnt or otherwise treated, and as no previous handling of the bricks is
necessary to put them on to heated stoves or drying surfaces and loading them
up again the liability of damage to, or distortion of, the said bricks is obviated,
and a great saving in time and labour is effected.
The
Instead of connecting a number of carriages separately to the pipes E, and E', as
hereinbefore described, several carriages, may be connected together as shewn for
instance in Figure 8 and, one carriage only "he connected to the pipes E EL.
steam, or hot water, entering the vertical column C, of the carriage which is con-
nected to the pipes E E traverses the hollow shelves, or chambers, 1), thereof,
but instead of passing from the said carriage into the pipe E', as described. with
reference to Figure 6, it passes from the column (by the connecting pipe, or
passage, G, into the column C, of the adjacent connected carriage, and, after travers-
ing through the hollow shelves, or chamber D. of this carriage, it may be
conducted to, and caused to traverse in, a similar manner the heating passages in
another carriage, or other carriages. From the last carriage of the series the
steam, or hot water, passes through the lower hollow shelves, or chambers, D, of
the several connected carriages to the return pipes and leading to the boiler,
the lower ends of the adjacent vortical columns C, C', of the several carriages being
connected together by pipes G as shewn.
Although I have shewn partitions to cause the heating agent to circulate in a
circuitous course through the hollow shelves, or chamber, D, the whole of the said
partitions except that shewn at the lower part of the vertical columns C may he
dispensed with so that the heating agent, will be free to enter and pass through all
of the hollow chambers at the same time, and other details of construction may be
varied without departing from my invention; for instance, instead of forming the

page_text: hollow shelves as shewn in the drawings, each shelf may be formed by a coil of
pipe, or of a series of pipes, communicating at opposed ends with the columus C C¹
so that the heating agent can circulate through the said pipes, or coils, or each
shelf may be made separate and constitute a hollow pallet on which the bricks are
placed the said hollow pallets when charged with bricks being placed on suitable
brackets or supports on the carriage and connected by suitable connections to the
vertical columns C C so as to cause the heating medium to enter the said hollow
pallets.
•
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:
1. In combination with carriages, for conveying bricks, or other articles, hollow
supports for the articles, and means for passing a heating agent into, or through,
such hollow supports, for the purpose of drying the bricks, or other artioles,
substantially as hereinbefore described.
2. In combination with carriages, for conveying bricks, or other articles, pipes,
passages, or chambers, forming supports, or shelves, for the bricks, or other articles,
to be conveyed, and means for causing a heating agent to be passed through such
pipes, passages, or chambers in a circuitous direction, substantially as and for the
purpose, herein before described.
3. In combination with carriages for conveying bricks, or other articles, hollow
columns at each end of such carriage the said columus being connected by hollow
communicating pipes passages or chambers forming supports for the bricks or
other articles and means for passing a heating agent through the said columns and
pipes passages or chambers, substantially as, and for the purposes hereinbefore
described.
4. For conveying and drying bricks, or other articles carriages provided with
pipes passages or chambers forming hollow supports for the bricks or other articles
and means for connecting two or more carriages together and to a source of supply
of a heating agent so that the said heating agent passes through the hollow
supports of each carriage in succession substantially as herein before described.
Dated this 3rd day of January 1898.
JOHNSONS & WILLCOX,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agents.