IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS, TILES, AND TUBES OF EARTHENWARE
Year: 1857

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Thornton at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th February
1857.
I, JAMES THORNTON, of Belfast, in the County of Antrim, Ireland, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS, TILES, AND TUBES OF EARTHENWARE,"
to be as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention relates to the manufacture or production of various carthen-
ware articles of the brick, tube, and tile class, such as are used for various
structural purposes and for draining.
The machinery employed in carrying out these improvements in practico
consists of a vertical clay-working cylinder or pug mill, fitted with revolving
knives or working blades, which force the clay supplied at the open upper end
of the cylinder downwards and out at the lower end into a duplex series of
moulds placed beneath. The clay cylinder stands upon a masonry foundation,
in which foundation there is a recess for the reception of the duplex mould
table. The two mould tables work alternately, that is to say, each table is
traversed in turn beneath the clay cylinder, one going in with empty moulds
as the other goes out with full ones. Thus, there is a continuous series
of moulding and discharging operations going on without intermission. This
action of the mould tables is effected by an arrangement of reversing gearing,
resembling that ordinarily employed in planing machines. The movements.
may be effected in various ways, but a convenient plan is to have an open and

page_text: a crossed driving belt working a triple pulley arrangement, that is, one pulley
fast on a tubular shaft, another fast on a solid shaft, each of which shaft carries
a bevil pinion gearing on opposite sides, with an intermediate bevil wheel and
a loose pulley; the shaft of the large intermediate wheel carries a chain pulley,
the chain of which has its two ends attached to the two mould tables. Thus,
as the intermediate shaft revolves alternately in reverse directions the chain
gives the necessary traverse to the two tables. The mould boxes, of the shape
required for moulding the particular article to be made, receive the oxpressed
clay from the cylinder by their open tops, and the action which runs out
a filled set of moulds also raises the individual bricks or tiles clear out of the
moulds for removal. Each table has parallel sido flanges for resting upon,
carrying rollers set in bearings in the foundation, so as to be capable of
traversing easily from end to end of its run. Each mould has in its bottom a
moveable piston or shifting diaphragm lifter, having a vertical guide frame
projecting downwards through the moulding table, the lower end of which
frame carries a grooved roller bearing upon a central rail laid along the bottom
of the recess in which the tables work. This rail is perfectly level at the part
immediately beneath the clay cylinder, but on each side of this portion it rises
upwards at a quick angle. It thus follows that when the moulds are beneath
the clay cylinder all the pistons are at the bottoms of their moulds; but as the
table emerges from beneath the cylinder the bearing rollers of the mould
pistons run up the incline, and thus force the newly-moulded bricks out of their
moulds. The same action of course occurs on the return traverse at the
opposite incline.
This machinery is adapted for making both solid and perforated bricks. It
also answers well for the manufacture of what may be called cellular bricks,
that is, brick with recesses or perforations in them, but not through them, each
perforation being carried to within a very short distance on one side. For
moulding such bricks, where the perforations do not run entirely through, the
die carries a series of spikes or pins, corresponding to the recesses or holes to
be made.