IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR MAKING BRICKS FOR BUILDING AND OTHER PURPOSES, AND OF COAL, PEAT, OR OTHER SUBSTANCES TO BE USED AS FUEL
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Roughton Bromage Amott, of Gloucester,
in the County of Gloucester, for the Invention of "IMPROVED MACHINERY
FOR MAKING BRICKS FOR BUILDING AND OTHER PURPOSES, AND OF COAL, PEAT,
OR OTHER SUBSTANCES TO BE USED AS FUEL."
Sealed the 10th December 1867, and dated the 10th July 1867.
.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Roughton
Bromage Amott at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 10th July 1867.
I, GEORGE ROUGHTON BROMAGE AMOTT, of Gloucester, in the County of
Gloucester, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Im-
PROVED MACHINERY FOR MAKING BRICKS FOR BUILDING AND OTHER PURPOSES, AND
OF COAL, PEAT, OR OTHER SUBSTANCES TO BE USED AS FUEL," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved arrangement of machinery for
moulding clay and other plastic substance into bricks or blocks with economy
and dispatch. Mounted upon an elevated table is a pugmill fitted with knives
or blades for working the clay and forcing it down towards the bottom of the
pngmill. The bottom of the pugmill cylinder is so arranged as to receive and
allow to pass through it an endless chain of moulds, which are carried by
rotating drums mounted in bearings at opposite ends of the table of the
machine. As the moulds pass through the pugmill they are filled with plastic

page_text: material, the surplus of which is removed by the lip of the exit opening through
which they pass. As the moulds pass from the table (over which they are
guided by fixed steel fillets or guide plates) they come under the action of a
plunger which forces out the bricks on to a transverse travelling apron. This
apron is for the purpose of delivering the bricks out of the machine; the
moulds thus discharged of their bricks pass round the driving drum, and thence
over a lower supporting table to the drum at the other end of the machine.
The working parts of the machine are driven from a longitudinal shaft, which
receives motion from any prime mover. Bevil and spur gearing is used to
transmit motion from this shaft to the shaft of the puginill, and excentrics on
the driving shaft are employed for pressing and discharging the moulded brick.
When the machine is used for compressing fuel a stamper or die carrying a
monogram or other device is provided, and under the action of an excentric
caused to finish the moulding of the bricks. The like arrangement is provided
for working the plunger which discharges the moulded bricks, and an excentric
also operates a catch which by taking into the teeth of a ratchet wheel on
the shaft of the driving drum gives the requisite progressive motion to the
chain of moulds; the apron for receiving the moulded blocks is driven by a
strap from the longitudinal shaft passing over a pulley on the axle of one of
the drums which carry the apron.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Roughton Bromage Amott in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 9th January 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
ROUGHTON BROMAGE AMOTT, of Gloucester, in the County of Gloucester, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said George Roughton Bromage Amott, Her special licence that I, the
said George Roughton Bromage Amott, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said George Roughton Bromage Amott,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the

page_text: 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 Invention for "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR MAKING
BRICKS FOR BUILDING AND OTHER PURPOSES, AND OF COAL, PEAT, OR OTHER SUBSTANCES
TO BE USED AS FUEL," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
George Roughton Bromage Amott, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
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 Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Roughton Bromage Amott, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same, is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto
annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
This Invention relates to an improved arrangement of machinery for
moulding clay and other substances into bricks or blocks with economy and
dispatch. The machine includes both a pugniill and a moulding apparatus.
Mounted upon the bed of the machine is the pugmill, which is fitted
with knives or blades for working the clay or other substance to be moulded,
and forcing it down towards the bottom of the mill. At the bottom of
the pugmill cylinder openings are made to permit of two or more endless
chains of moulds passing through the cylinder. These moulds are carried by
square, hexagonal, or other tumblers or drums mounted in bearings at opposite
ends of the machine, and they receive their traverse motion from the axle of
one of the tumblers, which is driven by suitable gearing. As the moulds pass
through the pugmill they are filled with the material to be compressed, the sur-
plus of which is removed by the lip of the exit opening of the pugmill cylinder
through which they pass. The filled moulds in passing along the bed severally
come under the action of a compressing plunger and a discharging planger,
the former of which completes the moulding of the brick or block, while the
latter serves to discharge it from the mould on to a transverse travelling apron
which is provided for the purpose of delivering the bricks or blocks out of the
machine.
In the accompanying Drawings, Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the improved.
machine or so much of it as will serve to explain the nature of the Invention.
Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same; Fig. 3 is a transverse vertical section of

page_text: the machine taken in the line 1, 2, of Fig. 1 ; and Fig. 4 is a transverse vertical
section taken in the line 8, 4, of Fig. 1.
a, a, is a strong bed plate of cast iron, wrought iron, or steel, which may
a frame or suitable standards.
be supported on masonry or brickwork, or by
any well-known
At one end this bed carries a cylinder or pugmill b formed in
or approved manner, and fitted inside with stationary and rotating knives. The
stationary knives are fixed at such a distance apart around the cylinder as may.
be thought desirable, and between them work the rotating knives, which are.
fitted to a square or other rotating spindle c supported in suitable bearings,.
the rotating knives are arranged around the spindle like sections of a screw
around its axis, and set at an incline, with the object of forcing the material
downwards into the moulds as they are severally brought under the descending
mass of material. The upper face of the bed plate or frame is provided with
parallel guides or fillets which run through the pugmill, and are intended to
receive between them the endless chains of moulds d, d, which are formed of
iron, steel, or other strong materials. The moulds and the fittings required.
therein in certain descriptions of work are made of any approved dimensions
and shape. The moulds d, d, are connected together to form two endless.
chains by means of hinged joints, or other forms of coupling may be used..
d', d², are square tumblers fitted to shafts d', d', which are mounted at opposite
ends of the machine in bracket bearings carried by the bed plate or frame.
These tumblers serve to support the chains of moulds and give the traverse
motion thereto; the tumbler & may be turned in any well-known or approved
manner. The arrangement shewn in the Drawing is a pawl & taking into a
ratchet wheel do, which is fixed in the middle of the tumbler shaft d. This
pawl d is jointed to a bracket projection on a guide rod f, which receives a
vertical reciprocating motion from its connection with a strap f' surrounding
an excentric f keyed or fitted to the horizontal main shaft e, which has its
bearings in standards affixed to the bed plate; this shaft e also carries two
other excentrics h and l, or cranks may be used in lieu thereof. One of these
excentrics h serves to work the compressing plungers g, g, which carry a stamp,
name plate, or trade mark; these plungers slide up and down in vertical guides
made fast to the bed plate, the other excentric is used for working the
delivery plungers k, which also slide up and down in similar vertical guides
affixed to the bed plate. To the delivery plungers (or it may be on the com-.
pressing plungers) are fitted horns (Fig. 4), which have a slight bevil
outwards at their lower ends. The use of horns or equivalent wedge-shaped
contrivances is to adjust the moulds to their proper position for receiving the

page_text: plungers, and to this end the horns are caused to embrace the moulds before
the plungersk enter the moulds. To allow of the discharge of the moulded
bricks or blocks suitable openings are left in the bed plate, as shewn at Fig. 4;
below these openings is placed a transverse travelling web or apron (not
shewn in the Drawing); this apron may be driven from the main shaft or by
independent means. Below the bed of the machine steel, iron, or other rollers
should be provided to support the empty or return moulds; the main shaft e
receives motion through spur gearing from a countershaft n fitted with a fly
wheel and fast and loose band or driving pulleys. The inner end of the
shaft e carries a bevil wheel which gears into a bevil pinion on a vertical.
shaft o; this shaft o by means of spur gearing gives motion to the shaft c of
the pugmill, and the several parts of the machine are caused to move at a
given relative speed to suit the requirements of the operation; a hopper pis
fitted to the upper end of the pugmill to supply the same with material as
required.
The action of the machine is as follows:-The material as it is ground and
mixed in the pugmill is forced into the moulds which by the intermittent
action of the ratchet wheel are brought round and passed through the mill
to be charged. When filled by the downward pressure of the rotating blades
on the material the moulds are next brought under the compressing plungers
9, 9, which as before stated are worked by the excentric h, and by these
plungers the moulding of the bricks is completed, The next traverse motion
of the moulds carries the moulded bricks or blocks between the delivery
plungers k, k, worked by the excentric which has a greater throw than that
of the excentric h. The delivery plungers are caused to travel to the bottom
of the moulds, and force out the compressed bricks or blocks through openings
provided in the bed plate or framing; the falling blocks are then received on
the transverse apron and carried by that apron out of the machine. Openings
m, m, in the side of the bed plate (see Fig. 1) are provided to allow of the
traverse of the apron through the machine to receive and carry off the moulded
blocks or bricks as they are discharged from the moulds. It will be readily
understood that the slight bevilling of the horns k', k¹, at their lower ends
ensures that in case the feed gear should not move the moulds to the exact
spot required these horns or wedges coming down before either of the
plungers will bring the moulds exactly underneath their respective plungers.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improved Machinery
for Making Bricks for Building and other Purposes, and of Coal, Peat, or
other Substances to be used as Fuel," I wish it to be understood that under

page_text: the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim, the improved moulding
and compressing machinery constructed and operating as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Roughton Bromage Amott,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, the Eighth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
Witness,
GEORGE ROUGHTON BROMAGE AMOTT. (L.S.)
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.