IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MOULDING AND COMPRESSING FUEL AND OTHER MATERIALS INTO BLOCKS OR BRICKS
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Lewis and William Jones
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition,
on the 2nd July 1874.
We, JOHN LEWIS, of the Cambrian Factory, Swansea, and WILLIAM
JONES, of No. 31, Miers Street, St. Thomas, Swansea, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
MOULDING AND COMPRESSING FUEL AND OTHER MATERIALS INTO BLOCKS OR
BRICKS:
"
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This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for
moulding and compressing fuel and other materials into blocks or bricks.
For this purpose two moulds are connected together by one frame, to
which a to-and-fro reciprocating motion is given from a crank on a
driving shaft or by other suitable means.
The moulds work to and fro in a solid fixed frame, on the top of which
is mounted a hopper, having on each side of it two measuring chambers,
which are alternately filled with material from the hopper. When the
frame is at one end of its motion it comes below one of the chambers,
which has then just been supplied with material from the hopper, and
the material is expelled from the chamber into the mould by a ram,
which is then allowed to descend in the chamber. When the frame

page_text: moves back again, the mould, which has been filled, is carried under a
solid fixed surface plate.
Each mould is fitted at the bottom with a plunger, and as the mould
is carried below the surface plate this plunger comes over the top of a
link, which lies in a position inclined to the moving frame, and at its
bottom turns upon a fixed centre. As the frame continues its move-
ments the link also turns with it, and is thus brought into a vertical
position, whereby the plunger is caused to rise and the materials in thẹ
mould are compressed. When the mould has been carried past the
surface plate the point of a rocking cam enters between the bottom of
the plunger and the link; and as the mould and plunger continue to
travel up towards this cam, it turns on its axis and still further lifts the
plunger until it has expelled the compressed block or brick from the
mould. As a block or brick is thus expelled from a mould at one end
of the frame, the mould at the other end is filled with material in the
manner above described, and this material is afterwards in its turn
similarly compressed and ejected in the form of a block or brick.
5
.
Tho two links, which are below the plungers of the two moulds, are
coupled and move together more like the links of a parallel ruler, and are
also coupled to other links, which at their upper end are acted upon by
a projection on the reciprocating frame, so that the links rock to and fro
with the frame. Other means might however be adapted for giving the
requisite motion to these plungers.
be
The rams for discharging the material from the measurers into the
moulds are raised and lowered alternately, and their movement may
controlled by levers acted on by cams on the main or driving shaft.
When one ram descends and expels the measured quantity of material
from its chamber, it shuts off the passage of material into such chamber;
and when the ram again ascends, the chamber fills with material from
the hopper through an opening at its side.
The rams used for discharging the material from the measuring
chambers might also be used for compressing the materials in the moulds,
and in this case they may be acted upon direct by a steam cylinder or.
other power.