CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MAKING OR MANUFACTURING BRICKS AND TILES, OR QUARRIES, AND IN CONSTRUCTING OVENS OR KILNS FOR BURNING OR FIRING OF BRICKS TILES, AND QUARRIES, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF POTTERY AND EARTHENWARE
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT.
BESWICK, of Tunstall, in the Parish of Wolstanton, in the County of Stafford,
Builder, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty, by Her Letters Patent under the
Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing dato
at Westminster, the Fourth day of November, in the fifteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the.
said Robert Beswick, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, Her especial license, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Robert Beswick, my
exors, adñiors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said Robert Beswick,
my exors, adiñors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that
part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, and
Her Majesty's Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MAKING OR MANUFACTURING
BRICKS AND TILES, OR QUARRIES, AND IN CONSTRUCTING OVENS OR KILNS FOR
BURNING OR FIRING OF BRICKS, TILES, AND QUARRIES, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF
POTTERY AND EARTHENWARE;" in which Letters Patent there is contained a

page_text: proviso requiring that 1, the said Robert Beswick, should particularly describe
aud ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be
enrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the now reciting Letters
Patent, as, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Beswick, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by this present instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, in the words herein-after written, and by reference
to the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed.
But before I proceed to describe the particulars of my Invention, it may be
proper to state that, according to the ordinary practice of burning or firing
bricks, tiles, and quarries, and other articles of pottery and earthenware, when
the articles to be fired are placed altogether in the interior of an ordinary
oven or kiln, and the heat, flame, and smoke of the fires are allowed to enter
the interior in the ordinary manner, the articles to be fired are exposed to
great and prejudicial irregularity of temperature, and are liable to be discolored
by smoke and flame, in whatever part of the oven they are placed, and there
is no sufficient certainty as to the color which will be produced in the articles,
or any portion of them, by the operation of firing, and although it has been
sought to avoid these and other causes of objection by dividing the lower part
of the interior of the oven into compartments surrounded by flues, with intent
to better regulate and distribute the heat of the fires, and to protect from
flame and smoke the articles fired in the lower part of the oven, the compart-
ments and flues hitherto used have been so constructed and of such materials
as to be incapable of resisting the frequent alternations of heat and cold to
which they were of necessity subjected, in the use of the oven for the purpose
of firing, so that the walls of the compartments speedily permitted the flame
and smoke of the fires to pass through them, by the fusing and cracking of the
materials of which they were composed, and by the shrinking and opening
of the joints at the angles of the walls of the compartments.
Now, the objects of my Invention are, first, to make and manufacture
bricks and tiles or quarries of such a combination of materials, and of such
shapes and forms, as will more efficiently resist the heat of fire and the alterna-
tions of temperature without fusing, or cracking, or splitting.

page_text: And, secondly, to construct the flues and compartments of ovens or kilns
for burning or firing bricks, tiles, and quarries, and other articles of pottery
and earthenware, in such a manner, by the use of bricks made of such mate-
rials and such shapes, and with such cement as herein-after described, as will
better protect the various articles to be fired in the said ovens and kilns from
disadvantageous diversities of temperature in different parts of the same oven
or kiln, and will better prevent the passage of flame and smoke through the
walls of such flues and compartments.
As respects the materials of which I make my bricks and tiles or quarries,
I attain my first object by making them of the following combination of
materials (that is to say):-I take broken seggars, pound them, and sift this
pounded material through a sieve of a quarter of an inch mesh. I then add
this sifted seggar to equal quantities by weight of fire marl and red marl in
the proper and usual state for making bricks, and mix them (that is to say,)
one-third part of sifted seggar, one-third part of fire marl, and one-third part
of red marl, together with water, to the usual consistence for making bricks.
I then mould this composed clay into bricks and tiles or quarries in the ordi-
nary way in moulds of the required forms. The above are the proportions I
recommend when the marls are of the ordinary quality; but if either of them
is under the average quality I use a rather larger quantity of fire marl, and
less of red marl, so that the two marls together may still form only two-
thirds of the mixture of which the bricks and tiles or quarries are made.
These moulded bricks and tiles or quarries must then be fired to a greater
degree of heat than they will afterwards bo ever subjected to when in actual
LISC.
In constructing ovens or kilus for burning or firing bricks, tiles, and quarries
and other articles of pottery and earthenware, I attain my second object as
follows (that is to say)-On the basement of the oven or kilu, built in the
usual way (which basement I prefer built of fire bricks,) I set out the lines of
the walls of the compartments into which it is intended to divide the lower
portion of the interior of the oven or kiln. Take, for example, the plan of
compartments and flues, shown in Figure 1 of the Sheet of Drawings hereunto
annexed, in which A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and Hare the compartments, and K
the flues in the interior of a circular oven or kiln; L is a circular flue of less
width than the flues K, running between the compartments and the wall of the
oven or kiln. The walls of these compartments I build of single bricks placed
edgewise, of two inches in thickness, and about four and a half inches wide,
made of the composition herein-before described for the making of bricks.

page_text: These bricks are rabbeted at each end and grooved throughout the length of
their narrow sides, so that the cement in which they are bedded may form a
tongue between each course of brickwork, and thereby render the walls
more impervious to flame and smoke. The bricks are also pierced on the flat
or broad side, on which the rabbet is about two-thirds of the way through,
with holes of about one-eighth of an inch in diameter, at intervals of about ono
inch apart, so as to allow of the more ready passage of heat through the
substance of the bricks, see Figure 3, which shews a brick pierced with a
convenient number of holes. And as the corners of the compartments are very
liable to be damaged by the heat of the fires passing round them through the
flues, and to shrink apart on cooling, I use there what I call "solid angled bricks,"
see Figures 5 and 9. These "solid angled bricks" I make of the shapes re-
quired by the form of the compartments of the ovens and kilns, so that there may
be no joints in the brickwork at the angles of the compartments, except in those
courses when it is necessary to have a brick running across the flue to butt against
the opposite wall, as herein-after described. These "solid angled bricks" are
also to be rabbeted at their ends, but the grooves for the cement are not to be
carried right across the brick at the solid angles, but must be made to meet at
a similar angle in the centre of the brick, as shewn at a, b, c, d, in Figure 5.
When the walls of the compartments radiate from a central space, as shown
in Figure 1, in which O is the central space, I prefer using at the narrow end
of such compartments a brick having what I call two solid angles, of the shape
shown in Figure 5, and a, Figure 1, at least in alternate courses; in the inter-
rediate courses may be used bricks having one "solid angle," see Figure 9,
and b and c in Figure 1; but throughout the work the joints of the bricks
must be broken in each course, that is to say, the joints of any two bricks in
any one course must not be in a line with the joints of any two bricks above
them in the next succeeding course.
At the angles of the compartments next to the walls of the oven, the end
brick of every alternate course parallel to the wall of the oven is to be fitted
into an indented brick (as shewn at a, in Figure 7), of the course forming the
angle with it, and that indented brick must be of such a length that its end
may reach across the flue there, and be made to butt against the side of the
oven wall.
The compartments I build to the height of three or four feet, or less or more
according to the purpose for which the oven or kiln is to be used, and accord-
ing to the quantity of the superior quality of goods required to be fired red or
any other self color at any one time.

page_text: As the walls of these compartments built of the thickness of a single brick
placed on its edge are necessarily slight, in order to enable them better to resist
any accidental lateral pressure, and to strengthen them in all respects, I place
at intervals of from twelve to eighteen inches in every other course a brick
which I call a " bridging brick" from wall to wall inside the flues, halved or
let into the bricks of the walls, and for that purpose I place in the walls at the
proper intervals an indented brick, sec Figure 7, having an indent, as shewn
at a, Figure 7, of the proper size to admit the end of the bridging brick; such
a bridging brick is shewn in Figure 1, across the flue K between the com-
partments G and H.
In order to strengthen as much as possible the walls of the flues at their
tops, and as also I find it advantageous to divide the upper orifice of all the
flues into numerous small openings, as shewn at e, in Figure 1, whereby I
eflect a more equal distribution of heat through the oven or kiln, I build the
last or upper course of the walls of the compartments, as shewn at d, Figure 1,
entirely of bricks of the shape shewn in Figure 10, which I call " cap bricks,"
placed side by side close together, having their tongues entering the flues, and
strengthening the walls in a manner similar to the bridging bricks. The
length of the "
cap bricks," shewn from a to b, in Figures 4, 8, and 10, and
the breadth of the tongue of the cap brick, shewn from c to d, in Figures 4 and
10, depend upon the width of the flue. I prefer having the flues between
the compartments, as shown at K, in Figure 1, and at G, in Figure 2, from
four to six inches wide, inside measure, and the flues between the wall of the
oven and the compartments, as shewn at L, in Figure 1, and at L., in Figure 2,
about three inches wide.
I make the "cap bricks" of such breadth as will make the openings at the
top of the flues from two to three inches wide between the cap bricks, when
they are placed side by side, as shewn at e, in Figure 1, and at a, in
Figure 2.
The floors of the compartments are to be laid with quarries, not more than
one inch and a quarter thick, made of the combination of materials herein-
before described. These quarries are to be laid double, and with the same
kind of cement as used in the brickwork of the compartments, and herein-
after described, so that the floors may be proof against the passage of
flame or smoke. These floors are to be made to rest upon, and are to be
raised above, the basement of the oven or kiln by fire-bricks from ten
to twelve inches deep, placed upon the basement of the oven or kiln,
at such a distance apart as the size of the quarries require, so as to form
horizontal flues under the whole of the compartments; and these hori-

page_text: zontal flues must be made to communicate as freely as conveniently may be
with the vertical flues K and L, Figure 1, by openings into the vertical flues
through the walls of the compartments below the floors.
All the flues must also communicate freely with the open central space,
shewn at O, Figure 1, which may be used for firing common bricks or other
articles of inferior quality.
In those cases when it is desirable that the green ware or articles to be fired,
which are placed above the compartments, should not rest upon the green ware
within the compartments, I build the compartments and flues as shewn in
Figure 2, in which the oven is set out into long narrow compartments,
A, B, C, D, and E, Figure 2, from fourteen to sixteen inches wide with
intermediate vertical flues G, of from four to six inches wide, communicating
with flues under the floor, in a manner similar to that above described in
the construction of the oven in Figure 1.
The walls of the compartments are built of rabbeted and grooved bricks,
and the end brick of every alternate long course is to be an indented brick
carried across the lateral circular flue L, Figure 2, and butted against the
wall of the oven, and the corresponding bricks of the short side are to be fitted
into these indented bricks. The angles of the other courses are to be formed by
what I have hercin-before called "solid angled bricks ;" the interiors of the
flues are to be strengthened by bridging bricks, and the last or upper course is
to be built of cap bricks, as before described. These compartments may then
be covered with loose quarries about nine inches wide, and of sufficient length
to rest firmly upon the walls of the compartments, without closing up the
openings at the top of the vertical flues formed by the cap bricks, and at such
intervals apart as will support the articles which are to be fired above the
compartments, without permitting them to press upon the articles in the
interiors of the compartments.
But inasmuch as the narrow ends of many of these longitudinal compart-
iments are opposite to the mouths of the oven (see Figure 2, in which F are
the mouths), and would therefore be subject to the too great heat arising
from the fire playing directly upon the end walls, I place all the mouths of
an oven so divided into longitudinal compartments at such a height relatively
to the basement that the floors of the compartments may be on a level with
the tops of the mouths, and so that the fire may play into the flues under
the floors, and be more equally distributed under all the fluors of these
compartments,
If it be desired to fire the articles in the compartments of any oven or ki!n
of a blue color, I lay the floors of the compartments of a single course of

page_text: quarries, manufactured as I have herein-before described, and placed in lines
so as to leave openings of from three quarters of an inch to one inch wide
between each line of quarries throughout the floor of the compartments, and
so as to allow a limited amount of flame to enter from the horizontal flues, by
which method the articles may be fired blue without being injured by too great
a heat. The upper part of the interior of the oven, which is above the com-
partments, must be used in the ordinary way for firing goods of mixed colors.
The modes of building and arranging the flues and compartments above
described may be easily adapted to ovens, and kilns of any shape, care being
taken to use what I have herein-before called solid angled bricks, at least in
every alternate course, at the angles of the compartments.
The cement used throughout the building of these compartments and their
floors must be of a kind which will bear the alternations of heat and cold, to
which it will be exposed in the use of the ovens and kilns, as herein above
described, without fusing or cracking. For this purpose I prepare my cement
of the materials and in manner following, that is to say, I take equal quantities
by weight of first common sand or pounded grit, such as is used by potters for
placing greenware; secondly, the same kind of sand or grit after it has been
used in the oven in the firing of greenware; thirdly, fire marl; and fourthly, red
marl, and mix them together with water to the usual and proper consistence for
building cement.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I hereby declare that I do not confine myself to
any particular number or shape of compartments or mouths of ovens and kilns,
as my Invention herein-before described is applicable to ovens and kilns of any
shape and of any number of mouths and compartments. I also declare that I
do not claim as my Invention the dividing the interior of ovens and kilns into
compartments; but I do claim as my Invention the combination of materials
herein-before described for the making of bricks and tiles or quarries, and also
the peculiarly shaped bricks which I call cap bricks and solid angled bricks.
And I further claim as my Invention the use of bricks of the shapes which
I have herein-before called solid angled bricks and cap bricks in constructing
ovens or kilns for burning or firing bricks, tiles, and quarries and other articles
of pottery and earthenware.
And lastly, although I do not claim the use of grooved bricks, or of rabbeted
bricks, or of pierced bricks, or of bridging bricks, or of indented bricks singly,
I do claim as my Invention the constructing the walls of the flues and com-
partments of ovens or kilns for burning or firing bricks, tiles, and quarries and

page_text: In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Beswick, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.