IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS, TILES, AND OTHER ARTICLES. MADE FROM PLASTIC. OR SILICEOUS MATERIALS, AND IN. THE MACHINERY OB... APPARATUS EMPLOYED FOR MOULDING AND PRESSING THE SAME, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE FOR COMPRESSING: PEAT OR OTHER SUBSTANCES FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Henry Tooth at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th August 1868.
I, WILLIAM HENRY TOOTH, of Greenwich, in the County of Kent,..
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS, TILES, AND OTHER ARTICLES.
MADE FROM PLASTIC. OR SILICEOUS MATERIALS, AND IN. THE MACHINERY OB...
APPARATUS EMPLOYED FOR MOULDING AND PRESSING THE SAME, PART OF WHICH
IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE FOR COMPRESSING: PEAT OR OTHER SUBSTANCES
FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL," to be as follows:
The first part of my Invention relates to an improved composition
of which bricks, tiles, and other articles (principally required in building:
operations) may be made. The base of. the composition, as in most:
concrete masses used for similar purposes, is gravel, broken. stone, or
other hard material, preferring, such materials as contain a proportion
of iron.. The mass is wetted with a solution. af. soda or other alkali,.
together with a small quantity of sal ammoniac. The addition of a little-
sulphur in powder will quicken. the setting: of the ingredients as it will
act on the iron and will develop heat... When well mixed. the ingredients:

page_text: may be moulded and pressed in the machine which forms the second
part of my Invention.
The second part of the Invention relates to a novel arrangement of
machinery particularly applicable for making bricks or blocks, and
by means of which bricks made of concrete, clay, or other suitable
material may be turned out more complete and with greater expedition
than heretofore. This machine consists of a pug mill in which there is
a central vertical shaft furnished with horizontal knives and cutters.
The knives (of which there are four) form sections of a four-threaded
screw and are arranged radially round the shaft, and as these knives are
carried round they come in contact with a weighted seraper which
scrapes the material from the faces of the knives and guides it down
through a hole in the bottom or in the side of the pug mill into a mould
formed in the revolving table. This table is made to revolve by means,
of a ratchet and bevil gearing in the manner usually adopted in rotary
table machines, When the mould in the revolving table is filled with
the requisite amount of clay or concrete the table is made to revolve
one-sixth or other portion of a revolution according to the number of
moulds employed, and when the mould in advance of the one that has
just been filled is brought under the action of a press a plunger forming
part of the press will descend and force the concrete or other material
in the mould. When the plunger rises again the table will revolve
another sixth or other part of a revolution; the filled mould above
referred to then comes under the action of the compressing plunger of
the press which descends and brings a pressure of ten tons to bear upon
the clay or concrete in the mould with a view to thoroughly compress it
and make it perfectly hard and solid. This part of the press consists of
a large box containing a crank which as it revolves pushes down a
smaller box (contained within the larger one) on to the clay or concrete
in the mould. This small box contains a solid piece of metal, the lower
part of which is made of the same form as the top of the brick to be
pressed. Above this solid block and contained in the smaller box is a
powerful spring intended to yield about one inch against a pressure
of about ten tons. This spring is very important, as supposing there
be a little too much material in the mould when the plunger descends
if the spring were not there so as to allow the plunger to yield some of
the gearing must inevitably break or give way under the great strain
to which it would be subjected. When the plunger of the press again.

page_text: rises the revolving table above mentioned will begin again to rotate
and will advance another sixth or other part of a revolution. Directly
the table begins its rotating motion the brick is made to ascend in its
mould by means of an iron lever or arm attached to the bottom of the
mould; this rod is furnished with a small roller at its lower extremity,
and as the table revolves the roller begins to ascend a circular inclined
plane placed underneath the tahle for the purpose, and the bricks are
forced up out of the mould to the level of the top of the table where
they are taken off and are passed away by the attendant boy or man.
Before the clay or concrete is forced into the mould a thin piece of wood
or pallet of the same length and width as the brick is forced into the
mould by means of an iron plate about 9" x 9" which is pushed forward
by means of a bell-crank lever operated by the plunger of the press as
it descends. A spring catch is also attached to the machine to stop
the table when it has rotated the required part of a revolution. This
catch is also operated by a lever that is made to act by the descent of
the plunger of the preas. There are of course the usual devices for
sanding the mould, the pallet plates, and the upper surface of the
material in the mould, so as to prevent the plunger from adhering
thereto.