IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS, TILES, OR OTHER ARTICLES OF A SIMILAR NATURE OR CHARACTER
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Smith, of Bury, in the County of Laneaster,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE
OF BRICKS, TILES, OR OTHER ARTICLES OF A SIMILAR NATURE OR CHARACTER."
Sealed the 29th July 1862, and dated the 1st February 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Smith at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st
February 1862.
I, WILLIAM SMITH, of Bury, in the County of Lancaster, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE
MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS, TILES, OR OTHER ARTICLES OF A SIMILAR NATURE OR
CHARACTER," to be as follows:-
One of my improvements consists of a method of supplying the mould or
moulds with the material used for making bricks, tiles, or other articles
of a similar nature or character, and compressing the same in the said mould
or moulds, and is accomplished by means of a projecting block or blocks placed
upon a revolving cylinder, which cylinder is enclosed in a casing. The material
for the manufacture of the said articles being passed into the machine in any
convenient manner at or near some portion of the circumference of the

page_text: revolving cylinder, and carried along by the said block or blocks, which fit
close or nearly so to the internal circumference of the casing, and to prevent
the said material from choking or bursting the casing, an escape valve or
opening regulated by a spring or otherwise, is placed on or in the said casing,
so that any surplus material may pass out of the machine. Each mould for
the formation of the desired article is open to or communicates with the
passage or space lying between the revolving cylinder and the casing; and to
prevent the said material passing the mould before the said mould is filled,
and the said material compressed therein, a ram acted upon by a spring
projects into the interior of the casing on the opposite side of the mould to that at
which the material enters the said mould, and if more of the material is pressed
towards the said mould than is required to fill it at the acting pressure of the
spring the residue will be pressed against the before-named ram and cause it
to move so that the said projecting block and material may pass, and after the
projecting block and material have so passed, the spring will cause the ram to
resume its former position. The mould containing the said article is attached
to or contained in or on a slide actuated by a cam or cams by means of a lever
or levers which cause it to slide from the place where it receives the material,
and bring it in a proper position for being pressed out of the mould, or for
being still further compressed or moulded. The mould is surrounded by a
chamber or chambers into which steam or water is admitted for the purpose
of heating the moulded article, thereby causing the said article to contract and
leave the mould more readily than it would otherwise do. The steam or water
is conveyed to the mould by means of a pipe which works in a stuffing box
through which it slides, when the. plate containing the mould moves to its
respective positions before mentioned. When the article has left the mould,
the mould is returned to its original position by means of the before-named
cams and levers or cam and lever, and the operation of filling the said mould
'is repeated.
My next improvement is for the purpose of further compressing or moulding
the before-named articles, and consists of a pair of cylinders containing pistons
with rams and dies attached of any desired form for moulding or impressing
on the surface of the said articles any device that may be required, the said
'dies being heated with steam from the cylinder or otherwise. The valves for the
inlet' and outlet of the steam of both of the cylinders are so arranged that they
shall be moved by means of cams, eccentrics, or tappets; in such a way as to
first cause the said rams and dies to act on the before-named moulded material
at one and the same time, but in opposite directions, the material still remaining

page_text: in the first named mould, 'and further compress it by the force of steam. One
of the said rams has the distance of its traverse regulated by means of a
movable stop or bar which passes between the mould and a projecting stud
fixed on the said ram, the said stop or bar being actuated by means of a cam
or tappet. The said stop or bar may be fixed on and worked by the other
parts of the apparatus. The other ram has a fixed stop to determine the
distance of its traverse. By a change in the position of the inlet and outlet
valves the steam is allowed to enter the cylinder on the other side of the piston,
and thereby cause the said rams and dies to leave the mould. A tray or plate
attached to or placed on the end of a lever, the fulcrum of which is fixed to an
oscillating arm actuated by a cam or tappet is now brought under the moulded
material, which moulded material is pressed out of the mould by one of the
said rams actuated by the steam pressure being changed to the other side of
the piston by the change in the inlet and outlet openings for that purpose.
The moulded material being now on the tray or plate, and being heavier than
a weight fixed on the other side of the said fulcrum to that of the tray or plate
is removed by the action of the arm on which the lever carrying the tray is
fixed and conveyed away as required.
Another of my improvements is, to heat by means of steam or water, the
revolving cylinder before mentioned for the purpose of drying or partially
drying the material to be moulded. To accomplish this I admit steam or
water into the interior of the said revolving cylinder, either through a passage
or passages in the shaft or centres on which the said cylinder revolves, or
through stuffing boxes surrounding the said shaft or centres, and the water or
steam is allowed to escape from the said revolving cylinder in a similar
manner to that by which it is admitted.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Smith in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
29th July 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM:
SMITH, of Bury, in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of'
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto.

page_text: me, the said William Smith, Hèr special licence that I, the said William
Smith, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others. as I,: the
said William Smith, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the 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 ") IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BRICKS, TILES, OR OTHER ARTICLES OF. A
SIMILAR NATURE OR CHARACTER," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said William Smith, 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 William Smith, 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 and accompanying Drawings (that is to say):
One of my improvements consists of a method of supplying the mould or
moulds with the material used for making bricks, tiles, or other articles of a
similar nature or character, and compressing the same in the said mould or
moulds, and is accomplished by means of a projecting block or blocks placed
upon a revolving cylinder, which cylinder is enclosed in a casing, the material
for the manufacture of the said articles being passed. into the machine in any
.convenient manner at or near some, portion of the circumference, of the
revolving cylinder, and carried along by the said block or blocks which fit
close or nearly so to the internal circumference of the casing; and to prevent
the said material from choking or bursting the casing, an escape valve or
opening, regulated by a spring or otherwise, is placed on or in the said casing,
so that any surplus material may pass out of the machine. Each mould for
the formation of the desired article is open to or communicates with the
passage or space lying between the revolving cylinder and the casing, and to
prevent the said material passing the mould before the said mould is filled, and
the said material compressed therein, a ram acted upon by a spring projects
into the interior of the casing on the opposite side of the mould to that at
which the material enters the said mould, and if more of the material is
pressed towards the said mould than is required to fill it at the acting pressure

page_text: of the spring, the residue will be pressed against the before-named ram, and
cause it to move so that the said projecting block and material may pass, and
after the projecting block and material have so passed, the spring will cause
the ram to resume its former position. The mould containing the said article
is attached to or contained in or on a slide actuated by a cam'or cams by
means of a lever or levers which cause it to slide from the place where it
receives the material, and bring it in a proper position for being pressed out of
the mould, or for being still further compressed or moulded. The mould is
surrounded by a chamber or chambers, into which steam or water is admitted
for the purpose of heating the moulded article, thereby causing the said 'article
to contract and leave the mould more readily than it would otherwise do.
The steam or water is conveyed to the mould by means of a pipe which works
in a stuffing box, through which it slides when the plate containing the mould
moves to its respective positions before mentioned. When the article has left
the mould the mould is returned to its original position by means of the
before named cams and levers, or cam and lever, and the operation of filling
the said mould is repeated.
My next improvement is for the purpose of further compressing or moulding.
the before-named articles, and consists of a pair of cylinders containing pistons,
with rams and dies attached of any desired form for moulding or impressing
on the surface of the said articles any device that may be required, the said
dies being heated with steam from the cylinders or otherwise. The valves for
the inlet and outlet of the steam of both of the cylinders are so arranged that
they shall be moved by means of cams, eccentrics, or tappets in such a way as
to first cause the said rams and dies to act on the before-named moulded
material at one and the same time, but in opposite directions, the material
still remaining in the first-named mould, and further compress it by the
force of steam. One of the said rams has the distance of its traverse regu-
lated by means of a movable stop or bar which passes between the mould
and a projecting stud fixed on the said ram, the said stop or bar being
actuated by means of a cam or tappet. The said stop or bar may be fixed on
and worked by the other parts of the apparatus; the other ram has a fixed
stop to determine the distance of its traverse. By a change in the position of
the inlet and outlet valves the steam is allowed to enter the cylinder on the
other side of the piston, and thereby cause the said rams and dies to leave
the mould. A tray or plate attached to or placed on the end of a lever,
the fulcrum of which is fixed to an oscillating arm actuated by a cam or tappet,
is now brought under the moulded material, which moulded material is pressed

page_text: out of the mould by one of the said rams actuated by the steam pressure being
changed to the other side of the piston by the change in the inlet and outlet
-openings fo that purpose. The moulded material being now on the tray or
plate, and being heavier than a weight fixed on the other side of the said
fulcrum to that of the tray or plate is removed by the action of the arm on
which the lever carrying the tray is fixed and conveyed away as required.
Another of my improvements is to heat by means of steam or water the
revolving cylinder before mentioned for the purpose of drying or partially
drying the material to be moulded. To accomplish this, I admit steam or
water into the interior of the said revolving cylinder either through a passage
or passages in the shaft or centres on which the said cylinder revolves, or
through stuffing boxes surrounding the said shaft or centres, and the water or
steam is allowed to escape from the said revolving cylinder in a similar manner
to that by which it is admitted.
Fig. 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a side elevation of a portion of the
machine with one side and other parts removed, and some of the parts in'
section. a is the revolving cylinder attached to the shaft b; on the circum-
ference of the said cylinder two projecting blocks c, c₁, are fixed, the whole
being enclosed. in the casing d, leaving a space e for the clay or
other plastic
material. Two rollers f,f₁, are placed on the circumference of the casing for
the purpose of pressing in the clay; g is a sliding table, having motion given
to it by the cam h acting on the tappets or rollers i, i₁. The said cam is
attached to the shaft k, and the shafts 6 and k are driven by wheels, as shown
by the dotted lines in Figs. 1, and an edge view as shown of the said wheels in
Fig. 2. The casing d and sliding table g are supported by the framing m.
The moulds in which the bricks are formed and compressed are shown in
Figs. 1 and 4 by the letters n, n₁, n₁, ng, and the apparatus for pressing the
ordinary or common brick out of the mould is shown in Figs. 1, 4, and 5,
where 0, 0, are the press plates attached to the cross bar p, which bar is guided
in a vertical direction by the slide bars q, q, the said cross bar being attached
to the lever r by means of the rod s. A cam is fixed upon the shaft b, or
attached to the end of the revolving cylinder a, containing a groove w, as
shown in Fig. 5, in which groove a pin or stud fixed on the end of the lever v
is situate, and other two levers t and u are connected to the before-named
levers by means of a stud and slot; as shown in Fig. 5; the lifting part is
shown at x.
The before-named ram is shown at y, and is pressed towards the mould by
the spring z acting on the levers a₁, a, and those portions of the said ram
:

page_text: which project through the side of the casing b₁. b, are cylinders containing
pistons, the piston rods of which, d₁, d, are attached to the cross heads e₁, e.
The cross head e, is guided vertically when in motion by the slide bars f2, fs,
and the dies for pressing the brick are shown at h₂, h, and the bottom dies
at h, h; the crosshead e, has its guide bars attached to the side of the frame,
as shown at g₁, gs. The steam chests containing the valves for changing the
action of the steam are shown at c, and c₂, and the lever i fixed on the shaft o₁
is moved by the cams P₁, P2, shown in Fig. 3, by means of the lever 4, the
said cams being fixed on the shaft b. The valve for changing the action of
the steam to the lower cylinder b, has motion given to it by the cam r₂, Fig. 3,
which acts on a stud fixed on the end of the lever s,, the motion being trans-
mitted through the lever s, and rod s. The lever t, has a stud fixed at its least
end, which being acted upon by an ordinary cam fixed on the shaft k causes
it to move the rod us, the said rod being attached to the lever v,, which carries
the lever w. A bar z, is fixed across the framing and against the under side
of the table g, and forms the bottom of the mould, as shown in Fig. 1.
When the machine is put in motion the clay is passed into the interior of the
casing d through the rollers f, f₁, or a pug mill is used in the place of the
said rollers, the said clay then passes into the space e and the cylinder a,
revolving in the direction pointed out by the arrow; the block c presses the
clay forward into the moulds n₁, n,; the clay is prevented from being pressed
out of the mould by the bar, the said clay being prevented from passing the
mould by the ram y pressed by the spring z, but so soon as the mould is filled
the surplus material is pressed against the ram y and causes it to move, which
allows the said material to pass on into the space e on the other side of the
said ram, which ram being acted upon by the projecting block c is still further
moved, so as to allow the said block to pass. After the passage of the said
block c₁, the spring presses back the ram y to its original position. The
sliding table g then moves to the right by the action of the cam h, and the
brick or other article being brought under the press plate o is pressed out of
the mould by means of the apparatus, shown at Fig. 5, and conveyed away in
any convenient manner. The mould n having now arrived on the bar 23,
and
in a position to receive the clay brought through the passage e by the pro-
jecting block c, other bricks are moulded in a similar manner to that before
described, and by the action of the cam h, the sliding table g is again brought
to its original position, and the moulded article is now between the cylinders
b₁, b₂, and the valve for regulating the action of the steam in the cylinder b₁,
being moved by the cam p, admits steam on the upper side of the piston at

page_text: The
or near the same time that steam is admitted to the under side of the piston
in the cylinder b, by the action of the cam r₂. The upper die h, is prevented
from moving further than is required by means of two blocks l₂, l, Fig. 2,
which may be moved by a cam or tappet in any convenient manner.
under die is prevented from moving further than is necessary by the piston
coming in contact with the cover of the cylinder 6. The brick is now pressed
to the required thickness and form, and the valve connected with the upper
cylinder b, having just changed, so as to allow the steam on the upper side of
the piston to pass from the cylinder, and the full pressure of the steam to act
on the under side of the said piston; the said piston is pressed against the
cylinder cover, and the die h, leaves the mould; a similar movement of the
valve connected with cylinder. b₁, actuated by the cam r₂, has also caused the
piston in the cylinder b, to pass to the bottom of the said cylinder, and the
lower die h, has left the mould. The blocks la, la, are now quickly withdrawn
by the action of the cams or tappets or cam or tappet for that purpose, and
the cam pa now changes again the position of the upper valve, and the action
of the steam causes the piston in the cylinder b₁ to descend and press out the
brick, which brick is received on the tray situated on the lever w₂, and con-
veyed into the position shown in Fig. 1, at y, by the action of the apparatus
for that purpose. The lever w, has a weight x fixed at one end in such a
position that the moulded material ys, when placed on the other end of the
said lever, will preponderate, but is regulated in its movement by the stop m
and when the material y, is removed the action of the weight x will cause the
other end of the lever w, containing the tray to rise, and the distance of such
rise is regulated by the stop m. I do not tie myself to two blocks, as shown
in Fig. 1, at c, c₁, but am aware that more may be used, or only one, when
required. The cam h may be placed under the sliding table by reducing it
in size, so as to act on an oscillating lever; the said lever will then move the
table.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in which
the said Invention is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that what I
claim as new and of my Invention is,―-
Firstly, the revolving cylinder and combination of parts for pressing the
clay or other plastic material into the moulds, as herein set forth and
described.
Secondly, the ram and spring and combination of parts for resisting the
action of the clay or other plastic material whilst the mould is being filled, as
herein described and set forth.
:

page_text: Thirdly, the block or blocks for pressing the clay into the moulds, as herein
set forth and described.
Fourthly, the steam cylinders and combination of parts for pressing the clay
or other plastic material, in the manner herein set forth and described.
Fifthly, the apparatus and combination of parts for receiving and removing
the bricks after leaving the mould, as herein described and set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Smith, have. hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
THOMAS BALDWIN,
Bury, Lancashire.
WILLIAM SMITH. (L.S.)