IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MIXING, SOLIDIFYING, PRESSING, AND. MOULDING
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street;.
in the City of London, E. C., Patent Agent, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MIXING, SOLIDIFYING, PRESSING, AND.
MOULDING." A communication from M. Evrard.
Sealed the 7th August 1857, and dated the 14th April 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald Brooman
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 14th April 1857.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, E. C., Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MIXING, SOLIDIFYING, PRESSING, AND
MOULDING," (communicated to me by M. Evrard, a foreigner residing abroad,).
to be as follows:-
This Invention refers to the mixing of materials for forming fuel, and to
the solidifying and forcing of them through moulds, to the compression of turf
and peat, to the making of bricks, to compressing. and. moulding purposes.
generally, and to the expressing of liquids from bodies holding the same.
I will describe the machinery as applied to the manufacture of fuel from

page_text: coal dust or waste. The small coal previously heated by a current of steam
is raised by an endless belt carrying buckets and deposited in a trough,
where it comes in contact with pitch, driven there from a closed boiler or
reservoir under steam pressure. In this trough there is an archimedean
screw, which partially mixes the coal and pitch, and carries them forward into a
species of pug mill, wherein the thorough mixing of the substances takes
place. The trough and the pug mill have a double case or steam jacket to
keep them heated. At the bottom of the pug mill there is a sole plate, mado
to rotate by toothed gearing, and the mixed materials are guided from it by
rakes into spouts, which conduct them upon a distributing rotating feeder,
which deposits them equally into horizontal moulds, of which sixteen will be
found a convenient number, arranged at equal distances from each other
around or upon a circular bed plate. There is an aperture in the top of cach
mould to receive the supply of materials to be pressed and moulded. To each
mould there is a plungor, connected by links to a collar, and the to-and-fro
motions are imparted to each plunger through the collar, which is driven by
an excentric upon a vertical driving shaft. The connecting links might be
dispensed with where space is an object, in which case the excentric would bo
connected directly to the plungers. Each plunger presses the substances in
the moulds until the pressure becomes sufficiently strong to overcome the
friction of the substance already compressed therein. The moulded substances
are broken or cut off by a cutting apparatus, and falling upon a rotating or
travelling platform, are carried by it and deposited in waggons or other
receptacles.
Small coal or coal waste may be massed, solidified, and moulded in a cold
state without the admixture of any other substance, and lumps may be thus
obtained of sufficient solidity to be used in metallurgical and other heating
operations in place of natural lumps of coal.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Richard Archibald Brooman, Ier special licence that I, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, 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 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 MIXING, SOLIDIFYING, PRESSING,
AND MOULDING," (a communication from M. Evrard,) upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, 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 naturo
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 Richard Archibald Brooman, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to bɔ
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, referenco being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that
is to say:
This Invention refers to the mixing of materials for forming fuel, and to
the solidifying and forcing of them through moulds, to the compression of turf
and peat, to the making of bricks, to the compressing of liquids from bodics
holding the same, and to compressing and moulding purposes generally.
I will describe the machine as applied to the manufacture of fuel from coal
dust or waste.
Figure 1 is an elevation, partly in section, of the improved apparatus
employed; and Figure 2 is a horizontal plan of the compressing cylinders,
&c. The small coal, previously heated by a current of steam, is passed
by an endless belt A, carrying buckets, and deposited in a trough B,
where it comes in contact with pitch, driven there from a closed boiler or
reservoir under steam pressure, and distributed by the apparatus N. In this
trough B there is an archimedean screw, which partially mixes the coal and
pitch, and carries them forward into a species of pugmill C, wherein tho

page_text: thorough mixing of the substances takes place. The trough B and the
pug mill C have a double case or steam jacket to keep them heated.
At the bottom of the pugmill there is a sole plate D, made to rotate by
toothed gearing E, and the mixed materials are guided from it by rakes G, G,
worked by a handle X into spouts H, H, which conduct them upon a
distributing rotating feeder I, which deposits them equally into horizontal,
cylindrical, or other parallel sided moulds K, K, of which sixteen will be
found a convenient number, arranged at cqual distances from each other,
around or upon a circular bed plate B'. There is an aperture in the top of
each mould to receive the supply of materials to be pressed and moulded.
To each mould there is a plunger, connected by links to a collar, and the
to-and-fro motions are imparted to each plunger through the collar T, which
is driven by an excentric R upon a vertical driving shaft P. The connecting
links Y, Y, might be dispensed with when space is an object, in which caso
the excentric would be connected directly to the plungers. Each plunger
presses the substances in the moulds until the pressure becomes sufficiently
strong to overcome the friction of the substance already compressed therein.
The moulded substances are broken or cut off by a cutting apparatus L, and
falling upon a rotating or travelling platform M, are carried by it and deposited
in wagons or other receptacles.
Figure 3 is an end elevation of one of the cylindrical moulds.
The pitchy liquid produced in the distributor and trough is carried off by
means of a syphon under the steam pressure. Small coal or coal waste may
be massed, solidified, and moulded in a cold state, and without the admixture
of any other substance, and lumps may be thus obtained of sufficient solidity
to be used in metallurgical and other heating operations in place of natural
lumps of coal.
The apparatus and method of operation before described may be applied
without substantial alteration to the manufacture of other artificial fuel, and
of bricks, tiles, &c., to the compression of turf and peat, to the expression of
liquids, and to compressing and moulding purposes generally.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not claim the
arrangement of the compressing cylinders in a circle and the working of them
from the centre; but what I claim is,―
.
First, the combination of an endless belt or chain carrying buckets for
raising small coal and other materials with a steam-tight or other mixing
trough, is herein-before described.

page_text: Second, the mixing with the small coal or other like material of pitch or
other like analagous material and the heating of the mixture by steam, as
herein-before described.
Third, the method of working the radial plungers by means of a crank, a
loose collar, and connecting links, as herein-before described.
Fourth, the arrangement and combinations of apparatuses herein-before
described, and represented in the Drawings hereunto annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of August, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.