IMPROVE MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BREAD, BISCUITS, AND LIKE ARTICLES, AND IN THE MACHINERY AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THERE WITH
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Vicars, senior, Thomas Vicars, junior,
Thomas Ashmore, Engineers, and James Smith, Baker, all of Liverpool,
in the County Palatine of Lancaster, for the Invention of "IMPROVE
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BREAD, BISCUITS, AND LIKE ARTICLES, AND
IN THE MACHINERY AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THERE WITH."
Sealed the 20th January 1860, and dated the 13th October 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Vicars, senior,
Thomas Vicars, junior, Thomas Ashmore, and James Smith, at the Office
⚫ of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 13th October
1859.
We, THOMAS VICARS, senior, THOMAS VICARS, junior, and THOMAS ASHMORE,
Engineers, and JAMES SMITH, Baker, all of Liverpool, in the County Pala-
tine of Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature of the said invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BREAD, BISCUITS. AND LIKE ARTICLES,
AND IN THE MACHINERY AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH," to be as
follows:-
The first part of this Invention relates to certain improvements upon a
former Patent granted unto us, the said Thomas Vicars, senior, Thomas
Vicars, junior, Thomas Ashmore, and James Smith, dated 13th May 1859,
No. 1201; and the present Invention and improvements consist in employing
[Price 8d.1

page_text: sliding tables instead of an endless web or belt of cloth for advancing the
dough placed thereon under the moulding or shaping tools and rollers.
These
present improvements being specially intended to be used where nicety of
weight is required, that is to say, where a certain weight of dough is required
to be made into a given number of loaves of bread, biscuits, or other like
articles. In the present machinery we propose to place the dough on a tray
formed with ledges at the sides thereof, one of which said ledges should be
capable of being removed when necessary; on this tray we place a cloth with
loops affixed thereto, as described in the Final Specification of our aforesaid
Patent of 13th May 1859, for the purpose there set forth; upon this cloth we
place the dough, which we subject to pressure from the rollers of the machine
until said dough is uniformly spread over the entire surface of the cloth and tray,
after which we advance said tray by means of racks at the side of the table
driven by suitable gearing until the tray comes under a stamp or stamps for
scoring or shaping the dough, either into the form of loaves, biscuits, or other
like articles, or we employ two of such said tables, one under the rollers of the
machine and the other under the stamps thereof, and we remove the trays from
one table to the other; as desired for expediting the operation. The dough
when stamped is removed and placed on a machine for conducting same
into the oven to be baked, the construction and operations of this said ma-
chine being fully described and set forth in the Final Specification of our 'afore-
said Invention of the 13th May 1859. The dough thus shaped is now ready to
be baked, which may be effected either in an ordinary oven or by preference
in one of the following improved construction, known to bakers as a railway
oven. And the present improvement in such said ovens is as follows, that is to
sayInstead of employing an endless travelling belt or metal platform on which
the shaped dough to be baked is placed, as commonly practised, we propose to
employ endless chains working over toothed or notched pulleys mounted on
shafts or spindles placed crosswise of the oven, and furnished with suitable
gearing for imparting rotary motion thereto; these chains pass along the sur-
face of the bottom of the oven. In connection with the aforesaid chains we
employ a series of metal carriages or trays on which the articles to be baked
are placed, if desirable; the bottom of said carriages may be formed of or
covered with tiles. These said carriages are mounted on wheels at each side
thereof running on rails fixed in the oven, each of such said carriages is con-
nected with the aforesaid chains, and moved thereby through the oven. In
forming the oven we divide it into compartments consisting of one main or
central one and two smaller end ones, these compartments communicate with
each other by means of doors capable of being opened from the outside, the

page_text: object of these compartments being to control and retain the steam during the
baking process; the outer ends of the oven are also provided with well fitting
doors for the purpose of retaining the steam.
m pursuance of the conditions of the Letters t
by the said Thomas Vicars, senior, Thomas Vicars, junior, Thomas
Ashmore, and James Smith, in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 13th
April 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
VICARS, senior, THOMAS VICARS, junior, THOMAS ASHMORE, Engineers, and
JAMES SMITH, Baker, all of Liverpool, in the County Palatine of Lancaster,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said Thomas Vicars, senior, Thomas Vicars, junior, Thomas Ashmore,
and James Smith, Her special licence that we, the said Thomas Vicars, senior,
Thomas Vicars, junior, Thomas Ashmore, and James Smith, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas Vicars,
senior, Thomas Vicars, junior, Thomas Ashmore, and James Smith, our exe-
cutors, 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 THE MANU-
FACTURE OF BREAD, BISCUITS, AND LIKE ARTICLES, AND IN THE MACHINERY AND
APPARATUS CONNECTED THERE WITH," upon the condition (amongst others) that
we, the said Thomas Vicars, senior, Thomas Vicars, junior, Thomas Ashmore,
and James Smith, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or
them, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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 we, the said Thomas Vicars, senior, Thomas Vicars,
junior, Thomas Ashmore, and James Smith, do hereby declare the nature of

page_text: the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof, that is to say:
The first part of this Invention relates to certain improvements upon a
former Patent granted unto us, the said Thomas Vicars, senior, Thomas
Vicars, junior, Thomas Ashmore, and James Smith, dated the Thirteenth
May 1859, No. 1201, and the present Invention and improvements consist in
employing sliding tables instead of an endless web or belt of cloth for advancing
the dough placed thereon under the moulding or shaping tools and rollers.
These present improvements being specially intended to be used where nicety
of weight is required, that is to say, where a certain weight of dough is
required to be made into a given number of loaves of bread, biscuits, or other
like articles. In this present machine we propose to place the dough on a tray
formed with ledges at the sides thereof, one of which said ledges should be
capable of being removed when necessary; on this tray we place a cloth with
loops affixed thereto, as described in the Final Specification of our aforesaid
Patent of 13th May 1859, for the purpose there set forth; upon this cloth we
place the dough, which we subject to pressure from the rollers of the machine
until said dough is uniformly spread over the entire surface of the cloth and
tray, after which we advance said tray by means of racks at the side of the
table driven by suitable gearing until the tray comes under a stamp or stamps
for scoring or shaping the dough, either into the form of loaves, biscuits,
or other like articles, or we employ two of such said tables, one under
the rollers of the machine, and the other under the stamps thereof, and we
remove the trays from one table to the other, as desired for expediting the
operation. The dough when stamped is removed and placed on a machine for
conducting same into the oven to be baked, the construction and operations of
this said machine being fully described and set forth in the Final Specification
of our aforesaid Invention of the 13th May 1859; the dough thus shaped is
now ready to be baked, which may be effected either in an ordinary oven, or
by preference, in one of the following improved construction, known to bakers
as a railway oven. And the present improvement in such said ovens is as
follows, that is to say:-Instead of employing an endless travelling belt or
metal platform on which the shaped dough to be baked is placed as commonly
practised, we propose to employ endless chains working over toothed or notched
pulleys mounted on shafts or spindles placed crosswise of the oven, and
furnished with suitable gearing for imparting rotatory motion thereto; these
chains pass along the surface of the bottom of the oven. In connection with
the aforesaid chains we employ a series of metal carriages or trays, on which

page_text: the articles to be baked are placed; if desirable, the bottom of said carriages
may be formed of or covered with tiles. These said carriages are mounted on
wheels at each side thereof running on rails fixed in the oven; each of such
said carriages is connected with the aforesaid chains, and moved thereby
through the oven. In forming the oven we divide it into compartments
consisting of one main or central one, and two smaller end ones. These
compartments communicate with each other by means of doors capable of
being opened from the outside, the object of these compartments being to
control and retain the steam during the baking process; the outer ends of the
oven are also provided with well fitting doors for the purpose of retaining the
steam.
In order to explain this Invention as completely as possible, we now proceed
to describe the best means we are acquainted with for carrying the same into
practical effect, reference being had to the illustrative Sheets of Drawings
hereunto annexed, and to the numeral figures and letters of reference marked
thereon respectively, as follows:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
At Sheet 1, Figure 1 is a side elevation of our improved moulding machine;
Figure 2 is a sectional elevation of same; Figure 3, a ground plan; Figures 4
and 5 are end elevations, showing front and back of machine. Similar letters
of reference denote corresponding parts at all the Figures.
A, A, is a sliding table on which to place the dough or paste; B, rollers for
uniformly spreading and guaging dough, and covering with face dough, as
described in the Specification of our former Patent of 10th July 1857; C, set
of cutters or dies; D, driving geer for working table No. 1 under its respective
rollers; E, geer for driving table No. 2. The action of table No. 1 is con-
tinuous, and it is provided with a reversing motion to enable the attendant to
slide it backward and forward until the dough is uniformly spread and guaged.
the motion of table No. 2 is intermittent, that is, at rest whilst the dies are
impressing or shaping the loaves, and is moved forward the required distance
during the upstroke of the dies by means of the ratchet F.
At Sheet 2, Figure 6 is a vertical section of an oven constructed according
to the improvements; Figure 7 is a horizontal section of the same; Figure 8,
a front elevation of said oven; and Figure 9 is a vertical cross section of
the same.
Similar letters of reference denote corresponding parts at all the
Figures.
A, A, is the oven or heated tunnel, through which the waggons or trays
travel during the baking process; B, B, the waggons mounted on wheels;

page_text: C, C, doors dividing the compartments; D, D, outer doors; E, E, endless
chains for carrying trays placed on them, or for moving the waggons attached
to them; F, F, toothed or notched pulleys for actuating chains; G, G, furnaces
communicating with flues running both above and below the oven, as exhibited;
H, H, hydraulic lifts for raising and lowering the waggons; I, I, heated
chamber through which the waggons return. This chamber is provided with
suitable chains and pulleys to move the waggons similar to the oven or baking
tunnel aforesaid.
At Sheet 3, Figure 10 is a vertical section of baking tunnel and heated
returning chamber, showing application of caps or covers to each waggon
or carriage for rendering the same steam-tight in themselves; J, J, caps or
covers; K, K, valves for regulating escape of steam from bread. These
valves are open during the travel of the waggons through the first portion of
tunnel. The closing of these said valves may be effected by brackets attached
to the side of the tunnel or oven acting on a stud fixed on the valve as exhibited
at Figure 11. M, driving geering; N, N, chains for suspending the caps
whilst charging or discharging the waggons or carriages. Figure 12 is an
elevation and Figure 13 a cross section of the above Figures.
Having now fully described and particularly ascertained the nature and
object of our said Invention for "Improvements in the Manufacture of Bread,
Biscuits, and like Articles, and in the Machinery and Apparatus connected
therewith, and the manner in which the same may be advantageously used
or carried into practical effect, we would observe in conclusion that we do
not confine or restrict ourselves to the precise details or arrangements which
we have herein described and referred to, as many variations may be made
therefrom without deviating from the principle or main features of the said
Invention; but what we consider to be novel or original, and therefore claim
as our Invention intended to be secured to us by the above in part recited
Letters Patent is as follows,-
We claim, first, the employment of carriages or waggons mounted on wheels
in railway ovens (that is, ovens where the articles to be baked are placed at
one end and are baked in their passage through to the opposite end) instead
of the endless metal band usually employed.
Secondly, dividing the aforesaid oven or heated tunnel into steam-tight com-
partments as above described and represented.
Thirdly, the use of caps or covers marked J, J, at Figure 10 of Sheet 3, for
the purpose of rendering each tray or waggon steam-tight in itself as above
stated.
Fourthly, the use of a heated chamber above the oven or baking tunnel

page_text: through which the carriages or waggons return, and also the use of an hydraulic
lift or other suitable hoist for raising or lowering the waggons or carriages to
or from said chamber as above stated.
Fifthly, the general combination and arrangement of parts herein-before
described and represented as constituting an improved railway oven, in
which the baking process may be carried on continuously, as herein-before
described.
Sixthly and lastly, we claim a machine of the construction exhibited at
Sheet 1 of the accompanying Drawings, for rolling, guaging, and shaping dough
into bread, biscuits, or like articles, where great accuracy of weight is required
as above stated; and especially we claim the use of the sliding tables marked 1
and 2 instead of the endless webs or cloths described in the Specification of
our aforesaid former Patent of the 13th of May 1859.
In witness whereof, we, the said Thomas Vicars, senior, Thomas Vicars,
junior, Thomas Ashmore, and James Smith, have hereunto set our hand
and seal, this Twelfth day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and sixty.