A NEW, OR IMPROVED MACHINE AND PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING MATERIALS FOR THE BETTER SECURING WALLS AND ROOPS OF HOUSES
Year: 1801

page_text: MILLER'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
MILLER, of Cleveland Street, in the Parish of Saint Pancras, in the County
of Middlesex, Engraver, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twelfth day of
October, in the fortieth year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the
said Samuel Miller, His especial license that I, the said Samuel Miller, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, might, during the term of years therein
mentioned, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW, OR IMPROVED MACHINE AND
PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING MATERIALS FOR THE BETTER SECURING WALLS AND
ROOPS OF HOUSES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said Samuel Miller, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in
His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next after,
the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and by the same (relation being
thereunto had) may more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Samuel Miller, do hereby declare that.my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, is particularly described by the Drawings here-.
unto annexed, and the following explanation thereof (that is to say):-
First, select a spot containing your crude materials, which is to consist of
those unctions earths or clays best adapted to your purpose. You are then

page_text: to work off the top earth a depth sufficient to contain water enough to float a
barge, and of a capacity large enough to contain a steam engine or horses, so
that, by its active force, the clays may be more expeditiously reduced into a
fluid by the admixture of water.
Figure 1 represents the plan of the barge: A, a circular opening through
the bottom. Figure 2, a section of the barge: A, the boiler; B, the steam
cylinder; C, the main crank and shaft fastened to the circular float D, which
float passes through the opening A, Figure 1, down to any required depth.
The machine being put into motion, the float D turns with considerable
velocity, and, by the means of a number of metal or wooden points, the clays
are divided into such small parts as will cause them to float when in motion.
The mixture is then to be pumped up into a trough, or lifted by any common
vessel by the power of the engine, so as to run off into the settling beds, or, if
found more convenient, left to settle in the reservoir which floats the engine.
During the time of this operation, the ashes which are to be fixed with
the clay are to be placed so as to pass through the rollers E, F, in order
to reduce them to a size sufficiently small to float in the tenacious fluid, which
it falls into and is mixed with by the motion of the float D. This method of
reducing the ashes small enough to float in the clay is to be applied in the
common method of washing, and are to be thrown into the circular washing
trough about a minute or two before the mixture is let to run into the settling
beds. For the preparation of all common materials, take this method:-
After the earth is dug, and is about to be used, soften it well with water, and
then throw it into a metal or wooden screen, as in Figure 3; the screen being
well shaken, the clay will fall through, and be seperated from the stones, &c.;
or the clay may not be quite so much softened, and so be pressed through the
screen, so as to seperate the stone or other adventitious substances. In the
meantime that the clay is passing through the screen the ashes are to be
mixed with it, either by throwing them with a shovel, as in Figure 4, or by
running down the trough, as in Figure 5, which trough may be fixed behind
the screen and shaker by the same force that acts on the screen, but in large
concerns horses are to be used in the tempering.
Figure 6 A, A, A, are a number of wheels of cast iron, such as are used
for barrows, to take the bricks from the backs to the clamps. B, B, pieces of
iron, acting as a harrow; C, C, a wire screen for taking out the stones. This
apparatus is drawn through the clay, and, when sufficiently tempered, the
ashes are to be placed in the trough D, and to be shaken out by the motion of
the machine into the clay. Though this machine is as convenient is any, yet
it is but of little consequence what kind is used. It seems only necessary to

page_text: get the strong cheap powers to act upon it with the least trouble; this I find,
for the common work, best effected by throwing the clay from the mass about
twenty feet to the length of some hundred, and from nine to twelve inches
deep. The horses or oxen drawing the machinery throwing it, when properly
slackened with water, will temper it much cheaper and better than hand
tempering, as practised about London. The clay so prepared is now to be
moulded into such forms as required, and in the following manner :-Take
two parallel boards of the length required, about seven or eight feet, and five
inches wide, one inch and a half thick; let there be made as many grooves
at the distance of the thickness of the bricks as they will contain; then they
are to be hung to the side of a board of the same length, whose breadth is to
be equal to the length of the brick; then take as many boards as grooves,
from eleven to twelve inches long, four inches and a half wide, and three
eighths of an inch thick, on to each of which is fixed a small board, called the
fence, five inches long, two inches wide, and one quarter of an inch thick at
top, and one eighth at bottom. These boards, so prepared, are then to be
placed in the grooves. This forms the mould for shaping the brick, the bottom
board being fixed to the cross piece A, Figure 8, together with the side boards,
the whole of which makes a barrow to bear off the bricks, as well as for
moulding them.
Figure 7 is a boy sanding the boards, which are placed in the grooves..
Figure 8, a boy putting the boards into the grooves.
Figure 9 is a man filling the moulds.
Figure 10 is the man cutting off, by means of the strained wire, the super-
fluous clay A.
Figure 11 is the man turning off the superfluous clay, which is made easy
by means of the barrow being hung on the centre A, B.
Figure 12 is the man bearing off the bricks to the hacks.
Figure 13 is the the boys hacking the bricks. A, a little boy taking the
side board B from the last brick hacked by the boy. C, D, a section of the.
barrow.
Figure 14 is the seconding machine for the best bricks. This machine is
to be used when the brick is so far dry that its sides will not adhere to the
mould by a strong pressure, yet yields to the force intended to give it a
correcter form than can be given in its moist state, as well as to press more
firmly together its parts. A, the stool; B, a block, the size of the brick;
C, D, E, the sides of the mould, which opens and shuts by the motion of the
lever F, and which lever forces into the mould tlie block G, and acts as the
pressure on the brick C; H, I, the two leading cords connected with the

page_text: mould by means of the pullies K, L. When the lever, F descends, the weight
M shuts the mould, and the catches N, O, confine the sides with the grooves
during the stroke. Upon the return of the lever the catches are disengaged,
and the weight M again opens the mould to receive another brick.
Figure 15 is the method for dividing the clay into its proper size for the
seconding machine, or to be left rough for the foundation of buildings. A, A,
a mould to hold the number you wish to make at one time; B, B, a frame,
with a number of wires strained to the breadth or thickness of the brick.
The mould then charged, the, wires are to be lifted up or forced down the
grooves through the clay, and then the brick discharged; the wires are to be
crossed in as many directions at right angles as found convenient, to cut the
greatest number possible in one mould.
Figure 16 is a square lump of clay, which is cut into a number of thick-
nesses for tiles, of all dimensions, then to stand by, to harden, for the seconding
machine. A, A, A, A, the frame, and wires sliding in the grooves B, B;
C, the clay.
Figure 17 is an end view of the barrow during the time the boys are putting
in the side boards of the mould. A, A, the sides of the barrow and end of the
mould; B, the bottom board; C, the side board of one of the moulds; D, the
catch, which is to be hooked into the notch E so soon as all the side boards of
the mould are put into the grooves. The middle of the long mould is secured
by a screw or any other kind of fastening.
Figure 18 is the nature of the side boards for the barrow or mould.
Figure 19, the flat view of the side boards of the mould.
Figure 20, edgeway of do.
Figure 21, the nature of the bricks in the building, as locked together, by
being indented on both sides.
Figure 22 shews the use of a brick of the dimensions, of nine inches by six
and three quarters, as a terminating brick. This secures the pier angles, &c.
of the building Letter, A, the common brick; B, the terminating brick.
Figure 23 is the boy colouring the best bricks.
The advantage to be derived from this process appears to consist in the
method of causing the machinery to be moved towards the clay, and not the
clay brought to the machine.. It is upon this principle the improvement is
founded for the preparation of the clays, and not in any particular mode of
moving its parts one among the other, which, is the cause of its being tempered..
I find it of very little consequence of what form or shape the instrument is of
for moving it; and it is extremely evident that the manufacturers in general,
in making common bricks, take the shortest and cheapest method, without any.

page_text: very particular attention to the tempering which is to give the brick its firm-
ness of texture; and therefore, by devising a means of tempering better at
less expence,
the object of inducing the manufacturer to make a better article
will be gained. The seconding machine will be found to give a greater
correctness to the forms of bricks and tiles, as well as giving their surfaces a
firmness for the better resisting the, damps, &c. The principle of the machine
is founded upon securing five sides of the parallelogram during the time the
operator forces down the piston or square block on the sixth by the power of
the lever. It may be effected by the screw and fly, or any other mechanical
contrivance.
The principal reason why those machines that have hitherto been invented
have failed in not manufacturing cheaper than the ordinary mode is,-first, the
machinery has been too expensive; secondly,, the keeping a plurality of
It
moulds in order fit for moulding has not been sufficiently attended to.
appears that the momentum or force given to the clay, in order to charge the
moulds sufficiently, forces the clay through the sand, and so causes it to
adhere to the sides of the mould, and soon renders the delivery difficult and
uncertain. Opening of the moulds assists the delivery; but still they required
the same cleansing, so that all the advantage gained by the first part of the
operation, viz., charging a plurality of them, was again lost in the expence of
cleansing, till I discovered the method of setting the moulds edgewise to
charge them, and thus, by making an indenture on both sides of the brick for
the better securing the buildings, I gained the advantage of a fence for pro-
tecting the sand;, but this I found would not make the delivery certain without
making a number of small grooves in the side boards, as represented in
Figure 20. By this method I find the side boards will face the brick in its
dimensions of nine inches by four inches and a half, never want any cleansing
on account of those grooves, and the front of the mould, which forms the end
of the brick, being an entire flat board with grooves, when opened, is cleansed
end for end, momentary. The principle upon which this advantage appears to
be founded is, from the clay being an elastic body, when thrown on a flat
surface, has no force but at right angles with the right line it is projected in,
and consequently, if projected on the surface A, Figure 24, its lateral force
would act along the lines B, B, B, till it touched the sand C, C, C, and then
its direction and force would alter in proportion to the obstruction, and be so
much reduced by the resistance of the sand that the momentum of the divided
columns would scarce reach the points D & E, much less those of F and G,
as more fully appears at the groove H, consequently cannot adhere to the
mould. Though the steam cylinder is placed horizontal for the sake of

page_text: simplicity, yet it may stand perpendicular, and give the float motion by the
ordinary running of such machines. It should be further observed, that this
plan includes the bearing of the clay from the spot where it is tempered to the
stacks by horses, and then to be moulded.
Figure 25, a section of the brick, with its indenture on both sides.
With respect to burning the bricks, coke should be used for the best bricks,
to prevent staining them in the burning. The indenting of the sideboards is
either in long grooves, round or square holes, or any other form which will
contain a greater quantity of sand than the flat surface.
Lastly, the more particularly distinguishing character of this mode of pre-
paring the clay upon an extensive scale is, that the clay is always under the
machinery.
.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Miller, have hereunto set my
band and seal, the Twelfth day of November, One thousand eight
hundred and one.
SAM MILLER (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twelfth day of November,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Samuel Miller came before our
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And
also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.
Turolled the come Twelfth day of Navonal