[13] Mr. Newton, in his London Journal, February, 1837.
[Fig. 178.] represents, in elevation, the first-mentioned machine for moulding bricks. The moulds are formed in the face of a circular plate or wheel a a, a portion of the upper surface of which is represented in the horizontal view, [fig. 179.] Any convenient number of these moulds are set radially in the wheel, which is mounted upon a central pivot, supported by the masonry b b. There is a rim of teeth round the outer edge of the wheel a a, which take into a pinion c, on a shaft connected to the first mover; and by these means the wheel a, with the moulding boxes, is made to revolve horizontally, guided by arms with anti-friction rollers, which run round a horizontal plate a a, fixed upon the masonry.
A hopper e, filled with the brick earth shown with one of the moulding boxes in section, is fixed above the face of the wheel in such a way, that the earth may descend from the hopper into the several moulding boxes as the wheel passes round under it; the earth being pressed into the moulds, and its surface scraped off smooth by a conical roller f, in the bottom of the hopper.
Through the bottom of each moulding box there is a hole for the passage of a piston rod g, the upper end of which rod carries a piston with a wooden pallet upon it, acting within the moulding box; and the lower end of this rod has a small anti-friction roller which, as the wheel a revolves, runs round upon the face of an oblique ring or inclined way h h, fixed upon the masonry.
The clay is introduced into the moulding boxes from the hopper, fixed over the lowest part of the inclined way h, and it will be perceived that as the wheel revolves, the piston rods g, in passing up the inclined way, will cause the pistons to force the new-moulded bricks, with their pallet or board under them, severally up the mould, into the situation shown at i, in [fig. 178.], from whence they are to be removed by hand. Fresh pallets being then placed upon the several pistons, they, with the moulds, will be ready for moulding fresh bricks, when, by the rotation of the wheel a, they are severally brought under the hopper, the pistons having sunk to the bottoms of their boxes, as the piston rods passed down the other side of the inclined way h.
The patentee says, after having described the first head of his invention, he would have it understood that the same may be varied without departing from the main object of the invention; viz. that of arranging a series of moulds when worked by means of an inclined track, and in such manner that bricks, tiles, or other articles made of brick earth, may be capable of being formed in a mould with pallets or boards laid within the moulds, and constituting the bottoms thereof, the bricks being removed from out of the moulds, with the pallets or boards under them, as above described. “I do not, therefore, confine myself to the precise arrangement of the machine here shown, though it is the best with which I am acquainted for the purpose.”
