Improved Brick Machine

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This machine is intended to make bricks from dry clay by pressure, and the various mechanical contrivances of which it is constrncted are designed to feed exactly the proper amonnt of clay into the mold, and to give it a slow, steady pressnre from the top and bottom simultaneously. Various thicknesses of bricks can be made in one machine, and a large one, operated by two horses attached to a twelve foot lever, will make sixty bricks per minnte. Fig. 1 represents a view of the machine, and Fig. 2 a top view of the same with the upper cover or frame removed. The same letters of reference indicate similar parts in each. A is the bed plate, B the standards, and C the top of the machine. D is the gearing which gives motion to the whole. E is a large wheel, in the rim of which are a number of rectangular perforations, e, exactly the size of the brick to be manufactured. J is the central shaft of the machine. Having now given an outline of the principal parts, we will proceed to describe, first, the feeding device, and then the press or brick-making apparatus. The feeding device consists in the hopper, F, and spont, G, into which the dry clay is { placed ; from thisit falls into rectangnlar boxes, A H, (Fig, 2^ having no top or bottom. These A have small bars attached to their backs, hav-feing on them studs that work in a groove in the cam wheel or eccentric, I (shown by dotted lines in Fig. 2) ; this eccentric is fastencd to and suspended from the upper frame work, and the boxes moving round it are pushed out over the mold, e, when the two plungers are farthest apart, and so delivers the clay into the mold, and are brought back when the plungers begin to be compressed on the mold. The brick-making device is very simple and perfect. There are a series of plungers, K, on the top, each provided with a friction roller, k, and are attached at the back to an inner metallic circlc, L, by means of a little wheel, l, travel over an inclined track, M. There are also a cOlTesponding number of bottom plungers, N, one for each mold, which work in slots in the revcrse direction to the top plungers, and so arranged that they separate and meet in union. The yolk, 0, is a heavy casting, as strong as possible, and having its edges tnrned in as seen at 0, Fig. 1, and these incline towards each other forming a circular inclined plane on which the bottom plungers, N, and under which, the top plungers, K, have to travel. The operation is as follows :The gearing, D, is turned, and the clay filled into the hopper, F, from which it falls into the boxes, H, and from them into the holes or molds, e; they with their plungers, N and K, pass under the inclined edge of 0, and so a gradual but powerful pressure is given them ; the pressure is sufficiently slow to allow the air to perfectly escape, and powerful enough to make a perfect brick. The plungers then rise, thus forcing the brick into the rim of E, where it meets with the guider, P, and that pushes it in to the platform, Q, from which an assistant takes the bricks to the kiln to be baked. The process is continuous, and a most perfect brick is tnrned onto Any power can be used, and any nnmber of bricks made in the machine. It is the invention of Joseph W. Jayne, and was patented by him on the 5th of May, 1857. For further information, address the inyentor at Philadelphia, Pa., or Wm. B. Betts, St. Louis, Mo.

Scientific American Magazine Vol 13 Issue 11This article was published with the title “Improved Brick Machine” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 13 No. 11 (), p. 81
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican11211857-81a

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