New Machine for Constructing l^iles. 399 



4000 per day is considered good work ; whereas, in most of the 

 brick-fields in the neighbourhood of London, 8000 to 9000 are 

 made : I have known 10,000 made. I find few men at first can 

 fill the box and cut the tiles, in Irving's machine, in much less 

 than 4 minutes (containing 16 tiles), but after good practice they 

 will do the work in one minute : yet this is too quick for practical 

 use, as the boys could not wash and take that quantity away, as 

 it would be equal to nearly 10,000 per day of 10 hours' work. 

 But the economy of labour effected by the machine is not confined 

 to the cutting or moulding 16 tiles in this short time, but from the 

 tiles being drawn out together in a heap, like the leaves of a book 

 standing up : it employs two boys, one on each side, to wash off 

 or shape, by placing the horn against the tile as standing, thereby 

 saving the time and risk attendant upon carrying the tiles singly 

 in the hand from the moulder to the horn. Another improve- 

 ment effected is by the use of a wooden washer, invented and 

 registered by myself, by which the operation of shaping or wash- 

 ing off is not only greatly facilitated, but the crack (particularly 

 in brittle clay) in the tile caused by the bending upon the horn 

 is effectually closed, and great strength given to the crown of the 

 tile. In fact, such is the strength of our smallest tiles that they 

 will support a man standing upon them edgeways. In making 

 the soles for placing at the bottom of the drain-tile (now used 

 in all permanent drainage), nothing can exceed the simplicity 

 and despatch : thus the 16 tiles are drawn out of the box as wire 

 attached to a frame is drawn through the centre, thereby making 

 32 soles at a time. 



In reference to the quantity this machine is capable of making, 

 I am perfectly satisfied its full capabilities would rarely be neces- 

 sary, inasmuch as 3000 per day (equal to nearly 500,000 per 

 annum) would be quite as much as necessary for one establish- 

 ment : and for this reason, that the average quantity of tiles 

 required to drain an acre of land does not exceed 2250 ; and that in 

 the neighbourhood of one tile-work — say 4 miles — the drainage in 

 operation would not exceed 150 acres per annum; consequently, 

 the quantity necessary for the demand would seldom exceed 

 337,500 tiles per annum ; that, as the absolute cost of labour 

 in the operation of making drain-tiles, from the digging of the 

 clay to the burning of the tiles inclusive, does not exceed 9s. per 

 thousand, it is therefore my opinion that no establishment need 

 be of greater capacity than to command that space or distance, 

 beyond which the expense of cartage would much exceed half the 

 cost of making; and, at a moderate calculation, carting is 8d. per 

 ton per mile, or nearly l^". 4.d. per 1000 drain-tiles per mile. 

 Upon this calculation it would be bad economy to erect tile- 

 works capable of supplying a distance exceeding 4 to 5 miles. 



