526 



BRICK 



r- 



Tho mould being open at top and bottom, the material is allowed to pass into it, 

 when situated exactly under the cylinder ; and the lower side of the mould, when eo 



254 



placed, it is to be closed by a flat board d, supported by the trucks, which is raised by 

 a lever and roller beneath, running upon a plain rail with inclined ends. 



The central shaft, /, is kept in continual rotatory motion, by the revolution of the 

 upper horizontal wheel g, of which it is the axis ; and this wheel may be turned by a 

 horse yoked to a radiating arm, or by any other means. A part of the circumference 

 of the wheel g, has teeth, which are intended at certain periods of its revolution to 

 take into a toothed pinion, fixed upon the top of a vertical shaft h h. At the lower 

 part of this vertical shaft there is a pulley i, over which a chain is passed that is con- 

 nected to the two moulds c, and to the frame in which the trucks are supported ; by 

 the rotation of the vertical shaft, the pulley winds a chain, and draws the moulds and 

 truck frames along. 



The clay and other material having been forced down from the cylinder into the 

 mould, the teeth of the horizontal wheel g, now come into gear with the pinion upon 

 h, and turn it and the shaft and pulley t, by which the chain is wound, and the mould 

 at the right hand of the machine brought into the situation shown in the figure ; a 

 scraper or edge-bar under the pug-mill having levelled the upper face of the clay in 

 the mould, and the board d, supported by the truck e, formed the flat under-side. 



The mould being brought into this position, it is now necessary to compress the 

 materials, which is done by the descent of the plungers kk, A friction-roller I, 

 pendant from the under side of the horizontal wheel, as that wheel revolves, comes in 

 contact with an inclined plane, at the top of the shaft of the plungers ; and, as the 

 friction-roller passes over this inclined plane, the plungers are made to descend into 

 the mould, and to compress the material ; the resistance of the board beneath causing 

 the clay to be squeezed into a compact state. When this has been effectually accom- 

 plished, the further descent of the plungers brings a pin, m, against the upper end of 

 a quadrant catch-level, n, and, by depressing this quadrant, causes the balance-lever 

 n^on which the truck is now supported to rise at that end, and to allow the truck 

 with the board d to descend, as shown by dots ; the plungers at the same time forcing 

 out the bricks from the moulds, whereby they are deposited upon the board d ; when, 

 by drawing the truck forward out of the nmchine, the board with the bricks may be 

 removed, and replaced by another board. The truck may then be again introduced 

 into the machine, ready to receive the next parcel of bricks. 



By the time that the discharge of the bricks from this mould has been effected, the 

 other mould under the pug cylinder has become filled with the clay, when the teeth of 

 the horizontal wheel coming round, take into a pinion upon the top of a vertical 



