Tile-making Machine. 



149 



revolving cylinders, compressing it with great force, so as to give it a 

 consistency and firmness unattainable by hand labour. 



The clay thus flattened by the rollers is drawn forT\'ard by the 

 machinery on a web of canvass, and passed through moulds which give 

 it the exact shape which it may be required to bear, when it is cut off, 

 by a very simple process, at any length which the maker may desire : 

 thus, every tile being pressed in precisely the same manner, passed 

 through the same moulds, and cut off at exactly the same length, they 

 all obtain a imiformity of size and construction which is not to be at- 

 tained to a similar extent by any other manner. 



The tile, being thus made, is carried away by an endless web passing 

 over rollers w^hich are turned by the same machinery that makes the 

 tile, and thus travel of their own accord without the labour of carriage, 

 betw^een the sheds erected for their reception, in which they are placed 

 in rows on either side by labourers stationed for the purpose. 



By these means four or five men can in a day make with ease from 

 8 to 10,000 tiles, all of uniform shape, size, and consistency, and when 

 formed of good clay and properly burnt attain almost the durability and 

 firmness of stone. It may indeed be safely affirmed of them, that if 

 properly planted in the soil they would last almost for ever. 



Nor is durability after the tile is laid down the only advantage in its 

 construction ; for all who have used the tiles made by hand will have 

 experienced how great a loss arises in the breakage occasioned by their 

 carriage from the tile-yard to the spot where they are to be used, as 

 well as by the labourers employed in putting them into the ground ; in^ 

 creasing their cost often as much as ten per cent., which loss falls 

 entirely on the consumer. 



The patent for the manufacture of these tiles has been assigned to a 

 company whose object is to introduce it extensively throughout the 

 kingdom : possessed of large capital, they have the means of erecting 

 the most efficient working establishments, and of producing tiles of 

 superior qualities at a cost much under the average market-price, and 

 they are prepared to establish works on the estate of any landowner 

 whose consumption of tiles, coupled with the demand of the neigh- 

 bourhood, is sufficient to justify the necessary outlay for building sheds, 

 kilns, &c., and to manufacture the tiles at a price to be agreed upon ; 

 or if works are at present in operation, the company are willing to 

 become the tenants of them, paying a fair rental for the buildings and 

 a royalty per thousand for the clay. 



They have at present establishments working at Strathfieldsaye, 

 Hants; Broom Hill, near Alnwick; Sandon Bank, near Stafford; 

 Thatcham, Berkshire ; Hanwell, Middlesex ; Chippenham, Wiltshire; 

 Brixton Hill, Surrey I and are proceeding with the erection of others 

 at Reading; Hull; Howden, Yorkshire; Coldstream, Berwickshire; 

 Windsor Great Park, for Her Majesty's Commissioners of Woods and 

 Forests. 



The price of the patent tiles varies with the cost of fuel, &c., but the 

 company have found no difficulty, where the demand has been consider- 

 able, in supplying them at a reduction in price varying from 10 to 20 

 per cent. 



