The Useful Arts Employed in the Construction of Dwelling Houses. Second Edition — John Shaqi
The Useful Arts Employed in the Construction of Dwelling Houses. Second EditionAnonymous
History
The Useful Arts Employed in the Construction of Dwelling Houses. Second Edition
Anonymous
Architecture, Domestic; Building materials; Dwellings -- Design and construction
The Marquis of Tweeddale, having his attention drawn to the importance
of employing draining tiles in agriculture, directed his talents
to the invention of a machine which should make them so quickly as
to enable them to be sold at a low price. After many attempts, he
perfected a machine which worked out this object, and at the same time
possessed all the facilities for making common bricks. The machine is
not constructed on the principle of imitating the manual operation,
by forming the bricks in moulds; but it arrives at the same end in a
different and remarkable manner. The principle adopted is, to form
and protrude, by mechanical means, a continuous fillet of clay, of
the proper width and thickness for a brick, and to stop this act of
protrusion for a moment, whilst a length of the fillet equal to that
of a brick is cut off. This is effected by the following mechanical
arrangements:--Two vertical roller-wheels, one of them being placed
over the other, and having an interval between them equal to the
thickness of the intended bricks or tiles, are made to revolve in
contrary directions; consequently they draw between them the clay with
which they are fed on the one side (either by hand or by any mechanical
contrivance), and deliver it on the other in a highly compressed state,
and in the form of a straight, smooth, and even fillet of the width of
the rollers. To provide for the squareness and smoothness of the sides
of the fillet, the sides of the aperture through which the clay passes
are made square and neat, so as to prevent the clay from spreading
out laterally. The clay is supported in a horizontal position whilst
delivered to and received from the rollers, upon a short endless band
on each side revolving on rollers rather close together; and in order
to facilitate this object the rollers themselves have bands, which are
prolonged in the direction of the endless bands in such a manner as to
meet them, and form one horizontal line of support. These bands are
made of fustian, the nap of which prevents the adhesion of the clay.
The rollers are so acted on by the working power that they protrude
a length of clay equal to the required length of the brick or tile,
and then stopping, they allow time for a straight stretched wire to
descend and cut off the brick or tile, after which the motion between
the rollers is resumed, until another length is protruded, and so on
continuously. The fillet of clay is double the width for a brick, and a
wire is kept constantly stretched in the middle of its path, dividing
it into two fillets, so that two bricks are cut off at once. Two boys
are sufficient to remove the bricks as fast as they are produced, which
is at the rate of from fifteen to eighteen hundred in an hour. The
consistence of the clay is so much stiffer than that used for hand-made
bricks, that only half the time is required in the drying. From there
being so little water in the clay, and from its undergoing so much
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