Kinzel v. Luttrell Brick Co.

• Decision Date: 07 May 1895
• Docket Number: 268.
• Citation: Kinzel v. Luttrell Brick Co., 67 F. 926 (6th Cir. 1895)
• Parties: KINZEL v. LUTTRELL BRICK CO. et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

67 F. 926

KINZEL v. LUTTRELL BRICK CO. et al.

No. 268.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

May 7, 1895

This was a bill to restrain the infringement of a patent.The complainant, the patentee, was John C. Kinzel, of Knoxville Tenn.The patent was granted the 29th of March, 1892, and was for a brickkiln in which the brick are both dried and burned by coal fire, and the usual preliminary drying by wood or coke fire is dispensed with.The patent describes the kiln as follows: The base or floor of the kiln is constructed of dirt suitably banked up above the level of the ground.At the sides of the kiln are two brick walls, seven or eight feet in height.Through these walls are openings into furnace pits.The pits are lined with brick walls, which extend upward to the level of the floor.There is a grate bar in each pit at least one foot below the level of the base of the kiln, and below the grate bars are the ash pits.There are doors closing the openings into the furnace pits through which the furnace may be fed, and openings are also provided to which access may be had to the ash pits.The furnaces extend inwardly from both walls towards the longitudinal center of the kiln, and may be of any desired depth or length.The brick to be burned are built up between the side walls in the usual manner, tunnels or flues being formed transversely in the kiln directly over the furnaces.Two furnaces are arranged opposite each other, so that one tunnel or flue will serve to connect two of the furnaces.In piling the brick in the kiln, the individual bricks are so arranged in relation to each other as to admit the passage of the flame and combustion in the usual way.The brick, having been piled within the kiln, are surrounded by casing consisting of a four-inch wall slanting towards the top, in two steps or terraces.The lower part of the casing is made to rest upon the side walls.The ends of the kiln are banked up with dirt, kept in place by means of planks and braces and provided with a cap also constructed of planks.When the kiln is built according to the foregoing description, it may be sweated or dried out with soft slack coal, which is much less expensive and requires much less attention than either wood or coke.A kiln constructed in accordance with this invention, it is said, may be burned in from 75 to 80 hours while with other kilns it takes nearly twice that time.The fires may be raked and the clinkers removed during burning without opening the furnace doors thus preventing cold air from entering and damaging the brick while in kiln.This is owing to the arrangement of the grate bars, say, one foot below the floor level of the kiln, as herein described; thus giving space for raking the fires without the necessity of opening the doors.The claim of the patentee is as follows 'In the brickkiln, the combination of the bed or...