AN IMPROVED MODE OR METHOD OF RAISING OR PRODUCING DESIGNS, PATTERNS, OR IMPRESSIONS ON THE SURFACES OF PLATES, BLOCKS, OR ROLLERS, AND TRANS- FERRING OR IMPARTING THE SAME TO PAPER, PARCHMENT, WOVEN FABRICS, LEATHER, OR OTHER SIMILAR MATERIALS
Year: 1856

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Gustavus Ernst and William Lorberg.
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the
25th October 1856.
We, GUSTAVUS ERNST, of the City of Manchester, in the County of Lan-"
caster, Engraver and Printer, and WILLIAM LORDERG, of the same Place,
Manufacturing Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED MODE OR METHOD OF RAISING OR PRODUCING DESIGNS, PATTERNS,
OR IMPRESSIONS ON THE SURFACES OF PLATES, BLOCKS, OR ROLLERS, AND TRANS-
FERRING OR IMPARTING THE SAME TO PAPER, PARCHMENT, WOVEN FABRICS, LEATHER,
OR OTHER SIMILAR MATERIALS," to be as follows:-
In making original drawings, or producing any original design or matter,
we execute them directly either on a metal plate or on transfer paper with
chalk or lithographic ink, the said chalk to be composed of wax, soap, tallow,
suct, saltpetre, or other alkali with some colouring matter, the lithographic
ink to be composed of wax, soap, mastic, shellac, and any colouring matter.
The transfer ink is composed of wax, tallow, soft soap, varnish, Venice
turpentine, and some colouring matter, or it may be made of wax, suet,
soap, shellac, pitch, asphaltum and colouring matter. The transfer paper is
made of jelly, starch, gamboge, or starch, gum tragacanth, glue, chalk,
gamboge and water. If copies only are required, we transfer them with
the transfer ink to the metal plate, we then pass this metal plate through
a solution of some alkali or acid for the purpose of cleansing it, and protect

page_text: it at the back part by some common varnish, made of wax, tallow, or similar
matters, and then place it in a solution of the same metal as itself and connect
to a galvanic apparatus. By this process the unprotected parts of the plate
are quickly dissolved, leaving the design or subject untouched in relief on the
surface of the plate. Now it is evident that by this plan or process the tedious
methods of printing by copper-plate and lithographic stones may be entirely
dispensed with, these plates or blocks with the designs so raised on the surfaces
being perfectly adapted to the expeditious process of letter-press printing, and
by making the said plates or blocks the same thickness as the fount or type,
they may be set up and worked together, as engraved wood blocks are now
used. It will also be evident that by multiplying the number of plates or
blocks any number of different colours may be used in printing the designs
or patterns.
Another very great advantage will be gained by our Invention, that of
dispensing entirely with the process of stereotyping, by which a very heavy
capital is sunk in a printer's establishment. To accomplish this advantage,
we only take a copy of the work to be preserved on our transfer paper
and produce a metal copy from it at any time when desired. In printing
woven fabrics by blocks or rollers with raised surfaces the present machinery
may perhaps require alteration in the construction, to which alterations we
lay no claim, but if it is found by experience that the raised design is objec-
tionable, we can sink or etch it by the process' herein described.