AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PRINTING IN VARIOUS COLORS SIMULTANEOUSLY
Year: 1856

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Jean Charles Boulay at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th November
1856.
I, JEAN CHARLES BOULAY, No. 34, Rue des Bernardins, in the City of Paris,
in the Empire of France, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PRINTING IN VARIOUS COLORS SIMULTANEOUSLY"
to be as follows:-
My inking table is composed of a frame similar to the chase of the typo
form, arranged with pieces of wood and rules or reglettes of metal corresponding
with the various lines of color required in the form to be printed. If a
placard or bill composed of six lines of type, ornament, &c., is to be printed in
six different colors, I place six wooden strips or rules in such a position in the
inking table or form as to correspond with the six lines of type, blocks, orna-
ments, &c., composing the printing form, each piece of wood being rather
wider than the line of type, &c. with which it is to correspond. The inking table
or form being thus arranged, I place a proper quantity of ink on each of the
rules; I then take an inking roller of the ordinary description; but provided

page_text: with guides or runners at each end, which guides pass along pieces of wood
or metal arranged for that purpose at the sides of the inking table, and by
means of the roller I distribute the ink along the entire length of each and
all the wooden rules composing the inking table. Having done this, the roller
is charged with all the colors placed upon the various sections or rules, each
rule contributing to the roller a band or ribbon of the ink with which it is
charged, so that for so many sections or rules as may be in the inking table
the roller will have as many bands of ink of the same color or of as many
various colors as the inking table may be supplied with. To ink the printing
form the roller is applied to it in the same relative position as it was applied
to the inking table, and the guides at the ends of the roller run in gutters or
grooves at the side of the type form corresponding with those at the side of
the inking form or table. By this means the ink taken off from each section
or rule of the inking table by the roller is transferred by the roller to the
corresponding line or section of the type form. My system is not confined to
any number of colors, and I can print in almost any number and in any
proportion, from a broad belt or strip of type down to a single hair line, the
various colors being arranged and varied according to requirement or taste.
When printing in gold, silver, &c. is required, the sections or rules for that
purpose must be supplied with the appropriate varnish in place of ink. All
the sections or rules of the inking table are so arranged that each may be
lifted separately to be supplied with ink, or all those of one color may bo
raised together and inked by means of a special roller for that color. Tho
above applies simply to printing in various colors arranged in lines parallel to
cach other, but by a slight modification of my apparatus I am able to print
various colors in the same horizontal or perpendicular line, and to alternate
& arrange them so as to produco checks or plaids iu many colors & in any
proportions simultaneously. I also print two, three, or more. colors on one
line of type, block, &c., in such a manner as that they may intermingle at the
edges & produce a shaded or rainbow tint; I can also simultaneously with the
printing rule the paper with what are called "feint" red or other.lines. In
applying my process of simultaneous printing to fabrics, oiled and painted
cloths; paper hangings, &c., I cover the sections or rules which receive the
color with flannel, felt. or other similar fabric.
I have also a modification of my system & apparatus by which I apply
the same principle to the printing of circular objects, or rather to such as are
afterwards to be applied to circular forms or forms consisting of a portion of
a circle, such as fans, lamp shades, etc. For this purpose the printing form

page_text: must of course be arranged in the required circles or curves; the inking form
or table must be arranged in like manner, and the inking roller is of a conical
shape, and it is kept in its proper position on the inking table, as well as on
the printing form, by means of a guide acting on the smaller end of the conical
roller.