IMPROVE- MENTS IN PRINTING MACHINERY
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William James Ingram, of the Strand, in the
City of Westminster, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PRINTING MACHINERY."
Sealed the 6th October 1875, and dated the 14th April 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William James Ingram
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 14th April 1875.
I, WILLIAM JAMES INGRAM, of the Strand, in the City of West-
minster, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING MACHINERY," to be as follows .-
The main object of my Invention of improvements in printing
machinery is to print in a better and more rapid manner than heretofore
from curved surfaces in which cuts or illustrations are combined with
the letter-press.
It has been found in practice that "cuts" or engravings require much
more careful inking than the letter-press, and that the ordinary inking

page_text: arrangements which are found to answer very well for printing letter-press
give but very imperfect work from engravings or cuts
will
It has also
been well nigh impossible to obtain satisfactory impressions from "cuts"
or engraved plates bent to the sharp curve required to correspond to
printing cylinders of the ordinary size.
"
In order to overcome these difficulties I considerably increase the
""
cuts
diameter of the printing cylinder to which the
or engraved
plates are to be adapted, so that the curves to which theso cuts or
engraved plates are bent may be gentler and of longer radius than the
curved surface of the other printing cylinder. By this means I am also
enabled to place on the same printing cylinder two, three, or more copics
of the "cuts" or engravings, so that while the surface speed of the large
and small printing cylinders is the same the small cylinder will rotate
two, three, or more times for every revolution of the large cylinder. The
impression cylinder which acts in conjunction with the large printing
cylinder is also correspondingly increased in size, and rotates at the same
surface speed.
My next improvement relates to the inking apparatus which is used
in conjunction with the large printing cylinder, and consists in the use
of an increased number of inking rollers and distributing rollers, so that
the engravings may be more perfectly inked than heretofore. The ink,
as is usual, is transferred by a vibrating roller from the ductor or foun-
tain roller to the first distributing cylinder, from which it is taken by
two rollers and is deposited on a second distributing cylinder, to which
an endway motion is given by means of any suitable mechanism. The
ink is thereby evenly distributed over the surface of this second cylinder,
from which it is transferred by other rollers to two other distributing
cylinders, in contact with which four inking rollers rotate, and take there-
from the ink, which they transfer to the printing surface. In this
manner the cuts or engravings are plentifully and evenly supplied with
ink and good impressions are obtained therefrom.
My improvements are particularly adapted to the continuous web press
in which the paper to be printed is drawn from a long roll, and after
being printed is divided or cut up into sheets by means of a cutting
apparatus, and the sheets are then folded ready for sale or distribution.
-

page_text: filed by the said William James Ingram in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 14th October 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
JAMES INGRAM, of the Strand, in the City of Westminster, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said William James Ingram, Her
special license that I, the said William James Ingram, my exccutors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
James Ingram, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, excrcise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING MACHINERY,” upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William James Ingram, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or
one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William James Ingram, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawing
hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is
to say).-
The main object of my Invention of "Improvements in Printing
Machinery" is to print in a better and more rapid manner than heretofore
from curved surfaces in which cuts or illustrations are combined with the
letter-press.

page_text: "
It has been found in practice that “cuts or engravings require much
more careful inking than the letter-press, and that the ordinary inking
arrangements, which are found to answer very well for printing letter-
will give but very imperfect work from engravings or cuts
It has
press,
also been well nigh impossible to obtain satisfactory impressions from
"cuts" or engraved plates bent to the sharp curve required to correspond
to printing cylinders of the ordinary size
In order to overcome these difficulties I considerably increase the
diameter of the printing cylinder to which the “cuts" or engraved
plates are to be adapted, so that the curves to which these "cuts" or
engraved plates are bent may be gentler and of longer radius than the
curved surface of the other printing cylinder. By this means I am also
enabled to place on the same printing cylinder two, three, or more copics
of the cuts or engravings, so that while the surface speed of the large
and small printing cylinders is the same, the small cylinder, if it contains
only one set of stercotype plates for the letter-press, will rotate two,
three, or more times for every revolution of the large cylinder. The
impression cylinder which acts in conjunction with the large printing
cylinder is also correspondingly increased in size, and rotates at the same
surface speed. If desired the type cylinder may be increased in size so
as to be capable of receiving a duplicate set of stereotype plates for the
letter-press, while the large cylinder will have a triplicate or other suit-
.able number of set of cuts for the engravings. The large printing
cylinders will therefore perform two-thirds of a revolution while the
smaller or type cylinder is making one completo revolution.
My next improvement relates to the inking apparatus, which is used
in conjunction with the large printing cylinder, and consists in the use
of an increased number of inking rollers and distributing rollers, so that
the engravings may be more perfectly inked than heretofore. The ink,
as is usual, is transferred by a vibrating roller from the ductor or fountain
roller to the first distributing cylinder, from wluch it is taken by two
rollers, and is deposited on a second distributing cylinder, to which an
endway motion is given by means of any suitable mechanism. The ink
is thereby evenly distributed over the surface of this second cylinder,
from which it is transferred by other rollers to two other distributing
cylinders, in contact with which four inking rollers rotate, and take
therefrom the ink, which they transfer to the printing surface. In this

page_text: manner the cuts or engravings are plentifully and evenly supplied with
ink, and good impressions are obtained therefrom.
My improvements are particularly adapted to the continuous wob press
in which the paper to be printed is drawn from a long roller, and after
being printed is divided or cut up into sheets by means of a cutting
apparatus, and the sheets are then folded ready for sale or distribution.
In the accompanying Drawings Fig. 1, Sheet I., is a side clovation of
a printing machine constructed according to my improvements for
printing an illustrated paper or book from a continuous web of paper;
Fig. 2, Sheet II., is a plan view of the same, and Fig. 3, Sheet III, is
a sectional view or diagram showing the position of the printing and
impression cylinders, the inking and distributing rollers, and their appen-
dages, the framework and driving gear of the machine being removed
in order to simplify the Drawing and avoid confusion.
The continuous web of paper is wound on a roller a, and is led from
thence to the first impression cylinder b, which is of the ordinary con-
struction, and carries the paper forward to receive the first impression on
one side of the paper from the type cylinder c, which receives its ink
from a set of inking rollers d, d, d, d, arranged round a large distributing
cylinder d³, which is supplied with ink by the vibrating carrying roller ď
from the ductor or fountain roller d³. Some of these rollers have an
endway motion given to them for the purpose of more evenly dis-
tributing the ink on the cylinder d¹, as is well known. All this is the
ordinary arrangement or construction of parts connected with the inking
apparatus in printing machines of this class except that the type
cylinder c and the impression cylinder bare made large enough in cir-
cumference to receive and act upon two sets or duplicates of the stereo-
type plates, so that at every complete revolution of the cylinders b and c
two duplicate impressions will be produced on the continuous sheet.
The paper having received its two impressions on one side from the type
cylinder c is carried forward and passes between a pair of pressing
rollers e, e, to the second impression cylinder f, which is so adjusted in
position relatively to the other impression cylinder 6 that the impression
to be given by the impression cylinder ƒ and printing cylinder 9 on the
other side of the paper shall accurately register with that which has just
been given from the printing cylinders b and c. The same surface speed
is given to the pressing rollers e, e, as to the printing rollers b and c, and
•

page_text: consequently to the paper The function of these rollers (the lower of
which may be made of paper and the upper one of iron or other metal),
is to press the paper and flatten down the projecting maiks produced by
the type, so that there shall be a fair, smooth, and even surface on the
other side of the paper to receive the impression of the cuts mounted on
the large printing cylinder g The pressing rollers e, e, not only smooth
the paper by flattening down the indentations caused by the type or
printing surface of the cylinder c, but the upper pressing roller as the
printed paper passes in contact therewith takes up the superfluous ink
from the printed surface, and prevents it from setting off on the blankets
of the large impression cylinder f. The ink thus taken up by the top
pressing roller e-is-removed from its surface by the cylindrical bar or
pad e*, the surface of which is covered with unwashed wool, that is, wool
in the state it comes from the sheep's back, because in this state it con-
tains just the right quantity of grease. This bar e* is stationary, and
therefore the surface of the roller e as it rotates rubs against it, but it is
capable of being moved round on its axis from time to time so as to
present a fresh surface to the roller e. The circumference of the
cylinders b and c is one-third smaller than that of the other two printing
cylinders and g, the cylinder g is therefore calculated to receive a
triplicate set of cuts, while the type cylinder c will only receive a
duplicate set of stereotypo plates for the letter-press, it will be evident,
therefore, that whereas every complete revolution of the printing
cylinders b and c will produce two impressions on one side of the paper,
as already explained. Every complete revolution of the larger printing
cylinders and g will produce three impressions on the other side of the
paper As, however, the cuts on the cylinder 9 will require a larger
quantity of ink and more careful inking than ordinary type or the stereo-
type plates on the cylinder c, I employ a special, peculiar, and novel
arrangement of apparatus for inking the cuts or engraved plates on the
cylinder g.
This part of my Invention will be best understood by referring to
Fig. 3, in which d³ is the ductor or fountain roller, from which the ink
is taken by the vibrating roller d², and is transferred intermittently to the
large distributing roller d. Two small rollers d, d, take the ink from d'
and transfer it to a second large distributing roller d', to which a recipro-
cating endway motion is communicated by means of suitable gearing, as
shewn at Figures 1 and 2. The ink is thereby distributed evenly over

page_text: the surface of the roller d', from which it is transferred by the four
small rollers d, d, d, d, to two other large distributing rollers ď³, ď³, in
contact with which four large inking rollers d³, d³, dº, dº, rotato and
take therefrom the ink, which they transfer to the printing surface of the
large cylinder 9 By this means I am enabled to provide the engraved
surfaces on the cylinder with a plentiful and uniform supply of ink,
so that good impressions of the cuts may be obtained therefrom. The
paper having thus been printed on both sides the continuous sheet is
carried forward to the cutting cylinders or rollers h, h, which are of the
ordinary construction, one being provided with a serrated cutting edge
and the other with an elastic cushion or other equivalent device to cut
against. By this means the paper will be partially divided, and in this
state is conducted by the carrying tapes and rollers i, 2, to the tapes and
rollers j, 3, as indicated by the blue line in Fig. 3 A slightly accelerated
or quicker motion is given to the rollers j, 3, than to the rollers 1, 2,
therefore when the paper enters between the nip of the rollers j, j, it
will be drawn forward quicker than it is delivered by the rollers 2, i, above,
and consequently will be completely severed in the form of separate
sheets from the continuous web as it travels forward
These separate
printed sheets will be delivered by the severing rollers J, j, either to a
folding apparatus, where the sheets will be properly folded ready for sale
or distribution, or they will be deposited by a fly frame on a receiving
table provided for the purpose.
The several working parts are driven by the gearing indicated by red
lines in Figures 1, in which k is the main driving shaft, on which is
mounted a toothed wheel k³, which gears into another toothed wheel on
the axle of and of the same diameter as the engraved plate cylinder g.
This wheel gears into another toothed wheel f¹, Fig. 2 (of the same size
and number of teeth), mounted on the axle of the impression cylinder f.
Another toothed wheel 2, Figures 1 and 2 (but of larger diameter), on
the axle of the impression cylinder ƒ gears into and drives a wheel 6' on
the axle of the smaller impression cylinder b. The axle of this cylinder
also carries another toothed wheel (of the same diameter as the cylinder),
which gears into a similar wheel c¹ of the same diameter and number of
teeth on the axle of the type cylinder c.

page_text: I also claim the use of the pressing rollers e, e, and the cylinder bar
or wool pad e*, for the purposes horcin set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William James Ingram, have
hercunto set my hand and seal, the Thirteenth day of October,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.
WILLIAM JAMES INGRAM. (L.S.)