CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF PAPER DESIGNED FOR BANK NOTES, GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS, BILLS, CHEQUES, DEEDS, AND OTHER PUR- POSES WHEREIN PROTECTION AND SAFETY PROM FORGERIES OR COUNTERFEITS ARE REQUIRED
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Tenth day of June, in the sixth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Newton, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said William Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
and such others as I, the said William Newton, my executors, administrators,
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and -Man, an
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF PAPER DESIGNED FOR
BANK NOTES, GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS, BILLS, CHEQUES, DEEDS, AND OTHER PUR-
POSES WHEREIN PROTECTION AND SAFETY PROM FORGERIES OR COUNTERFEITS ARE
REQUIRED," being a communication from a Foreigner residing abroad; in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William
Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner

page_text: the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calender months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and
by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Newton, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof (that is to say):-
This Invention has been communicated to me by my Correspondent abroad
in nearly the following words :-The improvements in the preparation of paper
designed for bank notes, Government documents, bills, cheques, deeds, and
other purposes wherein protection from forgeries are required, consist in
covering both sides of the paper used for the above objects with designs
arranged and printed in such a manner that they cannot be imitated by the
hand of man or the agency of machinery, nor transferred upon stone and then
reproduced by any of the means known in lithography. It is a well-known
thing that stamped paper used for deeds may be washed. and. used again for
other deeds, the Government stamps. being. preserved unmutilated, and that
part of the writing may be taken out and other words substituted; also that
figures and indications of sums of monies may be. altered by. chemical processes
the stamp remaining entire, as well as the body of the document. Now; the
present Invention has for its object,-first, to render it impossible to, wash out
any portion of the writing and substitute other words; second, to guard;
against any partial alteration made in the tenor or wording of the deed or
other document for fraudulent purposes; third; consequently to increase the
revenue of the Stamp Office, by preventing the impossibility of stamped papers
being used more than once; fourth, to give to commercial transactions all,
the security required. The designs printed on the surface of the paper, and,
on each side thereof, must be so organised as to render it. impossible,-first,.
to imitate the matrix or mother plate from which the design is obtained;
second, to trace or copy by hand all the elements or parts of the. design with.
lithographic ink, for the purpose of transferring it upon. stone; and third, to
transfer the whole design on to lithographic stone, and from which, proofs
may be afterwards taken. These results are attained by the improvements.
forming the object of the above in part recited Letters. Patent, for the perfect
inteligence of which I shall describe the nature of the paper. to be used, the
designs to be employed, the mode of organising and engraving them, the
printing of the same, and the nature of the inks.

page_text: Choice of Paper.-The paper used for deeds and documents of all kinds
must be of such a kind or nature as to present all the requisites of durability.
Two sorts of paper are manufactured, the one made by the hand, and called
hand-made; the other made by a paper machine, and called continuous or
machine-made paper: The manufacturer of continuous or endless paper
cannot conveniently use pulp pounded by mallets or beaters, as is the case for
paper made by hand, the fibres of such pulp being too long to drain on the
endless wire cloth. From hence arises the necessity of using grinding cylinders
of great power, in order to convert the rags into a very fine pulp; as a neces-
sary consequence the continuous or machine-made paper is of a finer quality,
but is not so strong as the hand-made paper. The papers, the pulp of which
has been bleached by chlorine, ought not to be used for making a safety paper;
that is to say, paper presenting all the above-mentioned conditions, for the
chlorine weakens the pulp, and opposes obstacles almost unsurmountable to the
making of safety paper. Papers manufactured in this manner, however carefully
they are made, always retain certain chemical agents, which after a time act
upon and eventually may possibly destroy the vegetable substances used for
coloring the inks. It is known, that on some papers manufactured in the above
manner; the writing becomes obliterated and illegible in a very short time. It'
is therefore of the utmost importance; in the production of safety paper, to employ
only paper manufactured by hand with rags naturally white, and not bleached
by chlorine. This observation has only for its object the production of a paper
of the greatest possible durability, and not containing any chemical agents
likely to attack the ink; but the improved method of preparing paper for
all the purposes above mentioned, may be applied to continuous or machine-
made paper in the same manner as to paper made by hand.
Nature of the Designs.-It is not sufficient that the design engraved should
be difficult or impossible to copy, it is also necessary that any falsification may
be easily detected, and that the subscriber of a promisery note, the drawer of
a bill of exchange, or any one else, should be able at a simple inspection of the
documents to ascertain whether the design has or has not been reproduced' by
hand at the place where the amount of money is generally written, without
being under the necessity of bringing another bill to compare therewith. The
design must therefore be composed of regular parts, easily perceptible and
recognizable by the naked eye; but it is essential that the type, figure, or
device be geometrically regular, and present a great purity and distinctness
in the lines, and a great symmetry in the disposition of its constituent parts.
In its composition there should be no straight lines, because they are too easily
made with a rule; nor any curve, which may be traced at once by a compass

page_text: The imitation of this regular element must oppose insurmountable obstacles to
forgers. These regular elements are to be distributed symmetrically on the
whole surface of the sheet of paper, and must be repeated a great number of
times to offer a great number of points of comparison. What has; been stated
with reference to the disposition of one of the regular elements taken indivi-
dually, applies equally to the whole of the elements constituting the design.
It is therefore indispensable, in order that these regular elements may be
inimitable by hand, that they should be distributed on the surface of the paper
with a mathematical precision, so as to offer a uniform tint; they are conse-
quently to be engraved and distributed on the surface of a matrix or mother
plate in steel or other metal, or on stone by the agency of a machine; a regular
element of design must therefore be mechanically produced, and repeated
identically and at regular intervals on a given surface, so that the most skilful
hand, assisted by the most keen eyesight and the most obstinate patience, will
find it impossible to reproduce one of those elements if it were obliterated.
The same impossibility would exist with reference to any attempt made to
charge the whole of the lines constituting the regular element with lithographic
ink, in order to transfer them on to stone and strike off proofs from the same..
The design produced in the manner above described could not be imitated by
hand, but might be by mechanical means, and, as a guarantee against that
contingency, I have recourse to the following contrivance :-The spaces left
between the regular elements are filled up by a design of a different aspect
and description, but no confusion with the regular elements must take place;
and moreover, this design, as an indispensable condition, is produced by chance,
so that it is impossible to obtain two similar drawings by using the same
means or any other; the latter design is microscopic, that is to say, the elements
constituting it can only be properly seen by means of a magnifying glass.
This second design produced by accident and not imitable, has for its object
to render the counterfeit of the matrix or mother plate impossible, and also the
washing of stamp papers which have been written upon, and the reproduction
of another design.
Organization of the Designs.-A matrix or mother design, composed of
regular elements in the conditions above stated, is to be engraved by means of
a point and a suitable engraving machine, or by any other method of pro-
ducing the same result, capable of engraving a given device or design ad
infinitum, and with the greatest precision. This design may be engraved or
marked on a lithographic stone, or on a plate of metal, or even on a block of
wood, but a steel plate is preferable, as this description of work requires great
precision. A proof is taken from this plate in the ordinary manner of copper-

page_text: plate printing, and transferred on to a lithographic stone by the means now;
known and employed by lithographers. The transfer being thus made, I then,
by means of a brush and gum arabic disolved in water and slightly colored
(or any other substance soluble in water), cover all the regular elements con-
stituting the design transferred on the stone. This covering, which is not
applied over the intermediate spaces left between the regular elements of the.
design, is allowed to dry. Then a second drawing is transferred on to the whole.
of the same stone; this latter drawing being composed of irregular elements
much smaller than the regular elements of the first drawing, and which may be.
microscopic. It will be understood that the regular elements being protected.
by the gum covering, and the intermediate spaces alone being left bare, it is;
only on the latter parts that the stone will receive the second drawing. This
drawing is previously to be made on a sheet of metal or stone, or even on wood.
It may be etched and engraved by the hand, by machinery, or by a chemical
process; but whether made on a metal plate or stone, or by a typographic
operation, it must necessarily be obtained by chance; so that it cannot be re-
produced either by the process that effected it, by any other process, or by the
hand of an artist. I shall point out, by way of illustration, some of the means
which may be employed to attain this result. One may take rosin or colo-
phony in powder of a middling fineness, and' sift it on to a lithographic stone,
previously heated. When the grains or atoms of rosin are fixed by the heat
the stone must be corroded by a solution of nitric acid, and thus an irregular.
ground is obtained. The size of the grains of rosin, the degree of heat neces-
sary to be given to the stone in order to fix the said grains, as well as the strength
of the acid employed for the corrosion, must vary according to the results to be
obtained. One may also make an irregular ground on a lithographic stone by
taking a brush with short hairs or bristles, dipping this brush in thickened
lithographic ink, and striking gently and irregularly on the surface of the
stone with the extremity of the brush; the ink thus laid on the stone is to be
fixed by the ordinary process. One may also cover a lithographic stone with
lithographic ink, which is allowed to dry, then on the whole of the blackened
surface an engraver's roller is to be rolled irregularly to obtain white points on
a black ground. The above are only a few of the many modes which may be
employed to produce an irregular ground. It must be understood that the
owner of this plate may take proofs from the same, transfer them on to stone..
that he may take casts from it, cause it to be reproduced by the polytype and
electrotype process, but neither the author himself nor any
could-
make a second plate identical with the first, except by some of the above means
of multiplication. The irregular ground being obtained by one of the modes
other
person

page_text: above stated, or by some mode equivalent, I take a proof from the plate and
transfer it on to the lithographic stone which has received the regular drawing
as above stated. The transfer being made and fixed on the stone, I remove
the gum by which the regular elements have been covered, and then I can
have lithographic impressions, on which may be distinguished, by the naked
eye, the regular elements surrounded, but not covered, by irregular and
microscopic elements. Instead of composing the matrix or mother plate by
transfers taken from two separate plates, this object may be effected by
executing on the same plate on which the regular design has been already
engraved, and by any of the means above indicated, or by any other appro-
priate mode, the irregular design forming the ground so as to obtain a mother
plate without transfer. The matrix or mother plate thus obtained, twenty or
a greater number of plates should be produced in order to guard against any
accident which might happen to the matrix or mother plate. These plates,
which I shall call seconds, are obtained by taking proofs from the mother
plate, transferring them on to stone and fixing them thereon. From the seconds,
impressions are taken, and that may be done ad infinitum;
these proofs
are transferred on to lithographic stone, the lineaments are brought up in
relievo by the ordinary process of engraving upon stone, and then the
impression may be produced by the typographic press.
it as
I have now described the improved mode of producing the visible design
which cannot be imitated either by hand or by machinery. I shall now state by
what means I prevent any impression of these drawings from being transferred
on to stone and afterwards multiplied at will. In order to make this perfectly
intelligible, I must describe the inks I use, and the mode of employing them.
Inks, and mode of using them.-The arts of imitation have lately made an
immense progress; clever lithographers transfer on to stone not only old im-
pressions of type and engravings, but also old manuscripts, and every kind of
printing made of delible or indelible inks, either oily, resinous or watery. It
cannot, therefore, be considered a wonder that scientific men look
upon
impossible to create a safety paper which can neither be imitated nor trans-
ferred upon stone. I have solved the first part of the problem by the improved
system of drawings or designs, and I render it impossible to transfer the
impressions by means of the inks I am going now to describe. I prefer.
delible inks, made with a mixture of oil, gum, or rosin, because they are more
easily employed in typographical impressions. I make a certain quantity of
white ink, composed of balm capahu, Venetian turpentine, and chalk, previously
washed and dried; these substances are ground together until they are brought
to the consistency of ordinary printing ink; I call this ink No.. 1. I take one

page_text: half of it and set it aside. In the other half I introduce a sufficient quantity
of ordinary ink reduced to powder by evaporation; this is done in order to
give the necessary colouring, that, the design to be printed with this ink may
be visible to the naked eye, and at the same time that the writings made on
the prepared paper may be perfectly apparent. This second sort of ink I call
ink No. 2. Instead of dried ink for colouring the ink No. 2, I may use any
other colouring substance which is equally delible, or as easily obliterated as
common ink powder, in order that any attempts to extract part of the writing
formed on the paper may cause the extraction or obliteration of the visible
design printed on the paper with this delible ink. An impression is made on
both sides of the paper with ink No. 1, and to effect this, old plates and those
which are defective are suited to this first impression, which not being visible,
need not be made with plates free from defects. The visible design. is then
printed with ink No. 2. This latter impression is made, with all possible care,
and consequently with lithographic stones engraved or prepared, with great
precision and care. After these two impressions the paper is dried, pressed,
and cut and shaped for use. .It is not necessary to make these two impres-
sions on two distinct presses, they may very easily be executed..by means
of a single printing machine with two cylinders, two rows of printing
forms, and two inking apparatuses, but their details form no part of the
present Invention, and are foreign to the system of safety paper.
=
:
A very good ink for printing the visible design may be made as follows:
.1, chalk well washed, 20 to 25 parts; 2, common ink reduced to powder, or,
by preference, gallate of iron, 4; 3, ultramarine blue, 1. Varnish quantum
sufficit. This varnish, as well as the one above stated, is composed with equal
parts of balm of copahu and Venetian turpentine melted together and to be
used when cold. :
Results of the new combination of Inks and of the Double, Impression.-If
a forger attempts to extract a word, a sentence, or any quantity of writing
formed, on the safety paper presently described, he will begin to use chlorine;
this agent will destroy the colour, of the writing and that of the visible im-
pression, the coloring principle of ink No. 2 being the same as that of ordinary
ink. He then will; use an acid to remove the oxyde of iron, which, will still
leave traces on the place of each letter and each lineament of the visible
design, which traces cannot be obliterated by chlorine. In this second
operation the acid will have destroyed also the chalk contained in ink No.:1
and ink No. 2. The safety. paper thus treated will retain, at the spot oblite-
rated, only the slight marks .produced in the substance of the paper by the
pressure of the two impressions and the resinous principles of the two inks

page_text: employed, for no vestige will remain of the ink with which the writing was
formed. But neither the slight marks left in the paper by the printing of the
visible design nor the vestiges left by the resinous varnish of ink No. 2 will
be of any use to the forger in his attempt to reconstruct the design at the
'place obliterated, for the marks made by the printing of the visible and
invisible designs, and the vestiges of the resinous principles left on the paper
by the inks No. 1 and 2, will be so complicated and so much worked into one
another that it will be impossible to distinguish anything. If, moreover, the
conditions of the designs or the principles upon which they are constructed
are referred to, the numerous points of comparison which the same piece of
paper will naturally offer, the perfection of the part executed by machinery,
the impossibility to imitate by hand or machinery the part executed by chance,
every one will be convinced that the reconstruction of part of the design
will be utterly impossible, and the reproduction of the design by a lithographic
transfer will be equally impossible. In fact, whatever be the process employed
to transfer the design on to stone, it will be impossible not to transfer at once
the two designs, the visible and invisible one, as both are printed with a
resinous ink at the same moment, and the only substance which distinguishes
the two printing inks is a small quantity of dried ink powder, which can have
no influence on the transfer, being mixed with a resinous body which is more
readily transferred on to stone than itself. By counterproofing the design of
our safety paper, the forger, instead of finding on the stone the design he
expects, will find a surface perfectly black, or presenting a confusion produced
by the instantaneous transfer of the two designs, which may be identical but
are not placed one on the other in their proper places. I consider that
this system of drawings, consisting of: double designs, both delible, the one
visible and the other invisible, answers all conditions that are required, and
presents to Government, to trade, and private individuals, a most complete
guarantee. It must be understood that the receipts of inks which we have
given are only for the sake of illustration, and that other combinations of
appropriate ingredients might produce an analogous result.
..
The system of preparation of paper for the purposes set forth in the title
of the Patent being now fully described, I wish it to be understood that I do
not intend to limit myself to the making of designs which will appear in
colored lines on a white ground, as I may also produce designs according to
this system which will appear in white on a colored ground. That I may use
for the printing of the visible design inks of any composition having the
qualities above set forth, though I give preference to the kind of ink above
stated.

page_text: . I claim the covering of paper intended for all the purposes indicated
indicated in the title of the Patent, with two designs composed of elements
regular and irregular, and obtained by the means herein-before described, one
of the designs being printed in visible ink and the other in invisible ink, both
these printings being delible, by employing which means it will be found
impossible to reconstitute or reconstruct the design of which part has been
extracted by chemical agents, and an equal impossibility of transferring the
whole design on to stone in order to multiply it at will by impressions taken
therefrom, and thus a complete guarantee is given to Government, to trade,
and all private transactions.
In witness whereof I, the said William Newton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-three
WILLIAM (L.S.) NEWTON.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Ninth day of December, in
the seventh year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said
William Newton came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
O aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.