IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PRINTING SURFACES, PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE SECURING OF METALS TO THE SURFACES UPON WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN DEPOSITED FROM SOLUTIONS." PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Watt, of New Cross, in the County
of Kent, and Thomas Knowles, of Edgbaston, Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF PRINTING SURFACES, PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE
ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE SECURING OF METALS TO THE SURFACES UPON WHICH
THEY HAVE BEEN DEPOSITED FROM SOLUTIONS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Watt and
Thomas Knowles at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 2nd June 1869.
WC, ALEXANDER WATT, of New Cross, in the County of Kent, and
THOMAS KNOWLES, of Edgbaston, Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PRINTING SURFACES, PARTS OF WHICH IM-
PROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE SECURING OF METALS TO THE SURFACES
UPON WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN DEPOSITED FROM SOLUTIONS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates chiefly to the manufacture or production of
printing surfaces, whether cylindrical or otherwise, whereon the designs

page_text: to be printed are intended to be engraved or chased, and is more par-
ticularly applicable to the rollers or cylinders employed in printing
textile fabrics and pottery ware, whereby greater economy of material
with increased lightness are obtained.
According to one part of this Invention we propose to construct the
said printing surfaces as follows:-We first construct a roller or flat
surface of any suitable cheap metal or alloy, but we prefer to use an
alloy of about two parts of copper with one part of tin, of which alloy
we take about one part and add thereto about nine or ten parts of zinc.
This alloy forms the body of the printing surface, and we may here
state that we prefer to employ this surface in the slightly roughened
state in which it comes out of the moulds used in its production, or
the surface may be specially roughened by any other convenient means.
Hitherto when it has been attempted to deposit metals upon such
surfaces they have undergone a special preliminary treatment for the
purpose of making them smooth, but we find that this preliminary
preparation is positively injurious to the purpose to be attained. Upon
this slightly roughened surface we insert into the base of the surface
intended to receive the copper deposit a number of copper screws or
copper headed screws having expanded heads or ribs of copper so con-
structed as to present a firm hold to the coating of copper which is to
be deposited on to the base so prepared by the usual method of electro-
deposition. We either dip the base before the screws or ribs above
referred to aro inserted therein into a solution composed of sulphate of
copper and cyanide of potassium, in order to obtain a good conducting
surface upon which to deposit the copper, or we deposit a thin pre-
liminary coating of copper thereon by the aid of the battery or other
means. When employing the screws or ribs herein-before described for
the purpose of securing silver, nickal, bronzo, or any other deposited
metal or alloy to the surface upon which it is intended to be deposited
such screws or their heads or ribs should be composed of a metal or
alloy suited as regards adhesive quality to the metal to be deposited
thercon and securod thereby.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alexander Watt and Thomas Knowles in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 1st December 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, ALEXANDER
WATT, of New Cross, in the County of Kent, and TиомAS KNOWLES, of
Edgbaston, Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Alexander Watt and Thomas Knowles,
Her special license that we, the said Alexander Watt and Thomas
Knowles, our executors, administrator's, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said Alexander Watt and Thomas Knowles, our executors,
administrators, or 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, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ircland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF PRINTING SURFACES, PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO
APPLICABLE TO THE SECURING OF METALS TO THE SURFACES UPON WHICH THEY HAVE
BEEN DEPOSITED FROM SOLUTIONS," upon the condition (amongst others) that
we, the said Alexander Watt and George Knowles, our executors or ad-
ministrators, by an instrument in writing under our hands and scals, or
under the hand and scal of one of us, should particularly describe and
ascertain 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 we, the said Alexander Watt and Thomas
Knowles, do hereby declare the nature of our 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 accompanying Drawings and to the letters and figures marked
thereon, that is to say :-
Our said Invention relates chiefly to the manufacture or production of
printing surfaces, whether cylindrical or otherwise, whercon the designs

page_text: to be printed are intentica to be engraved of Chase, and is more par
ticularly applicable to the rollers or cylinders employed in printing
textile fabrics and pottery ware, or any other material printed upon by
means of engraved surfaces, whereby greater economy of material with
increased lightness are obtained.
According to one part of this Invention we propose to construct tho
said printing surfaces as follows:-Wo first construct a roller by casting,
or drawing, or flat surface, as may be required of any suitable ohcap
metal or alloy, but we prefer to employ steel or iron of a tough quality
with about one to two per cent. of lead mixed therewith just previous
to casting. This mixture of iron and lead or steel or other suitable
metal or alloy forms the body of the printing surface, or the body or
base may be composed of iron or steel alone, and may be either cast
or drawn, and we prefer to employ this surface in the slightly roughened
state in which it leaves the moulds used in its production if produced
by casting, or the surface may be specially roughened by any convenient
means. Hitherto when it has been attempted to deposit metals upon
metallic or other surfaces by electro-deposition they have undergone a
special preliminary treatment for the purpose of rondering them smooth,
but we find that this preliminary preparation is positively injurious to
the purpose to be attained, videlicet, permanent adhesion of the deposited
metal. We insert or cast into the surface of the base or body of the
roller or other surface thus obtained, and which surface is intended to
receive the copper deposit a number of copper screws or copper headed
screws having expanded heads, or we insert or cast into such surface
at intervals of a few inches ribs or strips of copper, the surfaces of such
screw heads or inserted ribs or strips of copper being left flush with
the face of the body or base of the cylinder or other surface, the object
of their use being to present a firm hold to the coating of copper
which is to be deposited on to the entire outer surface of the base by
the usual method of electro-deposition. We sometimes dip the base
before the screws or ribs above referred to aro inserted therein into a
solution composed of sulphato of copper and cyanide of potassium, in
order to obtain a good conducting surface upon which to deposit the
copper, and we sometimes deposit a thin preliminary coating of copper
thereon by the aid of the battery or other means. When employing the
screws or ribs herein-before described for the purpose of securing silver,
nickol, bronze, or any other deposited metal or alloy to the base or

page_text: surface upon which it is intended to be deposited, such screws or their
heads or ribs should be composed of a metal or alloy suited as regards
adhesive quality to the metal to be deposited thereon and secured
thereby.
Figure 1 of the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed represents a
longitudinal section of a portion of a printing cylinder constructed
according to our said Invention, and Figure 2 is a transverse section
of the same.
A is the base or body of the cylinder formed by casting or drawing,
and having the usual slightly tapered opening made therein for the
reception of the axis or mandrill. Wo prefer to form both ends of
the base conical as shewn, and to chase or otherwise force a screw thread
thereon. On to these screwed conical ends of the base we screw copper
strengthening rings a, a, the outer peripheries of which are flush with
the circumference of the base; b, b, represent a number of copper
screws with expanded heads which are screwed or cast into the base A,
and have their heads also flush with the surface of the base; Figuro 2
also shews the application of strips or ribs c, c, of copper to the surface
of the base A, in licu of or in addition to the screws b, b, such ribs
being by preference of a dovetail section, and inserted into longitudinal
dovetail grooves made in the surface of the base A or cast therein;
d, d, represents the thickness of deposited copper on the base, such
copper being maintained perfectly secure thereon by its perfect adhesion
to the copper rings a and screws or ribs b and c. By the use of the
rings a the ends of the cylinder will be virtually composed of solid
copper, and hence the liability to their being injured at those parts is
completely obviated. Although we have more particularly described our
Invention in its application to the economical manufacture of either
flat or cylindrical printing surfaces, it is obviously applicable in all cases
where surfaces require to be coated by the electro-deposition thercon of
copper or other metals or alloys,
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of our
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used
or carried into effect, we would observe in conclusion that what we
consider to be novel and original and therefore claim as the Invention
secured to us by the hercin-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
First. The peculiar manufacture of cylindrical or other printing
surfaces as herein-before described.

page_text: Second. The insertion into surfaces intended to be coated by the
electro-deposition of copper or other metal or alloy thereon of pieces
of metal or alloy of a similar denomination to that of the metal or
alloy to be deposited for the purpose herein-before described.
Third. The formation of a roughened surface upon which to deposit
copper or other metals or alloys by the process of electro-deposition for
the purposes hercin-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Watt, on behalf of
myself and the said Thomas Knowles, have to this Specification
set my hand and scal, this Thirtieth day of November One 1
thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
ALEXANDER WATT. (L.S.)