CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN LETTER-PRESS AND BLOCK PRINTING, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS USED FOR THE SAME
Year: 1833

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AUGUSTUS
APPLEGATH, of Crayford, in the County of Kent, Calico Printer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eighteenth day of July, in the fourth year of His reign, did,
for Himself, His heirs, and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Augustus Applegath, His especial licence, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said Augustus Applegath, my exors, adñors, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Augustus Applegath, my exors, admors, 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, my
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN LETTER-PRESS AND BLOCK PRINTING, AND
IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS USED FOR THE SAME;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said Augustus Applegath, shall cause
a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately 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
Augustus Applegath, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the
following description thereof, that is to say:-

page_text: Figures 1 and 2 represent an improved method of arranging or imposing
the form of types, plates, or blocks, so that the said form and the table of the
printing machine may have a less distance to travel in order to pass in contact
with the impressing cylinder, whereby the produce of the machine may be
augmented without increasing the speed or rate of its various parts.
Fig. 1 is a plan of a form of octavo imposed in the usual manner; Fig. 2 is
a plan of the improved arrangement. The same letters of reference indicate
the similar parts in each Figure.
A, A, A, &c. are the pages of type or plates; B, B, are the iron frames
called chases; C, C, &c. are the quoins or wedges.
Figure 3 is a side view of part of the impressing cylinder of a printing
machine and its printing table, having the usual form of octavo upon it.
A, the printing cylinder, its diameter is supposed to be about thirty-two
inches; B, the octavo form, which is about fifteen inches wide, supported by
the table C; it is shown in the two extreme positions, one under the inking
rollers D, D, D, and another as having passed under the cylinder A, the
extent of its motion being about forty inches.
Figure 4 is a side view of part of an improved machine, having a printing
cylinder A of only sixteen inches diameter. B is the improved form, about
seven inches wide, resting upon the iron table C; this form is also shewn at
the extremities of its motion, which is about twenty-two inches. D, D, D, are
the inking rollers. The distance which the form has to travel being in this
case only about half that required in the former, it is obvious that with the
same rate of motion nearly double the number of sheets may be printed in any
given time, the paper of course being made of suitable dimensions.
Figure 5 is a plan of an improved quarto form.
Figure 6 is a plan for an improved twelvemo form. The same letters refer
to each Figure. A, A, A, &c. are the pages of type; B, B, are the iron chases;
C, C, are the quoins. These improved forms may be combined with machines
in which the pressure is given by a flat surface as well as those in which
cylinders are used, and I claim their application to both.
Figure 7 is a Diagram representing a side view of part of a double or
perfecting machine, which shows the improved form, combined with an endless
blanket or printing cloth applied to the second or perfecting cylinder. A, the
first printing or impressing cylinder; B, B, the forms of types, &c.; C, C, the
printing tables; Z, the side bar which connects them together; D, D, D, D,
the inking rollers; E, E, the conveying drums furnished with their endless
tapes in the usual manner; F, the second or perfecting cylinder; G, G, G, an
endless blanket or printing cloth, which passes round the cylinder F, and travels

page_text: with it in the direction of the arrows; H is a roller, around which the endless
cloth passes, and the bearings of which can be adjusted and tightened by the
set screws I. The roller K is also furnished with similar set screws, by which
the endless blanket may be likewise guided. It is necessary to observe, that
when an endless printing cloth is used the printing cylinder F must be rather
less in diameter in that part which meets the type when it returns, in order
that the cloth may not rub against the surface of the type; the printed sheet
will come out under the endless cloth and pass with it over the roller M,
whence it may be carried by the usual tapes in any direction required. The
use of an endless cloth is to diminish the imperfection arising from the second
impression, technically called "setting-off." The small space occupied between
the printing cylinders by the improved forms and printing tables facilitates the
use of an endless printing cloth. L is the usual toothed rack by which motion
is communicated to the printing table as employed in most printing machines,
and the various motions of the other parts are supposed to be given in the
usual manner. Such parts and motions not forming any part of my improve-
ments, are not herein particularly set forth.
Figure 8 is a side view of an improvement, which consists in printing with
two or more colors from the same type or pattern'; Figure 9 is an end view
of the same.
The same letters refer to the similar parts in each Figure. A is
a cylinder having upon it the paper or material to be printed; B is the block,
made circular, and having the pattern upon it in relief, either formed by types
or plates, or cut or raised in copper; upon its spindle is a toothed wheel,
which works into a toothed wheel upon the spindle of A. C is a color feeder or
roller, of the same diameter as B, and connected with B by a toothed wheel;
this feeding roller is covered with felt or stout woollen cloth, gummed or other-
wise fixed upon it, and it derives its colour from the roller D, which lies in the
colored trough or box E, which is furnished with a straight edge F, made to
adjust in the usual manner; the roller D also has a toothed wheel in geer
with the wheel C. H is another colour feeder, having its roller I and colour
box K precisely similar to C, and clothed with felt in same manner. Certain
parts of the felt H are removed, as indicated in the end view at x, x, x, &c., so
that no colour is supplied to B at these parts, and in like manner the color
feeder C has the corresponding alternate parts of its felt removed, so as to
leave felt only in those parts where colour is to be supplied, and thus the block
roller B is supplied with one color by the feeder C in certain parts only and
in the other parts it is supplied by the feeder H, and thus two colours are by
the revolution of the block roller B printed upon the material on the cylin-
der A at one impression and in perfect register. It is not necessary that the

page_text: block roller B should be covered with pattern all round its periphery; its
diameter may be increased, and only a part or segment of it covered with the
pattern, in which case the cylinder A must have an interrupted motion given to
it by any of the usual means; and by enlarging the diameter of B three, four,
or more color feeders may be arranged around it, in the manner shewn in
Figure 10, which is a side view of the same. A is the cylinder, which conveys
the material to be printed; it has a toothed wheel B furnished with several
arms C, C; D, is an iron ring or cylinder, having upon it the segmental
block E, which bas the pattern upon it in relief. The printing surface of this
block must be an aliquot part of the circumference of the cylinder A, and it is
furnished with a toothed segment F and wiper G, which gently starts the
cylinder A into motion at the time of printing; it is also provided with a
toothed wheel H, which as it revolves causes the color feeders I, K, L, and
M, to revolve also together with the rollers in the colour troughs or boxes, as
before described. The color feeders I, K, L, and M are themselves segmental
blocks covered with felt or any material suitable to receive and apply the ink
or color, and they are aliquot parts of the circumference of the printing surface
of the cylinder D, so that they always meet the printing block in the same
place. The substance of the felt upon these colour feeders is to be removed or
left, according to the mode in which the pattern is to be coloured; and it is
obvious that by having different sets of coloured feeders the pattern may be
printed in one, two, or more colours, and also that the colours may be varied
in their position upon the blocks ad libitum.
In witness whereof, I, the said Augustus Applegath, have hereunto set
One thousand eight