A METHOD OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING MAPS OF COUNTRIES, CHARTS, OR OTHER PLANS OR DESIGNS, MUSIC, MATHEMATICAL DIAGRAMS, OR FIGURES ON WOOD, METAL, OR ANY OTHER SUBSTANCE, SO THAT THEY MAY BE THROWN OFF IN A COMMON PRINTING PRESS OR PRESSES, EITHER FOR BOOKS, NEWSPAPERS, OR ANY OTHER PRINTED PAPER WHATEVER
Year: 1810

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
STUART, late of Fleet Street, in the City of London, Printer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His Most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Ilis United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of
February, in the fiftieth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Peter Stuart, my executors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Peter Stuart, my exors,
admors, and assigns, 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 "A METHOD OF ENGRAVING AND
PRINTING MAPS OF COUNTRIES, CHARTS, OR OTHER PLANS OR DESIGNS, MUSIC,
MATHEMATICAL DIAGRAMS, OR FIGURES ON WOOD, METAL, OR ANY OTHER SUBSTANCE,
SO THAT THEY MAY BE THROWN OFF IN A COMMON PRINTING PRESS OR PRESSES,
EITHER FOR BOOKS, NEWSPAPERS, OR ANY OTHER PRINTED PAPER WHATEVER;" in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said
Peter Stuart, by an instrument in writing under my hand and scal, to cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within two calendar months after the date of the said recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully
and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, he said
Peter Stuart, do hereby declare that my said Invention is particularly described
and ascertained in manner following, that is to say:-
My new method or invention is for the purpose of combining in many
instances, hereafter specified, the arts of engraving and letter-press printing,
so as to produce at once the dispatch and economy of the latter with the effect
and general utility of the former.
"My new method of printing maps, charts, geographical, astronomical
diagrams, or mathematical figures, music, drawing books to teach outlines,
architectural ground plans, plans or surveys of estates, trees, or tables of pedi-
gree, anatomical figures, figures or representations of the human body, or, in
short, any figure or figures performed in any manner about to be described or
specified for books, magazines, newspapers, any other periodical publication,
or for any printed paper whatever, consists, in the first place, in reversing the
ordinary or common way of printing, or, presenting such figure or figures (that
is to say, that where the usual mode of printing or engraving the figures
now described has hitherto been by a black upon a white ground or surface,
my new method is by producing the contrary effect, viz, by a white upon a
black ground or surface. Again, in order that I may be fully undersood, as
the usual way of printing or representing in maps, for instance, the rivers,
towns, fortifications, letters or words, &c., &c., has been by black upon white,
my new method is by producing a contrary effect, by leaving the tints, lines, or
figures alluded to white instead of black, so that, where in the common way
the paper is covered with black or coloured ink, my new method is to leave it
uncovered; and where in the common way it is uncovered, by my method it is
left covered. Farther, in order that I may be so understood as that any person
conversant in the arts of printing and engraving may perfectly comprehend my
meaning, my new method, instead of producing dark figures on a light ground,
is by producing light figures on a dark ground or surface, or on a ground
darker at least than the figures themselves; or my new method, in the second
place, is by the usual way of representing all figures, that is, by the black tints
or lines, or black figures, as now commonly represented on a white ground or
surface, or by the adoption of any other coloured ground or surface, taking
care always to produce the advantageous combinations of the two arts of
engraving and letter-press printing, that is to say, the dispatch and economy
of the latter with the effect and general utility of the former combination,
hitherto wished for in vain, and from which, it may be obvious, very essential
results will arise, both to the artists and to traders in the arts, and, in fact,
to the public, that will, no doubt, be actuated by interest to encourage a new

page_text: invention, which may afford an extraordinary gratification, by a speedier mode
of intelligence through a cheaper medium.
Having thus expressed myself fully on this part of the subject, I shall now
proceed to describe or explain my mode of executing or producing the effects
already specified.
The engravings of the figures may be cut or stampt or otherwise indented on
plates of brass, copper, tin, pewter, type metal, or any mixture of metals, wood,
or any other substance on which engravings can be made, and for the better
adapting the ground or surface of the plate, or for the better rendering the
ground or surface fit in all its parts for the proper reception and adhesion of
that kind of ink used by letter-press printers, so as to produce a clear and an
equal impression on all its parts at once, an invention on metalic plates hitherto,
I verily believe, unattempted, or at least unattained. I cause dots or lines to
be cut, marked, or stampt, or drawn across the ground or surface of the metalic
plates or other substance, or I corrode it with aquafortis, vitriol, or other acid,
so as to produce a sufficient degree of roughness for the adhesion of the parti-
cular ink now mentioned, leaving the figures or subject of the plate or plates
or engraving untouched by such dots or lines. I wish also particularly to
observe that it is absolutely necessary the lines cut, stampt, or engraved should
be as deep as possible, or as deep as the ultimate operation of the press, may
require, a mode unnecessary in the common way of copper-plate engraving, and
that the part of the surface which is not engraved upon, instead of being mado
as smooth as possible, as in copper-plate engravings, or to be made, as before
specified, sufficiently rough, either by mechanical or chemical means, so as to
make the ink applied by the letter-press printers balls adere in a way nearly
equall, or in such quantity or proportion as is wanted or intended. The last
preparatory process of the plate for the letter-press, previously to its being
printed as described, is by fixing it on a wooden block, or by grooving it on a
brass or other metalic standard, or by fixing it on a clay or earthen substance
or cement, by taking special care that the whole body thus formed shall not be
higher or lower than the types commonly used at the letter-press, and also
taking special care that it be calculated in every degree to be embodied, as it
were, with the letter-press printers' form or types, so as to produce by the very
same operation of the letter-press the impression of both the plate and the
5 types at one and the same time, or by one and the same pull of the letter-press
printer, and on the very same sheet or piece of paper; or the plate or plates
thus prepared may, if on particular occasions deemed more expedient, be
worked off alone at the letter-press, so as to produce the intended effect of
engraving, with the facility and dispatch of multiplying copies, agreeably to the

page_text: nature or principle of operation.peculiar to the letter-press only. I wish also
to be clearly understood that the plate or plates for maps, charts, music, or
other figures already mentioned, may be prepared by engraving, indenting, or
stamping on a flat surface of wood or metal, or other material or substance,
so as to form a matrix or mould, from which I cast or form the reverse, in the
manner of a seal or die (that is to say,) the hollows or ink lines, dots, letters, or
figures of the former become the protuberances.or razed .lines, dots, &c. of
the latter, by which I print by the common process of the letter-press printer.
Thus, by the means now described or specified, I combine or unite for maps,
charts, music, anatomical figures, or any figures or representations of the human
body, or for all or any of the other figures already mentioned, performed in my
manner, the seperate arts of the copper-plate engraver and the letter-press
printer, by engraving as engravers usually do and by printing as printers usually
do, thereby rendering by the application of these united arts in the printing of
books, magazines, newspapers, periodical publications, which require dispatch,
a very great saving or abridgement of time, labour, and expence in the exercise
of both arts, and consequently a very great convenience and advantage to the
public at large.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Stuart, have hereunto set my hand
⚫ and seal, this Nineteenth day of April. in the sear of our Lowl