IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING AND EMBOSSING TEXTILE FABRICS AND OTHER SURFACES, AND IN THE
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Strang Thomson, of Kilmarnock, in the
County of Ayr, North Britain, Manufacturer, and Andrew Barclay, of
the same Place, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PRINTING AND EMBOSSING TEXTILE FABRICS AND OTHER SURFACES, AND IN THE
Sealed the 5th August 1856, and dated the 18th February 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jaines Strang Thomson
and Andrew Barclay at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 18th February 1856.
We, JAMES STRANG THOMSON, of Kilmarnock, in the County of Ayr, North
Britain, Manufacturer, and ANDREW BARCLAY, of the same Place, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PRINTING AND EMBOSSING TEXTILE FABRICS AND OTHER SURFACES, AND IN THE
PRODUCTION OF APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows, that is
to say:-
This Invention relates to various improvements in connection with the
printing of carpets and other fabrics and surfaces, comprehending both an
improved system of producing the printing surfaces and improved machinery
for applying such surfaces in the actual process of printing. According to
this Invention, the printing surfaces are prepared by combining a series of

page_text: pins, types, pegs, or other details of metal or other material into such an
arrangement or mass as will allow of a printing block being moulded there-
from in gutta percha or other suitable material. These pins are in two
lengths, long and short, as is well understood by practical men, the difference
in the lengths being equal to the amount of relief to be given to the printing
surfaces to be produced by their agency. In combining such pins to form the
matrix, the operator reads off the individual colors of his design from a paper
design in the usual manner, putting into the matrix, frame, or holder a shore
pin at each increment of surface where the color is to appear, and inserting
a long pin at the other parts where blanks or other colors are to occur.
This insertion or combination of the pins or types may be effected either by
hand or by a mechanical adjuster. As each color is read off and built up in
the pins, the series is bound firmly up, and a cast is then taken from the
surface thereof as formed by the pin ends in gutta percha, or other suitable
plastic material which will answer to print from. Such mould then answers
to print from, all the sunk pins in the original matrix answering to the color
portions, obviously producing corresponding relief portions in the moulded
surface. All the colors are treated in this manner, and the blocks or
surfaces are then applied to print in concert in the usual manner; or instead
of this process of transference of surface, the required printing blocks
produced from the original matrix by any of the known processes of stereo-
typing. The pins or types may either be plain, square, or other forms, or
they may themselves have devices upon them, or present combinations of
figured parts, which again when combined produce the desired pattern.
Cylindrical surfaces for roller printing may also be produced in a similar
manner.
may
be
Instead of thus moulding the printing surfaces, the blank blocks or rollers
intended to be converted into printing surfaces may be marked or set out in
lines crossing each other, to correspond to the ruled paper of the design.
These lines or intersections then serve as guides for boring holes in the blanks
for the after insertion of pins or types corresponding to the color on the
design paper. Such pinned block or roller can then be printed from direct.
When embossing surfaces are to be produced, the pins are correspondingly
arranged, so that casts in metal or other material may be taken from the
combined series to serve as embossing plates. Printing surfaces produced in
this way may be printed from according to any of the existing plans; or they
may be applied on the rotatory system, in an arrangement of machinery
modified from the printing machinery, for which British Letters Patent were
granted to Mr. James Melville, of Roebank Works, in the years 1852 and

page_text: 1853. In the printing machinery referred to, the employment of a drum or
cylinder of large diameter for the impression or printing surface constitutes
the main feature. On one end of this drum is fixed a spur wheel of the same
diameter as the drum, and this spur wheel drives the printing rollers at the
side. The teeth of this large spur wheel, as well as those of the pinion driven
by it, are formed on the stepped or sectionally divided system, to secure
smoothness in working, without the necessity of adopting a very fine pitch in
each set of teeth. Two or more sets of teeth may be employed, that is to say,
the teeth may be in two or more steps. When the large wheel on this
system is made in segments, the sets or discs of teeth are cast separately, and
the segments are built up so that the joints of each set or disc may be between
the joints of the adjacent set or sets so as to break joint.
The drum is driven by a pinion in gear with the large spur wheel, instead
of by a pinion in gear with a separate spur wheel keyed on the shaft of the
drum; and the driving pinion is placed immediately above the printing
roller gearing, or in any other position of convenience for the attendant.
An important branch of this Invention relates to a system of gearing the
printing roller with the drum spur wheel, so as to allow of any size of repeats
of pattern being used which will divide into the circumference of the drum
without changing the large spur wheel driving the printing roller details. The
spindle of the roller has a pinion on it, driven by a spur wheel on the shaft of
the pinion driven by the drum spur wheel. The pinion driven by the large spur
wheel and the pinion of the printing roller have respectively such numbers of
teeth as on being multiplied together will equal the number of teeth of the
large drum spur wheel; then the spur wheel which drives the printing roller
pinion must have exactly as many teeth as there are required to be repeats
of the pattern round the circumference of the drum. Thus, if a large spur
wheel of five hundred teeth drives a pinion of fifty teeth, the pinion of the
printing roller must have ten teeth; then if the printing roller is to make forty
revolutions for one of the drum, its pinion must be driven by a spur wheel
of forty teeth. This spur wheel being on the shaft of the pinion of fifty feet, it
will make ten revolutions for one of the large drum, and it will necessarily cause
the roller to make forty revolutions in same time. All the small wheels may
be changed, so as by making them of different proportions, to obtain such sizes
as will be most convenient, according to the number of repeats required. As
it may frequently save a great deal of expense and trouble to be able to use.
a pattern which is of such a size as will not divide into the circumference of
the drum, the following arrangement may be adopted: At that part of the
circumference where a piece is taken out of the drum a number of the wheel.

page_text: teeth are also omitted;, and instead of them a segment is fitted on, having
a number of teeth, the line of which bulges outwards from the line of the
regular teeth. This segment is in a different plane from the regular teeth of
tlie wheel, and it gears with an elliptical wheel which is on a shaft connected
with the printing roller. These parts are so arranged that the segment shall
turn the printing roller so much more round than the regular wheel.teeth
would do, as will bring the roller to the same position for starting as it had
before the revolution of the drum. The same thing may be effected by
regular circular segments placed at greater or less distances from the centre
of the large drum, and acting on pinions connected in any manner with the
printing roller. The pinion of the printing roller is fitted to the roller with
a frictional nut or similar contrivance, so that any slight adjustment of the
roller to obtain an accurate register of the pattern may be easily effected' by
loosening the nut and again screwing it up after tlie adjustment is made.
The printing roller, instead of being carried in bearings in the traversing
carriage, is carried in bearings in the same frame which carries the color
trough, sieve, and sieve tension rollers or color feed apparatus, and this frame
can be lifted clear away from the traversing carriage. The frame is provided
with pendant brackets, through which screws. are passed, which screws
abutting against the side of the carriage serve to adjust the position of the
frame whilst on. The frame being placed in position, levers jointed to the
carriage are turned up against the outer end of the screws, so as to retain
the carriage against the large drum. With this arrangement, the pressure
of the printing roller against the drum may be adjusted with great facility, it
being merely necessary to turn the bracket screw in one direction or the other.
According to another branch of these improvements, it is proposed and
intended to wind certain classes of fabrics or yarus, the latter being in
the form of warps or chains, or not, round the large drum in a spiral or
helical direction, and to print it when so arranged. The fabric or yarn is
wound upon the drum from a roller at one side, set at a slight angle, and
made to traverse in the direction of the drums axis during the winding
process. The printing roller is set at right angles to the line of fabric, and is
made to traverse longitudinally as it and the drum revolve, so as to make its
continuous line of impression coincide with the spiral line of the fabric.
.
The printing roller to be used in printing the fabric or yarn, arranged
spirally, as described, may be made in three or more pieces, the central
portions being fixed loosely on the spindle so as to yield a little to the
curvature of the drum. Further, it is proposed. to encompass the large
impression drum with a spiral coil of flat piping, through which a current of

page_text: steam is passed to dry the fabric on being printed, the fabric being imme-
diately over the steam piping. This piping may consist of rings, or it may be
a casing divided by partitions in any convenient manner, and the current or
currents of steam may be made to take any route that may be found con-
ducive to the best result. It is intended to adopt such of the herein-before
described improvements are applicable in the construction of other kinds of
printing machinery besides the particular arrangement herein referred to.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Strang Thomson and Andrew Barclay, in the Great
Scal Patent Office on the 18th August 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
STRANG THOMSON, of Kilmarnock, in the County of Ayr, North Britain,
Manufacturer, and ANDREW BARCLAY, of the same Place, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said James Strang Thomson and Andrew Barclay, Her special license
that we, the said James Strang Thomson and Andrew Barclay, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said James Strang
Thomson and Andrew Barclay, 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 Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING AND EMBOSSING TEXTILE FABRICS AND OTHER SUR-
FACES, AND IN THE PRODUCTION OF APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED THEREIN," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said James Strang Thomson and
Andrew Barclay, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or
under the hand and seal 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 James Strang Thomson and Andrew
Barclay, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what

page_text: manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement in writing, reference being had
to the accompanying Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon, that is to say:-
Our said Invention relates to various improvements in connection with the
printing of carpets and other fabrics and surfaces, comprehending both an
improved system of producing the printing surfaces, and improved machinery
for applying such surfaces in the actual process of printing. According to this
Invention, the printing surfaces are prepared by combining a series of pins,
types, pegs, or other details of metal or other material into such an arrange-
ment or mass as will allow of a printing block being moulded therefrom in
gutta percha or other suitable material. These pins are in two lengths, long
and short, as is well understood by practical men, the difference in the lengths
being equal to the amount of relief to be given to the printing surfaces to be
produced by their agency. In combining such pins to form the matrix, the
operator reads off the individual colours of his design from a paper or other
design in the usual manner, putting into the matrix frame or holder a short
pin at each increment of surface where the colour is to appear, and inserting
a long pin at the other parts where blanks or other colours are to occur. This
insertion or combination of the pins or types may be effected either by hand
or by a mechanical adjuster. As each colour is read off and built up in the
pins, the series is bound firmly up, and a cast is then taken from the surface
thereof as formed by the pin ends, in gutta percha or other suitable material
which will answer to print from. Such mould then answers to print from all
the sunk pins in the original matrix, answering to the colour portions, obviously
producing corresponding relief portions in the moulded surface.
colours are treated in this manner, and the blocks or surfaces are then applied
to print in concert in the usual manner. Or, instead of this process of trans-
ference of surface, the required printing blocks may be produced from the
original matrix by any of the known processes of stereotyping. The pins or
types may either be plain squares or other forms, or they may themselves have
devices upon them, or present combinations of figured parts, which again
when combined produce the desired pattern. Cylindrical surfaces for roller
printing may also be produced in a similar manner. Instead of thus mould-
ing the printing surfaces, the blank blocks or rollers intended to be converted
into printing surfaces may be marked or set out in lines crossing each other
to correspond to the ruled paper of the design. These lines or intersections
then serve as guides for boring holes in the blanks for the after insertion of
pins or types, corresponding to the colour on the design paper. Such pinned
All the

page_text: block or roller can then be printed from direct.
When embossing surfaces
are to be produced, the pins are correspondingly arranged, so that casts in
metal or other material may be taken from the combined series to serve as
embossing plates. Printing surfaces produced in this way may be printed
from according to any of the existing plans; or, they may be applied on the
rotatory system, in an arrangement of machinery modified from the printing
machinery, for which British Letters Patent were granted to Mr. James
Melville, of Roebank Works, in the years One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-two and One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three. In the printing
machinery referred to, the employment of a drum or cylinder of large diameter
for the impression or printing surface constitutes the main feature. On one
end of this drum is fixed a spur wheel, of the same diameter as the drum, and
this
spur wheel drives the printing roller at the side. The teeth of this large
spur wheel, as well as those of the pinion driven by it, are formed on the
stepped or sectionally divided system, to secure smoothness in working, without
the necessity of adopting a very fine pitch in each set of teeth. Two or more
sets of teeth may be employed, that is to say, the teeth may be in two or more
steps. The drum is driven by a pinion in gear with the large spur wheel,
instead of by a pinion in gear with a separate spur wheel keyed on the shaft
of the drum, and the driving pinion is placed immediately above the printing
roller gearing, or in any other position of convenience for the attendant.
An important branch of this Invention relates to a system of gearing the
printing roller with the drum spur wheel, so as to allow of any size of repeats of
pattern being used which will divide into the circumference of the drum without
changing the large spur wheel driving the printing roller details. The spindle
of the roller has a pinion on it, driven by a spur wheel on the shaft of the
pinion, driven by the drum spur wheel. The pinion driven by the large spur
wheel and the pinion of the printing roller have respectively such numbers of
teeth as on being multiplied together will equal the number of teeth of the
large drum spur wheel; then the spur wheel which drives the printing roller
pinion must have exactly as many teeth as there are required to be repeats of
the pattern round the circumference of the drum. Thus, if a large spur whee!
of five hundred teeth drives a pinion of fifty teeth, the pinion of the printing
roller must have ten teeth; then if the printing roller is to make forty revo-
lutions for one of the drum, its pinion must be driven by a spur wheel of forty
teeth. This spur wheel being on the shaft of the pinion of fifty teeth, it will
make ten revolutions for one of the large drum, and it will necessarily cause
the roller to make forty revolutions in the same time. All the small wheels
may be changed, so as by making them of different proportions to obtain such

page_text: sizes as will be most convenient according to the number of repeats required.
As it may frequently save a great deal of expense and trouble to be able to use
a pattern which is of such a size as will not divide into the. circumference of
the drum, the following arrangement may be adopted :-At that part of the
circumference where a piece is taken out of the drum a number of the wheel
teeth are also omitted, and instead of them a segment is fitted on, having a
number of teeth, the line of which bulges outwards from the line of the regular
teeth. This segment is in a different plane from the regular 'teeth of the
wheel, and it gears with an elliptical wheel which is on a shaft connected with
the printing roller. These parts are so arranged that the segment shall turn
the printing roller so much more round than the regular wheel teeth, would do,
as will bring the roller to the same position for starting as it had before the
revolution of the drum. The same thing may be effected by regular, circular
segments, placed at greater or less distances from the centre of the large drum,
and acting on pinions connected in any manner with the printing roller. The
pinion of the printing roller is fitted to the roller with a frictional nut or
similar contrivance, so that any slight adjustment of the roller to obtain an
accurate register of the pattern may be easily effected by loosening the nut
and again screwing it up after the adjustment is made. The printing roller,
instead of being carried in bearings in the traversing carriage, is carried in
bearings in the same frame which carries the colour trough, sieve, and sieve
tension rollers or colour feed apparatus, and this frame can be lifted clear away
from the traversing carriage. The frame is provided with pendant brackets,
through which screws are passed, which screws abutting against the side of the
carriage serve to adjust the position of the frame, whilst on the frame being
placed in position levers jointed to the carriage are turned up against the outer
ends of the screws, so as to retain the carriage against the large drum.
this arrangement, the pressure of the printing roller against the drum may be
adjusted with great facility, it being merely necessary to turn the bracket screw
in one direction or the other.
With
According to another branch of these improvements, it is proposed and
intended to wind certain classes of fabric or yarns, the latter being in
the form of warps or chains, or not, round the large drum in a spiral or
helical direction, and to print it when so arranged. The fabric or yaru
is wound upon the drum from a roller at one side, set at a slight angle,
and made to traverse in the direction of the drum's axis during the winding
process. The printing roller is set at right angles to the line of fabric, and is
made to traverse longitudinally as it and the drum revolve, so as to make its
continuous line of impression coincide with the spiral line of the fabric. The

page_text: printing roller to be used in printing the fabric or yarn, arranged spirally, as
described, may be made in three or more pieces, the central portions being
fixed loosely, on the spindle.so.as to yield a little to the curvature of the drum.
Or, instead of using a single large drum, the textile fabric or material to be
printed may be wound either spirally or in the ordinary manner upon an end-
less web passed round two drums. Further, it is proposed to encompass the
large impression drum with a spiral coil of flat piping, through which a current
of steam is passed to dry the fabric on being printed, the fabric being imme-
diately over the steam piping. This piping may consist of rings, or it may be
a casing, divided by partitions in any convenient manner, and the current or
currents of steam may be made to take any route that may be found con-
ducive to the best result. It is intended to adopt such of the herein-before
described improvements as are applicable in the construction of other kinds of
printing machinery besides the particular arrangement herein referred to.
And in order that our said Invention may be properly understood, we have
hereunto appended, and shall now proceed to describe, a Sheet of explanatory.
Drawings, showing a mode of working out certain portions of the Invention
in practice.
Figure 1 on the Sheet of Drawings is an end elevation, and Figure 2 is a
side elevation, of a portion of a large drum and printing details as arranged
according to one portion of our present Invention. Figure 3 is an end
elevation of the printing details, with the driving gear and the end standard of
the traversing carriage removed. Figure 4 is an inside elevation of the
printing details as looking on the opposite side to that seen in Figure 2; and
Figure 5 is an end view of the printing details, looking upon the end standard
of the traversing carriage, but with the outer gearing and stationary standard
removed. Figure 6 is a Diagram, showing in end elevation the arrangement in
which an endless web upon two drums is used. Figure 7 is a plan or face
view, and Figure 8 is a section, of a frame for producing printing surfaces by
means of pins or types built up into a mass; and Figure 9 is an end elevation
of a printing roller, the printing surface of which is composed of gutta percha
shaped in the apparatus represented in Figures 7 and 8, and afterwards bent
round upon and attached to the printing roller. Figures 1 to 5, on the Sheet
of Drawings bereunto attached, represent more particularly the arrangements
for working out that part of our Invention which relates to the printing of
fabrics arranged spirally upon a large cylinder or drum. This drum A is
mounted upon a central.shaft or axle, and is carried in pedestal bearings at
cach end. At one end the drum is fitted with a ring of teeth B, which are in
gear with a pinion C, and the shaft of this pinion is carried in bearings in a

page_text: pillar D, bolted down upon the end of a shear piece E, running along in front
of the drum A, and supported at each end upon a standard F. A handle G is
fixed upon the spindle of the pinion C for driving the apparatus by. The drum
teeth B are in gear with another pinion H, fast on a shaft I, running along
the entire length of the drum, and carried in bearings formed upon the sides
of the pillars D at each end. This shaft I serves to drive the printing roller,
and is formed with two grooves, into which fit feathers in the eye of a looso
pinion J, carried by the traversing carriage K. This carriage K slides
upon the shear piece E, being held thereon by V pieces, one L of which is
adjustable by means of a screw and hand wheel M. During the printing of
the spirally-arranged fabric, the spiral line of which is shown at N, the carriage
L, carrying the printing roller O, is made to traverse gradually along by means
of a screw shaft P, carried in end bearings upon the standards F, and driven
by means of a pinion Q in gear with the drum teeth B. This screw shaft P
works between two half nuts R upon the carriage K, which half nuts or bushes
are carried in a frame in which they can slide, so as to be separated and shifted
out of gear from the screw shaft when it is wished to suspend the action thereof,
or to shift the carriage independently thereof. These bushes R are actuated
by means of a small double-armed lever, indicated by dotted lines at Sin Figure
4, and fixed upon a short spindle, squared at its other end to receive a key or
handle. The carriage K may be shifted along the shear piece E by means of
pinion T, worked by a handle, and in gear with a rack U, running along inside
the shear piece E. The printing roller O is set in bearings in a frame V, capable
of being adjusted at an angle, so as to carry the printing roller at right angles
to the spiral line N of the fabric. For this purpose, the frame V is hinged at
W to a plate X upon the carriage K, whilst a set of vertical and horizontal
screws at Y serve to adjust and secure the frame at the proper inclination.
The printing roller O is driven by means of a small adjustable collar Z, formed
with a projection, which is entered between two projections upon the end of
the elongated boss of the pinion a, carried by a stud fixed in the end standard
b, bolted to the carriage K. This pinion a is in gear with a carrier pinion c,
carried on a stud in the standard b, and in gear with the pinion J upon the
shaft I, driven by the drum. When the pinion a is driving the printing roller
a hinged collar piece d lies between the pinions a and c and the standard 6,
but when it is desired to remove the printing roller, this collar piece is turned
over, and allows the pinions a, c, to be pushed up to the standard b, so as to
leave the printing roller spindle free. The printing roller is removed from its
bearings in the frame V by removing the upper parts of these bearings,
which are attached to or kept in place by hinged pieces e, themselves
a

page_text: secured by buttons f. The rollers g, h, carrying the colour-feeding sieve
or endless cloth, lie parallel to the printing roller O, the spindles of the roller
g being in bearings in the frame V, whilst those of the roller h are in
bearings in brackets i, hinged upon the spindles, of the roller g, so that
the roller h can be turned over away from the printing roller O when it is
necessary to remove the latter. The spindle of the roller g projects, so as to be
driven in a similar manner to the spindle of the printing roller, by the elongated
boss of a pinion j, carried on a stud pin in the standard b, and driven by means
of an intermediate pinion from the pinion c. The colour trough k is placed
upon the plate X, and the roller g carries the colour-supplying sieve down into
it, or another roller may be placed in the trough to supply the sieve with the
colour. The plate X is fitted in retaining grooves upon the carriage K, across
which carriage it is capable of sliding for removal or adjustment. The plate X
with the printing details is kept up against the drum A by means of the
latches 1, jointed upon the carriage K, and connected by the link m; imme-
diately behind these latches are screws, by means of which the pressure of the
printing roller upon the fabric on the drum can be adjusted with the requisite
nicety. In placing the fabric upon the drum in the spiral form, it may be
unwound from a small roller placed upon the traversing carriage K in a
position similar to that of the printing roller O; then as the drum A is turned
it will draw the fabric off the roller, and at the same time, by means of the
screw shaft P, cause the carriage to traverse, so as to keep the small roller
always opposite the portion of the spiral which is receiving the fabric at the
moment, and by these means the fabric is wound upon the drum in a regular
even manner and in a spiral form, the drum thus receiving a much greater
length of fabric to be printed at one operation than it is capable of doing in
the ordinary manner. Increased facilities for arranging a considerable length
of material to be thus printed at one operation are obtained by using two
drums, as shown in Figure 6. In this Diagram the drum A corresponds to
the drum A in Figures 1 and 2, and upon it the fabric receives the im-
pressing action of the printing roller. An endless web B of any suitable
material passes round the drum A, and round a second drum C, which
may be
of any convenient size, and merely serves for stretching the endless web B.
The fabric to be printed is stretched upon this endless web either in the
ordinary form or spirally, and the printing is effected with the printing roller
placed in a parallel or inclined position accordingly. The portion of the endless
web between the two drums may be supported on rollers, as at D, the number
of the rollers depending on the distance between the two drums.
Where two
drums and an endless web are used in this manner, it will be unnecessary

page_text: to employ a drum of very great size for the fabric to receive the impression
upon.
In carrying out the portion of our Invention relating to the production of
printing surfaces by means of a built-up mass of pins or types, a metal frame
A, Figures 7 and 8, is used. The sides of this frame are internally of the depth
of the longer. of the two sizes of types used, except at the corners B, which are
raised to an extent equal to the thickness to be given to the gutta percha or other
material of which the printing surface is to be formed. Inside the frame are
placed two bars or false sides C, together with wedges D, for compressing together
and holding the mass of types E when built up, the arrangement being similar
to that used by printers for a similar purpose. The types used are of two sizes
as regards their depth, the difference between them being equal to the amount
of relief or projection to be given to the printing portions. A single type is square
in section, but to save time and trouble in building the types up a variety
of pieces are used, equal respectively to two, three, four, or more such single
types joined together; also pieces corresponding to a whole row or any part of a
row of types are used. The types-E are shown in Figure 7 as built up in such a
manner as to produce a printing surface for a "sprig" pattern, the dark portions
showing where the shorter types are used. Figure 8 shows a section through
the line. 1, 2, in Figure 7. In building up this pattern, a number of pieces,
each equal to an entire line of types, will have been used, or pieces equal to two
or three such lines may be used; then the operator, in reading off his pattern
from a design suitably ruled with crossed lines, will place in the frame a short
or a long type, as may be necessary, taking a piece equal to one, two, or more
types, accordingly as the space to be filled with the same length of type extends
over one, two, or more squares of the pattern. The sides of the frame A and
the bars C are graduated upon their upper edges, to assist the operator in count-
ing and arranging his types. The types having been all arranged and bound up
firmly by means of the wedges D, are covered with gutta percha or other suitable
material, and a cover F, with a smooth, even surface, is placed upon the whole.
The frame is then placed into a suitable press, and the cover F is pressed down,
so as to force the gutta percha into the spaces formed by the shorter types.
The pressure is continued until the cover is in contact with the corners B'of
the frame, when the gutta percha will have been reduced to the proper thick-
ness, any superfluous portions having been expressed at the sides. On remov-
ing the gutta percha from the mould thus formed by the types, it will be found
to have been thus shaped, with a raised printing surface, corresponding to the
desired pattern. This gutta percha printing surface may then be either fixed
upon a block for printing from, according to the ordinary system of block

page_text: printing, or it may be bent round and fixed upon a roller, as represented in
Figure 9, to form a printing roller.
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 may observe, in conclusion, that we do not confine or restrict
ourselves to the precise details or arrangements which we have had occasion to
describe or refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without
deviating from the principles or main features of our Invention; but what
we consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention
secured to us by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
First, the system or mode of preparing matrices" or moulds for forming
printing surfaces in gutta percha or other suitable material, by means of a
built-up mass of pins or types, wherein two lengths of types are used, and also
pieces corresponding to two or more single types, such types being built up,
composed, or arranged according to the pattern to be produced, as herein-
before described.
Second, the system or mode of arranging the gearing between the printing
roller and the large drum in printing apparatus of the class more particularly
referred to herein, so as to allow of any size of repeats of pattern being used
which will divide into the circumference of the drum without changing the
large spur wheel or drum teeth, and the system or mode of driving the drum by
means of a pinion in gear with the said drum teeth, as herein-before described.
Third, the system or mode of arranging the printing roller and colour-feed
apparatus in printing apparatus of the class more particularly referred to
herein, wherein these details are carried by a frame which can be removed in
one piece from the traversing carriage, and the system or mode of adjusting
the pressure of the printing roller by adjustable screws and latches or levers
acting on the said frame, as herein-before described.
Fourth, the system or mode of laying fabrics or materials in a spiral or
helical form upon a large drum or cylinder, or upon an endless web stretched
upon two drums, for the purpose of being printed upon, as herein-before
described, and the herein-before described arrangements and dispositions of
the printing details for printing the fabrics or materials when arranged in
this manner.
Fifth, the application and use of an endless web stretched upon two drums
or cylinders to receive long pieces of fabrics or materials to be printed upon at
one operation, such fabrics or materials being laid upon the endless web in a
spiral or helical form, or so as to be parallel to the edges thereof, as herein-
before described.

page_text: Sixth, the system or mode of heating the surface of the large drum, used in
the class of printing apparatus more particularly referred to herein, by means
of steam conveyed through pipes or passages traversing the interior of the
drum surface, as hercin-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Andrew Barclay, on behalf of the said
James Strang Thomson and of myself, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Fifteenth day of August, One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-six.
ANDREW BARCLAY. (L.S.)