IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF PRODUCING IMPRESSIONS UPON TIN PLATES, TERNE PLATES, AND OTHER FLAT SURFACES, AND IN FINISHING PLATES OR FLAT SURFACES. WHICH HAVE RECEIVED SUCH IM- PRESSIONS
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Alexander Lloyd, Alfred Lloyd,
and Frederick Oliver at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the
23rd March 1877.
JOHN ALEXANDER LLOYD, ALFRED LLOYD, and FREDERICK OLIVER, all of Cannon
Street, in the City of London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF PRODUCING
IMPRESSIONS UPON TIN PLATES, TERNE PLATES, AND OTHER FLAT SURFACES, AND
IN FINISHING PLATES OR FLAT SURFACES. WHICH HAVE RECEIVED SUCH IM-
PRESSIONS."
Our Invention relates to methods of transferring pictures, letters, or ornamental
designs to the surface of tin plates, terne plates, or other flat surfaces, and has for
its objects improved methods of transferring such pictures, letters, or ornamental
designs, by which methods economy of time, labour, and cost is effected as com-
pared with methods of transferring as hitherto used and practised.
We prepare the pictures, letters, or ornamental designs upon the surface of an
ordinary lithographic stone in the usual well understood way, either by drawing
them directly upon the stone with lithographic drawing ink, or by drawing them
upon transfer paper with transfer ink, and transferring them therefrom to the surface
of the stone in the usual manner (or the designs may be cut in relief upon wood
blocks or other suitable surfaces). We then place the stone having the design upon
its surface in a suitable lithographic press, and having damped its surface we ink
the design with ordinary lithographic ink, mixed with black or other suitable
mineral, vegetable, or animal colouring matter, and upon it we place a sheet of
sufficiently flexible material, the surface of which has been prepared for the purpose
in the way herein-after described, and which we press in contact with the stone in
an ordinary printing press or lithographic press. The design is thus transferred to
the sheet, which is then removed from the press; we then place the plate of tin,
terne, or other flat surface in the same or another suitable press, and upon its surface
without further preparation we lay the sheet of flexible material prepared as
described, and having the impression of the design upon it, and we submit them to
pressure; we then remove them from the press, and take off the tin plate,

page_text: terne plate, or other flat surface to which the design has thus been transferred in all
its detail.
The ordinary method of transferring designs to tin plates, terno plates, or other
flat surfaces, has been by pressing in contact with them sheets of thin and porous
transfer paper upon which the design has been printed, and afterwards washing and
carefully rubbing off the transfer paper, leaving only the design upon the plate.
This is a long and tedious process, and requires for each impression a fresh sheet of
transfer paper, which is destroyed in the process of removal; and cardboard having
a glazed surface has sometimes been used for the same purpose, but by our improved
method, as above described, the sheet of flexible material, coated with varnish, as
herein-after described, is removed instantly, and any part of the design remaining
upon it, if any, can be removed from its surface by washing it with turpentine,
naphtha, or other quickly drying solvent; it can then be at once used again, and the
design reproduced upon its surface without the necessity for so adjusting it that the
design is impressed in exactly the same position, and it can then be used for trans-
forring the design to the surface of fresh plates; and where the design has
been properly printed upon the surface of the flexible sheet as described, we are
able to transfer it to the surfaces of two or more plates of tin, terne, or other flat
surfaces, without first reheating it, the first of such plates only removing from the
sheet a sufficient part of the ink to form a clear, distinct, and perfect design,
and the succeeding plate or plates removing the remainder; and by thus printing
upon two or more plates without fresh preparation, great economy of labour, time,
and cost is effected.
The method of proceeding is as follows:-The stone having been placed in a
press worked by hand, steam, or other convenient power, and having been damped
and inked by the same or other power, the flexible sheet, duly prepared as herein-
after described, is placed upon it, and has the design impressed upon its lower
surface with great ease and rapidity, the process being much facilitated by the
rigidity or stiffness of the sheet as compared with transfer paper. In another press
a flat surface of stone, metal, or other strong material has in the meantime been
placed, and upon it has been laid the plate upon which the design is to be pro-
duced; upon this plate is placed without further preparation the flexible sheet upon
which the design has been printed, and the whole is passed through the press; upon
being withdrawn the plate is removed and another substituted for it, and so on in
succession as long as a sufficient quantity of the black or coloured ink remains upon
the flexible sheet; the latter is then removed, cleaned with turpentine, and the
design again printed upon any convenient part of its surface, and so on as often as
may be required; and it will be observed that in these processes little or no skill is
required, and they may well be conducted by boys or unskilled workmen.
The flexible sheets which we use are prepared as follows:-We take a fabric of
linen, cotton, or other woven material, of as even and close a texture as possible,
and we prepare one or both of its surfaces with a varnish or composition capable
of receiving a surface of considerable smoothness, and waterproof, as well as able to
sufficiently resist the action of the turpentine, naphtha, alkaline solutions, or other
liquids used for the purpose of cleaning and removing from the surface of the sheet
any of the printing ink which may have remained upon it. For this purpose a
varnish composed of gum-copal, boiled linseed oil, and balsam of copaiba may be
used; but we do not confine ourselves to this composition, but sometimes we use
other varnishes differently composed, but fulfilling the necessary conditions of having
a smooth surface, and being waterproof and sufficiently resistent to the action of
the turpentine or other cleaning liquid. Instead of using textile fabrics we some-
times use to carry the smooth varnished surface felted fabrics or paper of such
thickness as to possess the necessary rigidity and flexibility; or sometimes we use
sheets of gelatino or other gelatinous substances, hardened and rendered imper-
vious to water by chrome alum or other analogous material in the well understood
"ebonite
way, or we use
or analogous compounds.
4

page_text: The plates having the designs upon their surfaces may then be dried and finished
by varnishing in the usual method long understood and practised by japanners, and
may then be either used in their flat state or may be worked up and manufactured
into canisters, boxes, or other articles.
Where designs of various colours are to be formed upon the plates, as many
separate flexible sheets are to be used as there are separate colours in the design,
and each such sheet has only that part of the design of any one particular
colour printed upon it, the plates being printed upon from the several sheets in
succession.
Another part of my Invention consists in a method of varnishing the plates of
tin, terne, or other flat surface after the complete design has been formed upon them
without first drying them. For this purpose we use a thin varnish (composed of
boiled linseed oil and copal or other gum, to which the usual drying materials may
be added), and when the design has been produced upon the plates and partially
dried in the open air, we varnish them with this varnish by first coating the flexiblo
sheets prepared in the same way as those already described, and placing such
varnished sheets upon the printed surface of the tin plate, terne plate, or other flat
surface, and passing them together through a press of a kind similar to those already
described. The flexible sheet is then removed, leaving the varnish adhering to the
design, which is not injured when varnished in this manner, even though not pre-
viously dried in a stove or oven; we then place the varnished plates at once in a
suitable oven or drying stove, whence, when dry, they are removed in a finished
state; by this means the time, labour, and cost of drying the plates before var-
nishing them are saved.
Our improved methods may be applied to 'tin plates, terne plates, or other flat
surfaces first covered with paint or varnish before being printed upon, or to such
plates uncoated.