CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ART OF PRINTING IN COLORS
Year: 1833

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
IIARDINGHAM LEGGETT, of Fulham, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman,
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 Twenty-third day of November, in the fourth year of His.
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Henry Ilardingham Leggett, His especial licence, that I, the said.
Henry Hardingham Leggett, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, or such others as
1, the said Henry Hardingham Leggett, my exors, adiñors, 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 expressed, 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 THE ART OF PRINTING IN COLORS;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Henry
Hardingham Leggett, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled
in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in

page_text: Take any quantity of the chips of hæmatoxyhim campechiamun, commonly
called logwood or Campeachey wood, and boil them in eight times their weight
of water (soft water is best) during the space of one hour, draw off the liquor and
strain it through a hair sieve, pour upon the chips another portion of water,
equal in quantity to the former, and boil it during the space of two hours, draw
off this liquor, strain it, and mix the two liquors together. Take of pulverized.
acetate of copper, commonly called English verdigris, about one-thirtieth part
in weight of the weight of the logwood chips used, and mix it with a small
quantity of water, until it becomes of the consistence of common cream; a
part or the whole of this acetate of copper is to be gradually mixed with the
decoction of logwood until the coloring matter sinks to the bottom of the
vessel in the form of a dark grey or blue black precipitate, and the supernatent
liquor becomes clear and nearly colorless, after which no more verdigris.
is to be added. The quantity of verdigris used will depend upon the
quantity of colouring matter which the decoction of logwood may contain. The
supernatent liquor is now to be drawn off by means of a syphon, and the
precipitated colouring matter is to be laid upon a filter made of fine cotton or
woollen, that the remaining moisture may drain off and evaporate, and it may
thus be exposed to the air, in the shade, until perfectly dry. The wood of the
oxsalpina crista, commonly called Brazil wood, may also be used, as may also

page_text: any vegetable substances whose colouring matter will precipitate with any
metallic salts or oxides, but the above is given as being the cheapest and as
producing the most useful tints for landscapes and general purposes; but when
a fine pink is required, the Brazil is to be preferred. The above is to be used
in all respects as the common black with which printers' ink is usually made,
that is to say, it is to be ground with such kind of oil or other matter as is
used in that manner of printing for which it is intended to be employed. In
order to apply the said ink to the purpose of printing in colors, the engraving,
whether in copper, steel, wood, stone, or any other substance, is to be printed
with the above ink in the ordinary manner, and then such parts of the print
as, if it were a painting, would be colored yellow, are to have a weak
solution of vegetable acid applied, or any other acid which will not injure
the substance upon which the picture or design is printed, or any acidulous
salts (for which purpose the bitartrate of potash or tartaric acid is considered
the best,) and which will change the neutral grey of the ink to yellow. Such
parts of the print as, if it were a painting, would be colored red or orange,
are also to have a solution of a vegetable acid applied, or any other acid
which will not injure the substance upon which the picture or design is
printed, or any acidulous salts (for which purpose the oxalic acid is considered
the best), and which will change the neutral grey of the ink to orange or red,
according to the quanty of acid contained in the solution. Such parts of the
print as, if it were a painting, would be coloured pink or crimson are to have a
solution of very dilute sulphuric or other mineral acid applied, and which will
change the neutral grey of the ink to pink or crimson. Such parts of the
print as, if it were a painting, would be coloured lilac or violet are to have a
solution of nitro-muriate of tin or a solution of alum applied, and which will
change the neutral grey of the ink to lilac or violet. Such parts of the print
as, if it were a painting, would be coloured blue are to have a solution
of bicarbonate of ammonia or other alkali applied, and which will change
the neutral grey of the ink to blue. Such parts of the print as, if it
were a painting, would be coloured purple are to have a dilute solution of
bitartrate of potash or other vegetable acid applied first, and afterwards a
solution of alkali. As aforesaid the state of solution of the above acid
and alkalis must wholly depend on the intensity and quality of the ink, and can
only be ascertained by touching the different parts of one of the prints with
various solutions, and adding water or the respective acid or alkali until
the proper strength of tint is acquired. In fine, any reagent may be used
which, upon trial of the particular ink employed, shall be found to produce

page_text: the tint required, a particular rule for which cannot be laid down, owing to the
great variety of combinations which may be effected both in the inks and
the reagents employed; these chemical reagents may be applied by a common
hair pencil, or by either of the following processes, which constitute the second
part of my said Invention (that is to say)-
First, blocks may be prepared after the manner of those used for printing
calico or silk, or those used by paper stainers; such parts of each pattern or
print as are to receive any particular color being left in rolief on ono block;
and when a block has been cut for each color, let the reagent for the color
required be applied to the block intended for it, and then the block applied to
the print or pattern previously printed with my said ink, and all the required
colours will be develloped.
Secondly, the reagents may be applied as follows, that is to say,-The
subject of the print or pattern may be drawn upon thin plates of metal,
about the stoutness of thick writing paper, or upon paper, or upon any similar
substance; a graver, knife, or any efficient tool is then passed over the lines
thus drawn with sufficient pressure to cut through the metal, paper, or what-
ever substance may be employed; the pieces thus cut out being removed,
the part of the pattern or print required, when the plate or sheet is laid over
it, is exhibited by the space thus left; the same rule being observed with
regard to these plates or sheets as before stated concerning the blocks; thus,
cach should contain the subject of one tint or color, and no more; these plates
or sheets are to be lain in succession upon the print or pattern to be colored
or painted, and the roller herein-after described, containing the reagent, is to
be rolled carefully over the whole, the plate or sheet allowing only that part of
the print or pattern to receive the reagent which is immediately under the
interstices or cut out spaces of the former.
Description of the roller before-mentioned.-A small cylinder of wood is
covered with old hat, of the kind used for hatting blocks, the nap or pile of
which must be rubbed off with pummicestone; this hat is to be attached to
the wood by small metal pins, or a solution of shell lac; the roller is saturated
with the reagent to be employed (there being a separate roller for each colour
required), and when carefully rolled over the plate or sheet before .described,
changes the color of those parts of the print which are not covered by the
plate or sheet, and upon which, therefore, the reagent is enabled to act.
Now, whereas it is evident that colors may be applied in the same way to
prints taken with ordinary printers' ink, in which case the tint. or color.
required would be used upon the roller instead of the reagent before described;

page_text: Sheet No. I., Figure I., is the side elevation of such parts of a machine, such
as I have invented, as are sufficient for the purposes of this Specification.
A, A, A, A, is the framework which supports it; B, B, a frame supporting
C, C, which is a platform for the workman employed to stand on; D is a
handle or crank winch, to give motion to the machinery; E is a pinion, which
may be considered to be on the working shaft; this pinion E turns the large
toothed wheel F in the direction shown by the arrow; the large wheel F
turns the pinion G; and the pinion G being on the axis with the wheel H;
they both turn together; H works the rack I, I, backwards and forwards; to
this rack is attached the irregular rod J, K, L, by means of a tube or groove
u, which carries the connecting rod j, the action of which will be more
particularly explained hereafter. On the axis of the wheel H is another pinion
with 8 teeth, and a space between each set of four; this pinion works the
wheel M and pinion N, which is on the same axis; this last-mentioned
pinion works the wheel O; to this wheel O is attached the shaft P, which
drives the large drum or narrow cylinder Q; on this cylinder are placed blocks,
marked R, to receive the prints which are to be coloured, and which are here
shown on the .blocks with their margins turned down at each side; and it may
be as well here to observe, that the paper should be damped when laid on the.
blocks, as if for ordinary printing purposes. S is the .colour box, placed over
the blocks R on the cylinder, and more particularly explained hereafter; T is
a driving band, communicating motion from the roller. U to the roller V;
these rollers will also be more particularly explained hereafter; the roller U is
furnished with a pinion W, which is worked by the side rack or side pins at X,
on the large toothed wheel F; it will be observed that there is a space without.
cogs at Y; on this wheel and the side pins or rack at X must be so placed as
to begin to act when the wheel F, in consequence of the plain space at Y,
ceases to act on the pinion G and wheel H, and when, therefore, the rack I, I,
is stationary or at rest; for the object of the rollers U and V is merely to
remove the colour box to one side, as will be better shown hereafter; the:
color box rests at each end upon a pin, which steps into a spiral groove in the
roller, as will be better explained by other Figures. Z is a rod, attached to

page_text: the quadrant a, at one end, and the other end is inserted in a tube or groove v,
attached to the bolts w, w, Sheet No. 2, by which the frame b, b, is raised and
lowered; d is a spring acting on the end of the rod to force it one way; and
c, f, are two levers acting from the tappets g, g, to force it the other way;
these tappets, it will be seen, are fixed to the wheel II, and act upon the levers
e and fat each half revolution that it makes; the teeth and spaces on the
pinion, which moves the wheel M, should be so arranged with reference to the
blocks R on the cylinder Q, as to remove one block from and bring another
under the frame b, b, twice in each revolution, and to allow of each block
remaining under the frame long enough for the colouring roller (the action of
which will be hereafter explained) to perform its duty; h and i are the
guides of two feeding rollers, or rollers which feed the colouring roller with
color, and will be more particularly described hereafter. The object of this
machinery being to bring a succession of impressions to be coloured under a
roller containing the colour required, between which and the impression one
of the thin plates or sheets of metal, cut as herein-before explained, has been
interposed. I will now proceed more minutely to describe the color box and
its appurtenances by which this is mainly effected.
Figure 2 is a section of the colour box and its appurtenances; and it may
be as well here to state that similar letters are used to denote similar parts in
all the Figures. b, b, therefore, is the perpendicular frame shown in the last
Figure, which works betwen guides in the side of the colour box; k, l, the
two feeding or distributing rollers; J, K, L, the traversing bar, which drags
the rollers along with it as it traverses backwards and forwards. It will be
seen that this bar has two bends in it, at J and L, the object of these is to
cause the colouring roller m to rise as soon as it has rolled over the impression,
for it will be observed that it is only while the bar rests in the guides n, n, at
the bended parts, that the roller can touch the plate and impression beneath
it, for as soon as the straight part K comes into either of the guides, the
colouring roller is at once lifted up from the impression under it; the.
colouring roller is supposed to be made in the manner herein-before described
as that which is to be used by hand. p, p, are the colouring beds, q, q, being
the liquid colour in which both the feeding and distributing rollers lie when
the bar J, K, L, is in the position here shewn, which is in fact just at midstroke,
but if we suppose the bar to be moving in the direction of the arrow, as soon 3
as the colouring roller arrives at the edge of the impression it will rise from it,
while the feeding roller will be dragged through the liquid color, and which
colour will be distributed on the board r, from which, as will be seen hereafter,

page_text: the colouring roller afterwards takes it; the slot guide of the other feeding.
roller slips up the pin which holds it to the traversing bar, and thus the
roller remains stationery in the colour on its colour bed, while the colouring
roller has been lifted up and rolled on to that bed on the return of the bar;
as soon as the bent parts come into the guides the colouring roller, which has
received fresh colour from the colour bed, descends again upon the impression
next the turn upon the cylinder, and having rolled over it, colouring those
parts which are to receive colour, is again, and the colouring roller is lifted
on to the board at r, to receive a fresh supply of colour, and this action will have
dragged the roller k in its turn through the liquid colour and on to the
distributing board. It only now remains for me to describe the mode in which
the cut cut metal plate or sheet is raised each time from the impression to:
allow a fresh block R to come under, by the turning of the cylinder Q.
I have shewn in Figure 1'how the quadrant acts in raising the perpendicular
square frame b, b; now this frame, which I call the lift frame, has another
frame fastened by screws to the bottom of it, which contains the metal sheet,
and is of course in a horizontal position; but this will be more clearly shewn
in the next Figure, where the metal sheet is represented by the colour
green. t is a weight, to give the required pressure to the roller; and further
description will not be necessary, as I have already shewn the action of the
rod Y, which lifts the perpendicular fraine, by means of the quadrant, just at
the right time for each impression.
Figure 3 is a perspective view of the perpendicular and horizontal frames,
with the metal plate drawn to a larger scale, the colour green representing the
metal cut out plate.
Sheet No. 2.-This Figure represents a plan of the machinery herein-before
described, in which, as I have said before, similar letters are used where parts
similar to what have been already described occur; the plan represents two
cylinders at work, the second being merely a repetition of the first; each
having its colour box and appurtenances, and with which two colours may be
printed at the same time, for which purpose the colour boxes, as before
described, are supported on pins, which step and move easily in the spiral
grooves on the rollers U and V, the consequence of which will be, that when
the driving band T is put into action by the side rack or, pins on the large
wheel F, the colour boxes will move to one side, as will also the connecting
rods j, j, and the rods Z, Z, sliding in their respective grooves, so that one:
colour box will take the place of the other, and one having deposited its colour
on the impressions or paper through the interstices of one metal plate, the

page_text: other will deposit a different color through other interstices of another metal
plate, and of course this system of changes might be mu't plied to a much
greater extent if required; generally, however, I should prefer the single color
box. Now, whereas I claim as my Inventiou the following improvements
(that is to say):
First, the printing ink herein-before described as applied to the purpose of
printing in colours, the required color to which may be given by various
chemical reagents acting upon it.
Secondly, the mode of applying such reagents to prints or patterns printed
with my said ink for the purpose of coloring them, whereby a great saving of
time and expence is effected in all cases where many coloured copies are.
required of any particular print or pattern.
And lastly, the machinery herein-before described, as applied to the pur-
poses aforesaid. And such my Invention being to the best of knowledge and
belief entirely new, and never before used within that part of His said
Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His
said Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby
declare this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe.
this my said Specification doth comply in all respects fully and without reserve
or disguise with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent contained, wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right
and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Hardingham Leggett, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-four
Inrolled the Twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-four.