AN IMPROVED PROCESS AND MEANS FOR OBTAINING MULTIPLE COPIES OF WRITINGS AND DESIGNS
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Arthur Paget of Loughborough in the County of
Leicester for an Invention of "AN IMPROVED PROCESS AND MEANS FOR
OBTAINING MULTIPLE COPIES OF WRITINGS AND DESIGNS
"
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Arthur Paget at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd March 1883.
ARTHUR PAGET of Loughborough in the County of Leicester
"AN IMPROVED
PROCESS AND MEANS FOR OBTAINING MULTIPLE COPIES OF WRITINGS AND DESIGNS
"
This invention has for its object an improved process and means for obtaining
multiple copies of writings and designs.
A well known way to obtain multiple copies is by means of a stencil sheet.
Such sheets are prepared from impermiable paper which by various methods is
punctured or abraded in the act of writing or drawing upon it the paper being so
rendered permiable on the lines which the writing or drawing instrument has
traced. The stencil sheet when prepared is laid upon the paper to be printed and
ink being spread over it is forced through the perforated or abraded parts of the
stencil sheet on to the surface beneath where it forms the copy required of the
original writing or design on the stencil sheet.
By my invention I produce the stencil sheet more perfectly and with greater
facility than heretofore and without the aid of expensive apparatus.
Whilst writing or producing the design I place the sheet which is to form the
stencil on a surface conted with a finely granulated hard material. The granules
should not be rounded but left rough with the sharp angles on as when the grains
are broken only and not rubbed together. The powdered glass with which glass
paper is made or powdered emery is suitable. Such powder is then glued or
cemented to a flat smooth surface as wood slate metal or paper.
The instrument which I employ in writing or drawing is a steel pin or needle
held but allowed to move longitudinally in a suitable holder and supported by a
spring which enables the writer to cause the point to bear always with a nearly
uniform pressure on the surface of the stencil sheet and thereby easily and certainly
to avoid tearing the stencil when writing.
Having thus stated the nature of my invention I will now proceed to describe
in detail the manner in which my invention can be operated.
I usually employ an open rectangular wooden frame like a slate frame on which
to fasten the stencil sheet by clips or pins or any of the usual well known methods
and this frame may be hinged to a board or other similar surface somewhat larger
than the paper to be printed.

page_text: The stencil sheet itself is of the usual material, viz, a thin strong paper dressed
with any of the usual materials to render it impermiable to ink. Many well known
sorts of such paper suitable for the purpose of making stencils can be purchased.
Having strained the stencil sheet on the frame I proceed to place under the
stencil paper the surface prepared with granulated material as above described. a
sheet of fine glass paper may be used and I place the frame so that the stencil sheet
rests fair and flat on the granulated surface. It is then ready for the writing or
drawing to be perforated upon it by writing with the pen or point herein after
described.
When preferred the stencil can be written (without the use of any frame) by
simply placing glass paper on any ordinary desk board or table laying the stencil
paper over it and then writing with the pen or point hereinafter described.
The annexed Drawing shews in section and twice the actual size the pen or
writing instrument which I use, A is a case or tubular body of the pen and is
convenient to be held in the hand. B is a steel wire, protruding from and sliding
in a hole in the point at the lower end of the case and terminating in a smooth
rounded blunt point. The wire B has also a collar B' fixed upon it. C is a
perforated block fitted within the case and serving as a guide for the upper end of
the wire B D is a coiled spring contained within the case A. The spring abuts
on the screw plug E which closes the case at its upper end and also upon the
collar B. The spring should be adjusted so that it gives to the wire B a pressure
suitable to abraid without tearing the stencil sheet and this can if required be done
by altering the length of the spring or by screwing up or down the cap E.
With this instrument or pen the writing or drawing is easily produced, and no
special care is requisite, as to the pressure given to it or if the pen is pressed too
hard the spring allows the point to recede and save the paper from being torn.
Afterwards the frame is raised from the board and the stencil is carefully
removed from the granulated surface. This done the stencil sheet is wiped or
dusted with a cloth or brush first on the face and then on the back. The paper
to be printed is now placed under the stencil sheet and so held in any convenient
way.
Finally the printing is effected in the usual well known manner by passing an
ordinary inked printers roller over the surface of the stencil sheet and the ink then
passes through the permiable parts and marks the paper beneath.
The roller which I use is of any ordinary soft printers inking roller composition.
and the ink a printers ink thinned to the consistancy of thin treacle. Suitable
rollers and ink for the purpose are sold in the shops. The ink should be well and
evenly spread on the roller in the usual well known manner.
Having thus described the nature of my said invention and the manner of
performing the same I would have it understood that I claim the process and
means for the preparation of the stencil sheet consisting in writing or drawing
thereon with a spring pen or instrument whilst the said sheet is supported upon a
surface coated with a sharp and hard granulated material substantially as
:described.
In witness whereof I the said Arthur Paget have hereunto set my hand and
seal this Second day of March in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eighty three.