IMPROVEMENTS IN ROLLERS OR CYLINDERS USED FOR PRINTING AND EMBOSSING
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Parkes, of Birmingham, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ROLLERS OR CYLINDERS USED FOR PRINTING AND
EMBOSSING."
Sealed the 9th November 1858, and dated the 11th May 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Parkes at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his l'etition, on the
11th May 1858.
I, ALEXANDER PARKES, of Birmingham, do hereby declare the nature of
the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ROLLERS OR CYLINDERS USED FOR PRINTING
AND EMBOSSING," to be as follows:—
This Invention has for its object improvements in printing and embossing
rollers or cylinders. For these purposes, in constructing rollers or cylinders,
when shells of metal are used on bodies, in place of making the bodies of iron,
as heretofore, I employ a body made of zinc, brass, or an alloy of copper, or of
an alloy of iron and nickel, in combination with a suitable shell or outer
surface engraved in a proper manner for printing calico and other fabrics, or
for embossing; and I apply German silver and also an alloy of iron or nickel,
in place of the metals heretofore used in the manufacture of rollers and shells
for printing calico and other fabrics, and for embossing; and in making printing
or embossing rollers, or shells of copper or alloys of copper, or of German

page_text: silver, I first raise a disc of either of such metals by stamping or by drawing
the same through dies, and then extend the same by hammering or rolling or
drawing through dies.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander Parkes in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
11th November 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
PARKES, of Birmingham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-cight, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alexander Parkes, Her special licence that I, the said Alexander
Parkes, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Alexander Parkes, my executors, administrators, and 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 ROLLERS OR CYLINDERS USED FOR PRINTING AND EMBOSSING,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alexander Parkes, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals, 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 I, the said Alexander Parkes, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in printing and embossing
rollers or cylinders. For these purposes, in constructing rollers or cylinders
when shells of metal are used on bodies, in place of making the bodies of iron,
as heretofore, I employ a body made of zinc, brass, or an alloy of copper, or of
an alloy of iron and nickel, in combination with a suitable shell. or outer

page_text: surface engraved in a proper manner for printing calico and other fabrics, or
for embossing; and I apply German silver and also an alloy of iron or nickel,
in place of the metals heretofore used in the manufacture of rollers and shells
for printing calico and other fabrics, and for embossing; and in making printing
or embossing rollers or shells of copper, or alloys of copper, or of German
silver, I first raise a disc of either of such metals by stamping, or by drawing
the same through dies, and then extend the same by hammering or rolling or
drawing through dies.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, I will proceed more fully
to describe the manner of performing the same.
In place of using the ordinary bodies of iron, as heretofore, I employ bodies
of zinc, or of brass, or other alloy of copper, or an alloy of nickel and iron.
When using a body of zinc, or of brass, or other alloy of copper, I prefer to
form the same by casting, and then having suitably prepared such bodies for
I affix thereon shells of copper or of other suitable metal firmly thereon, as is
well understood, when fixing copper shells on iron bodies for calico rolls.
When using an alloy of iron and nickel for making the bodies of printing and
embossing rollers, I prefer to use at the rate of about five per cent. of nickel,
though this may be varied, and even one per cent. of nickel greatly improves
the iron for the bodies of such rollers; and I cast such alloys of iron and
nickel in suitable moulds, and when finished I fix thercon suitable shells of
other metal for forming calico and embossing rolls or cylinders.
By thus using bodies such as above described, in place of iron bodies in the
making of calico printers and embossing rolls or cylinders, I avoid the pre-
judicial effects consequent on the great liability of iron bodics to oxidize.
Another part of my Invention consists in the application of German silver
in the manufacture of printing and embossing rollers, and in using such metal
I make the rollers in like manner to that heretofore resorted to when making
copper rollers; or I use shells of German silver on suitable bodies of iron or
of other metal for calico and embossing rollers.
Another part of my Invention consists in the application of an alloy of iron
and nickel in the manufacture of calico printers and embossing rolls or
cylinders for these purposes; I prefer to use nickel in the proportion of about
twenty per cent., or in such other proportion as to prevent the alloy oxidizing
to a prejudicial extent with reference to the purpose to which the rollers are
to be applied. And in using such alloys in the manufacture of calico printers
and embossing rollers, I either make them solid or in the form of shells fixed
on suitable bodies, as copper has heretofore been used in the manufacture of
like cylinders or rolls when using shells of the metals above described; I

page_text: prefer to form them (when the metal or alloy is suitable) from thick discs, as
described in the Specification of a Patent granted to me, and bearing even
dato with the present Letters Patent.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Parkes, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Tenth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
ALEXANDER PARKES. (L.B.)