AN IMPROVED PRINTING AND COPYING OR REPEATING LETTER PRESS OR MACHINE
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Bath at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd April 1869.
I, JOHN BATH, of King William Street, in the City of London, Public
Accountant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED PRINTING AND COPYING OR REPEATING LETTER PRESS OR MACHINE,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of certain new and improved mechanical
arrangements and combinations in the construction of printing and
copying presses, or machines employed for those purposes, and is
designed to simplify those operations and render them more expeditious,
and the machine less costly than printing and copying machines as
heretofore constructed, and further to combine the operations of printing
and copying in one machine.
The following are the means by which I propose to accomplish the
above objects, that is to say, in a suitable framing I arrange, dispose,
and actuate the following parts:-At the front part of the said framing I
arrange a set of keys horizontally, somewhat similar to the key board
of a musical stringed instrument, say 48 keys for example, each of these
keys corresponds to a letter of the alphabet, begining at the left hand of
the key board, the first key corresponds to the capital A, the second key

page_text: to a small a, and so on, in regular order of succession throughout the
entire number of keys, every other key corresponding to a capital letter
and the other keys to small letters. In connection with the aforesaid
keys I employ a series of levers all radiating from the key board
or converging to a centre at any given distance from the key board.
Each of the aforesaid levers is mounted on an independent fulcrum
suitably placed, and a spring is adapted to each for keeping them
raised when out of use, and to the converging ends of each of the
aforesaid levers I affix large and small letters or characters or types in
accordance with the letters on the keys, the said types occupying a very
small space when arranged side by side, say about two inches for the 48
letters. In a line with the key board or thereabout, I adapt a flat table
or tray fitted with a pad covering its surface upon which is to be placed
the blank sheet of paper that is to be printed upon, and upon this blank
sheet I place and secure in position a sheet of black, blue, or other
colored transfer paper, capable of giving off the coloring matter with
which it is prepared upon pressure being exerted upon any part of its
surface. The aforesaid table is capable of being moved sideways from
left to right horizontally, and also from front to back or away from the
key board, and the operations of the machine thus constructed are as
follows: At the commencement of the operation of printing the table
containing the paper to be printed upon is placed with its top left hand
corner near to the type, and suppose, for example, the words "Dear Sir"
are to be printed, the operator presses down that key corresponding to the
capital D of the type, the effect of this movement will be to press that
letter of the type on the black or colored paper and thereby print this
letter on the blank sheet of paper beneath, the operator by a mechanical
movement, then moves the table a little to his left hand, and presses
down the key and type small e, and again moving the table to the left
he presses down the key and type a, and so on in succession until cach
word is printed; he then moves the table from him by suitable
mechanism, and begins the next line, moving the table to the left as each
letter is printed; the arrangement of the mechanism to be employed for
that purpose being such as to cause each succeeding letter or type to be
printed at a uniform distance from the letter last printed. And in this
manner and by these means a whole sheet of paper may be printed upon
to represent letter-press printing in which the type is set up in a form
as commonly practised and well known by letter-press printers.

page_text: I now proceed to describe the means by which I am enabled to copy
the paper printed upon as above described, and for this purpose I
arrange a series of tables beneath and immediately under the top table
aforesaid, space being left between each of the tables for the operator to
place the blank and colored papers thereon, and for the printing types
to work; the levers and letters of the second and succeeding rows or tiers
of types are precisely the same as those firstly above described, and each
of these rows or tiers of type levers are connected to the key board or
uppermost row of type levers, and move therewith, so that when the top
levers print a letter the levers beneath print the same letter at the same
time on their respective sheets of paper, and by these means a large
number of copies may be taken at the same time in one and the same
machine. Blank types for dividing words or sentences, as also types
formed with punctuating characters and figures may be arranged with
the type when desired, and if necessary the above instrument may be
put into connection with an electrical machine for exerting pressure on
the types.