IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING TEXTILE FABRICS AND OTHER SURFACES
Year: 1854

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Melville at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th February
1854.
I, WILLIAM MELVILLE, of Roebank Works, Lochwinnoch, in the County of
Renfrew, North Britain, Printer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING TEXTILE FABRICS AND OTHER SURFACES"
to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to various arrangements of machinery or means to
be used for printing or ornamenting textile fabrics of various kinds, and par-
ticularly shawls and carpets, in a more effective and economical manner than
hitherto. According to one branch of the improvements the fabric, as a
shawl, to be printed is stretched upon a flat table or impression surface so
contrived as to dispense with the usual angle or meter cuts for producing the
necessary blanks at the corners.
To do this the parts of the table where the fabric is not to be printed are
bevilled, recessed, or sloped off, so that as the printing roller traverses over the
piece the impression misses at the receding portion, and thus the first impres-
sion leaves the piece in the proper condition for the dovetailing or fitting in of
the pattern, as the succeeding impressions are brought up to bear upon the.
piece.

page_text: In this system of printing the printing roller is dispensed with, its impression
surface in the same plane, or coincident with the particular slopes or inclines of
the borders of the table, so that as each border is printed, the surface is
accurately covered, whilst at the termination of that slope, and the commence-
ment of the one adjoining it, the latter, being out of the roller's plane, is missed
by the roller. This is best explained with reference to the printing of the square
shawl, where each edge or border surface of the table is bevilled off from the
plane of the centre, where the ground or centre figure is to be laid in. The
printing tables may either be fixed or traversing. The same system is applicable
in printing upon a drum or large cylinder surface; in which case the present
improvements comprehend a mode of printing a great number of individual
pieces at one time within a very confined space. This is effected by arranging
the drum with circumferential grooves or recesses in addition to the angular
recesses before referred to. The pieces can thus be each contracted by being
drawn into the circumferential recesses, so that two of the borders only (in
printing borders) are left exposed to the printing surface. Arrangements are
provided in these processes for printing the borders complete by reverse or.
secondary dispositions of the pieces, so as to bring the patterns to fit or keep
register with each other at the recessed corners..
Shawls and other fabrics are also printed on both sides, by placing them
between two wire gauze frames, the wire gauze being available for holding the
fabrics at a uniform tension, the recessed corner system being also applicable
in this instance, as before described. Carpets may also be printed on both
sides, by being passed through or between a continuous series of rollers or
cylinders, two endless belts of wire gauze being used, one on each side of the
fabric.
Thus the series of colors are printed successively, and through the gauze, or
the same system may be used without the wire gauze. In printing fabrics on both
sides, whether wire gauze is used or not, the process is specially applicable to the
printing of shawls or plaids and table covers. In drum or cylinder printing a
longitudinal cut is made, with bevilled or inclined ends at the drum ends. This
allows the fabric to sink into the slot to leave a blank piece when necessary,
whilst the bevilled portions answer for the corner blanks. Such a plan of
printing may also be used without the terminal inclines.
where angular or inclined recesses have been herein-before referred to as the
means of producing the necessary corner fittings, it is to be understood that
straight slots or recesses may be used alone. In such cases the small blanks
left by reason of the absence of the inclines or angular recesses may be filled in
by blocks afterwards.
And in the cases

page_text: The necessary "stopping-off" cuts may also be accomplished by the use of
a piece of thin copper disposed above the fabric and the drum.
The copper is conveniently held in a guide fast to the drum, and it has a
self-acting movement for withdrawing it as the printing roller passes over it.
The doctor is used in conjunction with cloths for cleansing this metal surface,
and when cleaned the copper passes again into its place; this copper piece may
be held independently of the drum, having the necessary traverse action to
bring it back and forward at the proper times. Ornamental fabrics are also
printed or figured in gold or other metal pigment or matter, by first of all
printing a device on the piece in any suitable adhesive matter, by means either
of an engraved or surface roller or block. The pigment is then printed on over
this by another roller or block, which is kept hot to fix the pigment or figuring
substance.
In this arrangement the roller or cylinder which lays on the gold or coloring
substance immediately succeeds the roller which has laid on the adhesive
matter.
In some instances, the second roller need not be heated. This system of
ornamentation may be used either by itself or in connection with common
color printing; that is to say, the gold or other pigment process with its adhesive
binding or attaching coat, may be interpolated at pleasure with ordinary color
printing rollers or other printing apparatus.