A COPYING PRESS, SO CALLED TELEGRAPH PRESS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Marie Ferdinand Jules Vicomte de la Tour-
du-Breuil and Alexandre Marie Auguste de la Tour-du-Breuil, Civil
Engineer, both of 29, Boulevart St. Martin, Paris, for the Invention of
F
131
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Marie Ferdinand
Jules Vicomte de la Tour-du-Breuil and Alexandre Marie Auguste de la
Tour-du-Breuil at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 23rd May 1861.
We, HENRY MARIE FERDINAND JULES VICOMTE DE LA TOUR-DU-BREUIL
and ALEXANDRE MARIE AUGUSTE DE LA TOUR-DU-BREUIL, Civil Engineer, both
of 29, Boulevart St. Martin, Paris, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "A COPYING PRESS, SO CALLED TELEGRAPH PRESS," to be as
follows:-
This apparatus is composed of a wooden or cast-iron rectangular framing for
carrying two rails, and the bearings which maintain two or more rollers or
cylinders in a position parallel to the plane of the two rails; a table runs on
these rails, carried by four bowls, which table is covered with an inoxidizable
[Price 8d.]

page_text: metal, or generally of a body inalterable by water or other liquid employed;
this table receives the sheet of paper written on, and the piece of blank paper
which is to receive the impression by the action of the cylinders. The first
roller is of bronze or other inoxidizable metal; it has throughout nearly its
whole length a helicoidal channel; or it may be a series of grooves, placed in
communication by longitudinal channels parallel to the axis, or they may be
simply a suitable number of longitudinal channels united by grooves at the
two extremities; whatever may be the disposition of the grooves or channels
adopted, they are put in communication with the journals of the cylinder,
which are hollow & continued throughout the axis. To produce equality on
the surface of the cylinder we apply a thin sheet of perforated zinc as a
strainer, which covers its whole surface; this is covered in its turn by a
thickness of felt, or any other suitable permeable material. A water reservoir
placed in a position higher than that of the cylinder communicates with the
hollow axis thereof by means of a pipe connected to the cylinder by a stuffing
box, leaving it free to rotate. A stop-cock regulates the flow of water accord-
ing to requirements. This arrangement effects the damping of the permeable
fabric of the pad in a regular and uniform manner. The damping can be
effected by other analogous means, & which forms the principal feature of the
Invention. The damping may be conducted in same manner in cases where
coloring matters or acids are substituted for the water; this arrangement is
applicable to printing lithography, printing or impressing fabrics, paper
hangings, & generally where liquids or solutions are used. The second
cylinder is of cast-iron, covered with india-rubber, to prevent oxidation, and at
same time to impart a certain degree of elasticity to its surface; it is also
intended to produce greater or less pressure, which is regulated at will by
means of the rails or bearings. The rollers of the cylinder may be superposed
& the movement rendered certain by toothed gearing.
The apparatus works as follows:--The written sheet of paper and the
unsized paper are placed the one on the other on the carriage, which is then
pushed in such way as to pass under the damp roller and then under the
pressure roller; the imprint or copy is thus obtained; the two sheets are now
removed, and the carriage pushed back to its original position.
A third roller, termed a drying roller, may also be placed near the pressure
roller in cases where it is desirable to obtain dry proots of impressions imme
diately. This cylinder may be heated by gas or traversed by a jet of steam.
By placing a slide or other support in front or behind the carriage, the book
or register into which the letter is to be coppied can be substituted for the

page_text: loose sheet in the reproduction of letters. It suffices to maintain the register
at a lower plane, in order to dispose one of its leaves on the table in the same
position as the loose leaf. The carriage may further be worked by
madhanism
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, fled
by the said Henry Marie Ferdinand Jules Vicomte de la Tour-du-Breuil
and Alexandre Marie Auguste de la Tour-da-Breuil in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 23rd November 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HENRY
MARIE FERDINAND JULES VICOMTE DE LA TOUR-DU-BREUIL and ALEXANDRE
MARIE AUGUSTE DE LA TOUR-DU-BREUIL, Civil Engineer, both of No. 29,
Boulevart S. Martin, Paris, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Henri Marie Ferdinand Jules Vicomte de la Tour-du-Breuil and
Alexandre Marie Auguste de la Tour-du-Breuil, Her special licence that we,
the said Henry Marie Ferdinand Jules Vicomte de la Tour-du-Breuil and
Alexandre Marie Auguste de la Tour-du-Breuil, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Henry Marie Ferdinand Jules
Vicomte de la Tour-du-Breuil and Alexandre Marie Auguste de la Tour-du-
Breuil, our 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 "A COPYING PRESS, O CALLED
TELEGRAPH PRESS,'" upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
Henry Marie Ferdinand Jules Vicomte de la Tour-du-Breuil and Alexandre
Marie Auguste de la Tour-du-Breuil, our executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Henry Marie Ferdinand Jules
Vicomte de la Tour-du-Breuil and Alexandre Marie Auguste de la Tour-du-
Breuil, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement:-
The Invention relates to an improved system of copying press for the
purpose of copying letters or other written documents, and which we intend
denominating telegraph press, as the same works with great speed and nicety,
and is consequently particularly usefull for offices where large quantities of
letters or other written documents are to be copied, such, for instance, as
telegraph ollices, banking houses, commercial offices, and so on; the wetting
of the copying paper and the copying of the written document, which in other
presses form two separate operatious, being reduced to one in our telegraph
press.
In the annexed Drawings, Fig. 1 is a plan, and Fig. 2 a side elevation view,
of our improved copying press, of which the Figs. 3 and 4 represent separate
parts; in these Figures corresponding parts are indicated by the same letters
of reference. The apparatus consists of a frame A, of wood, cast iron, or other
suitable material, provided with two rails B and B', which may be set at the
required distance apart from two rollers C and C¹ by set screws b and b';
these rollers revolve with their trunnions in bearings D and D', either fixed
to the frame A, or which may, by proper set screws, be lifted more or less, so
as to offer another means of regulating at pleasure the distance between the
rollers C and C' and the rails B and B. A carriage E, of cast iron or other
suitable metal or material, the upper surface of which is provided with a
sheet of zinc, gutta percha, or other not easily oxydizable material, is allowed
to move forward and backward on the rails B and B¹, by preference by means
of two pairs of wheels G and G₁; on the sheet of zinc or gutta percha are laid
the letter or other written document to be copied, and the sheet of copying
paper which is to receive the impression; in case this sheet forms part of a
copying book, this latter is laid into a suitable cavity or depression made for
this purpose in the upper part of the carriage E. The roller C serves for
wetting the shect of copying paper that is to receive the impression, and the
other roller for imparting the pressure required for the copying on impression
to take place on the copying paper. We prefer that the roller C should be
made of bronze or other suitable metal non-oxydizable by water. and be
provided with proper perforated serrations, flutings, or other openings for
allowing the water introduced in the inside of the roller by one of its hollow

page_text: trunnions to wet the outer surface of the roller. And in order to distribute
the water equally over the entire surface of the roller, this latter is covered
with a cylinder of zinc, perforated with a number of small holes, whilst for
delivering the water in an equal manner to the copying paper the zinc
cylinder is again provided with a sheating of flannel, felt, or other suitable
pervious tissue or material. Water from a reservoir II is allowed to flow at
the required intervals by means of the india-rubber tube h, through one of the
hollow trunnions into the interior of the roller C. The tube is kept closed
by being pressed between a small knob e fixed to a slide bar and a bearing 9,
the slide bar being acted upon at one end by the spring k, and at the required
intervals at the opposite end in the contrary direction to that of the spring by
a small inclined plane or cog i, fixed to the corresponding side of the carriage;
this cog will consequently drive the slide bar f forward, and for some moments
liberate the tube h from the pressure exerted thereon by the knob e at each
time the carriage in being pushed forward or backward causes the cog i to
strike against the end of the bar . Fig. 3 shows the tube in the opened
position, viz., in the moment the carriage E is so far advanced that the cog i
in striking against the bar causes this latter, and consequently the knob e, to
recede and liberate the tube h, from the pressure exerted on it by this knob c;
Fig. 4, on the contrary, shows the knob e in the normal position, viz., that in
which the tube is kept compressed, so as to prevent the water from the
reservoir to flow into the roller C. The consequence of this arrangement
will be that at each time the carriage E in being moved forward or backward
so far that the cog i in striking against the end of the bar causes the tube h
to be opened, a small portion of the water from the reservoir H will flow into
the roller C, where the same will be distributed equally over the surface of
the flannel or other pervious material with which this roller is covered, from
whence this water will consequently be transmitted over the entire surface of
the copying paper in contact with the ink of the written document on the zinc
sheet on the top of the carriage E. In order that the pressure of the roller C
on the paper should take place as equally as possible over the entire surface
of this paper, the roller C₁ is covered with india-rubber or any other suitable
elastic impervious material. The mode of working of this copying press is as
follows: The reservoir H having been provided with water, a quantity of
this latter, sufficient for suitably wetting the flannel of the roller C, is allowed
to flow into the interior of this latter; the written document to be copied is
now laid as evenly as possible, and with the writing uppermost on the zink
plate on the top of the carriage E, and a sheet. of copying paper or a sheet of

page_text: the copying book laid over the writing, the book itself being laid in the cavity
provided for that purpose in the carriage E; the carriage is now pushed
forward so as to cause both sheets of paper to pass first under the wetting
roller C, and next under the pressing roller C, both rollers having been set in
such manner as to press on the paper. The copying will then be finished,
and the document and the copy being removed, another operation may be
commenced.
"
A modification of this arrangement is represented respectively in front and
in side elevation views in the Figs. 5 and 6. In this modification the carriage
is replaced by a large hollow cylinder I, turning in. suitable bearings situated
in two standards J, securely fixed in a bed plate L; in these standards also
turn the trunnions of the moistening roller C and the pressing roller C', the
first receiving water from a vessel H by means of a tube h, provided with any
suitable means for causing the water to run into the interior of the hollow
roller C only at the required intervals, and in sufficient quantity for keeping
the tissue with which this roller is covered suitably moistened for transmitting
this moisture to the copying paper, which latter is laid, with the written
document to be copied underneath, on the surface of the cylinder 1, the
copying book itself being inserted in the inside of this cylinder through the
slit m, whilst the copying sheet is laid on the writing of the document sheet
spread on the surface of the cylinder. The copying takes place by causing
the cylinder to revolve by means of the winch handle M in the direction required
for causing the sheets of paper first to pass under the moistening roller C,
and next under the pressing roller C', the surface of which latter is provided with
india-rubber or other suitable elastic material. Proper provision must be taken
for allowing to regulate the distance at which the rollers C and ("¹ are set
apart from the cylinder I.
In both hereabove described arrangements of copying presses a third roller
covered with any suitable water absorbant material, or through which lighting
gas or steam may be allowed to pass, may serve for drying at once the copy
obtained on the moistened copying paper.
Having thus described and particularly ascertained the nature of our
Invention, and the manner in which the same is put into practical effect. we
wish it to be distinctly understood that we do not intend to restrain or restrict
poils of the arrangements hereabove described, as
long as the main features or principles of the Invention be retained; but what
we claim as the Invention secured to us by the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent is, providing copying presses with a hollow wetting or moisten-

page_text: ing roller, receiving water in the inside of it, and transmitting the same to the
pervious material with which this roller is covered, and a pressing roller for
properly wetting or moistening the copying paper, and with a pressing roller,
in such manner that the wetting or moistening of the copying paper and the
copying of the written document may be obtained by one operation, in the
manner as has been described.
In witness whercof, I, the said Henry Marie Ferdinand Jules Vicomto
de la Tour-du-Breuil, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Eleventh day of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-one.
H. M. F. J. DE LA TOUR-DU-BREUIL. (L.S.)