IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPHIC, AND PRINTING. APPARATUS,
Year: 1850

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
LUCAS, of Furnival's Inn, in the City of London, Mechanical Draughtsman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland,. bearing date at Westminster, the Seventh day of
November (One thousand eight hundred and fifty), in the fourteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Robert Lucas, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Robert
Lucas, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert
Lucas, my exors, adññors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all. times during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in the Islands
of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and in all Her Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad (save and except the provinces of Canada,
Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the Island of Prince Edward, in North
America), the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TELEGRAPHIC, AND PRINTING.
APPARATUS," communicated to me from abroad; in which said Letters Patent

page_text: is contained a proviso, that I, the said Robert Lucas, shall cause a particular
description of the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery with in six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Lucas, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention to consist in
covering cylinders made of gutta percha, wood, iron, or any other suitable
material with a sheet of gutta percha, which has a pattern projecting
above its general surface, forming either letters or other figures, by which
books, newspapers, furniture, papers, calicoes, and other fabrics may be printed
when such cylinder is substituted in any of the well-known machines used in
printing for those which are now used, the surfaces of which consist of
metal, wood, or combinations of metal, wood, and other substances than
gutta percha.
The manner in which the sheet of gutta percha is prepared with a surface
of letters, or other figures, is as follows:-Metallic types are first put together
in the usual manner, and after the necessary corrections they are put into
frames of any convenient size, according to the size of stereotype plate required.
A piece of thin but strong linen is then to be cut and coated with prepared
gutta percha by passing it through hot rollers; such piece of linen coated with
gutta percha is then to be covered with powdered black lead (plumbago), and
rubbed in with a brush until it becomes quite bright on the surface, the lead
remaining loose is then to be shaken off; after this the gutta percha on the
linen is to be warmed until it has become sufficiently soft for taking an
impression from the types. This plate, thus warmed, is then to be placed upon
the types and its back is to be covered with woollen cloth or vulcanized india-
rubber; the whole is to be put under a press for about one minute, after which
the cloth or caoutchouc covering is to be taken off and another piece of linen
of equal size, coated somewhat thicker with gutta percha, and warmed, is.to be
placed upon the back of the previous plate and both are to be pressed together;
in about five minutes the plates will have sufficiently cooled, when they may
be taken out of the press and off the frame. The matrix so completed is then
to be rubbed with black lead as before described. During this time another
piece of linen of corresponding size with the first is to be coated by means of
hot rollers with gutta percha prepared as will be hereafter described. This
plate is then also to be rubbed with black lead, warmed, and placed upon the

page_text: matrix, and both are then to be pressed lightly together; after five or ten
minutes the so prepared stereotype plate will have sufficiently cooled to enable
it to be taken off the matrix, when it is to be fastened by means of steel springs
or otherwise upon the printing cylinder of a rotatory printing machine ready for
use. Patterns from other projecting surfaces than type may be thus produced.
The gutta percha for the printing plate is prepared by taking it in a divided state
and immersing it in the nitric or nitrous acid of commerce, either concentrated
or diluted until it becomes thereby in a soft state, when it is to be taken out of
the acid and placed for an hour or two in a solution of carbonate of soda or
other alkali, in the proportion of four ounces to a gallon of water to neutralize
any acid which may have been left in the gutta percha, when it is afterwards
to be worked as ordinary gutta percha, to prepare it for the pattern plate.
Having now described the nature of the Invention and the manner I
carry it into effect, I declare that gutta percha may be used for the Inven-
tion separately, or in combination with either caoutchouc, wood, sawdust,
sulphur, or such other ingredients as are now mixed with gutta percha in the
manufacture of various articles; and I claim the application of gutta percha,
either separately, or mixed with other ingredients to form the figures, surface
of, or for a cylinder for printing machines to transmit impressions of ink
or other coloring matters used in printing on to fabrics such as I have already
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Lucas, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of May, in the year of our Lord One