IMPROVEMENTS IN STAMPING AND EMBOSSING PRESSES
Year: 1855

page_text: (This Invention received Provisional Protection, but notice to proceed with the
application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 29th May
1855. A communication.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, and of Glasgow, North Britain, Gentleman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STAMPING AND EMBOSSING
PRESSES," a communication from Carl Heinrich Otto Fänger, of Graefrath, in
the Kingdom of Prussia, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of
presses, wherein the operations of stamping in colors and of embossing one
or more devices may be accomplished in one press and with one actuating
lever handle. The improvements consist in the employment of any required
number of different stamps fitted to work vertically in the overhanging
extremity of the curved bracket or arm of an embossing or stamping press,
such stamps being individually brought in contact with the article or document
to be stamped by a lever handle, working on a swivel or pivot centre in the
top of the bracket, so that it may be moved laterally in order to be brought
on to any one of the stamps desired.
The under side of the lever is grooved or slotted to fit over a corresponding
projection on the top of the spindle of the stamps, by which means the lever

page_text: will be prevented from accidentally slipping off the spindle when depressing it.
In order to apply the color to these stamps, a small color box of metal, per-
forated at the top and bottom, and covered over with felt or other suitable
absorbent material, is fitted into a suitable recess in the base of the press, so
that its upper surface shall be about flush therewith. Over this color box is
fitted a moveable cushion, working on a centre in the base of the press, and
capable of being pushed on one side by means of a rod and lever, and button
sliding in a guide slot. When any one of the stamps is to be used, the cushion
is moved on one side, and the stamp brought lightly down on to the absorbent
material on the color box, such material being saturated with the color con-
tained in the box. The button is then released and the cushion, flys back
again to its original position by the aid of a spring for that purpose. The
document to be stamped is now laid on the cushion, and the stamp is brought
down on to it, thereby printing the requisite device in color on the article
beneath it. When one side of the color box becomes too dry it is turned over,
and the partially dry side placed downwards, so that the color may soak into it
through the perforations in the box, the side which was previously down being
well saturated with color and ready for use. A suitable aperture with a
stopper is made on one edge of the box for the purpose of supplying the
interior with color. On the opposite side of the lever fulcrum is fitted one
or inore embossing dies, and as these will require more pressure than the
stamps, they are placed nearer the working centre of the lever. When it
is required to use them, the lever is turned round on its swivel fulcrum, and
brought over any one of the dies required.
The matrix or matrices are formed on the expanded base of the supporting
bracket. In presses where great power is required, the lever is made to work
in the same plane always, the several stamps being brought under it by being
fitted into a hinged portion of the bracket. The several stamps and dies are
raised by spiral or other springs, arranged in any of the well-known modes at
present adopted in presses of this class.