IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH THE FOLDING OF NEWSPAPERS AND OTHER PERIODICAL PUB- LICATIONS
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Alexander Lyttle at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th January 1867.
.
I, WILLIAM ALEXANDER LYTTLE, of the General Post Office, London, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND
CONNECTED WITH THE FOLDING OF NEWSPAPERS AND OTHER PERIODICAL PUB-
LICATIONS," to be as follows:-
I fold each sheet of paper by creases in the direction of the length of the
columns of printed matter in such a way that two adjacent portions of one
surface of the paper shall be brought face to face in making one fold, while
two adjacent portions of the back surface of the paper will be superimposed
in like manner by the next fold. The third fold will bring a further portion
of the front surface of the paper into face to face contact, and the succeeding
fold will again bring together a like portion of the back surface. This
folding. resembles the crimping or "gophering" of a piece of ribbon or
muslin, and a transverse section of the newspaper when so folded will there-
fore be a zig-zag line like the same section of a lady's fan, or of an old-
fashioned door screen when shut up. The printed matter may be arranged so
that there shall be a blank division between the columns in the line of the

page_text: folding crease on its convex side, and by having the printed space or spaces
between those blanks rather narrow, say a total width of nine to twelve
inches, this portion of the newspaper can be read like a printer's galley
sheet with much greater comfort than at present. For instance, when the
first or outside page is read it will be simply necessary to open out the first
fold in order to continue the perusal, and on reclosing this fold the next fold
can be opened like two leaves of a book, and so on. The intelligence lying
between the folds on the back of the sheet can be read in the same way and
without either cutting the folds or disordering and crushing the paper in
attempts to turn it inside out as at present. The latter source of incon-
venience to the reader of a newspaper, which is particularly embarrassing when
he is exposed to a current of air, will be entirely avoided in my plan, while he
will also have the comfort of being able to read either with the use of one
hand only, or with the two hands close together, as if holding the opposite
halves of a small-sized open book. The larger the number of the folds the
more manageable and less liable to crumple up will the paper be when held
in the hand. One end of either outside page can if desired be left blank, or
otherwise adapted for the reception of a written postal address, and .e
impressed stamp when used should be placed at one corner of this blank
space, so as to appear at the right-hand corner of the address when the paper
is folded for the purpose.
The paper being printed in the proper manner to suit the folding peculiar
to this plan, I effect the folding either by hand or by a machine like one of
those generally used for "gophering" muslin, the machine being fed with the
printed sheets either continuously from the printing machine, or separately by
hand. I do not, however, confine myself to any particular machine for the
purpose. In the ordinary gophering machines the plaits or folds are generally
made by the alternate interposition of cylindrical rods attached at right augles
to two parallel chain bands which are made to pass round cogged pulleys
moving in the same direction. Flat plates similarly adapted to effect the
folding of the paper can if desired be substituted for the cylindrical rods, the
plates being adjusted to preserve a position at right angles to the planes in
which the two chain bands move. Two opposite plates of this arrangement may
be so adapted as to press edge to edge on coming into contact in the parallel
passage of the chain bands between the pulleys or rollers, so that they may
thus clamp one edge of the paper on its insertion between them, and serve to
retain and conduct it through the machine. These clamping plates would
then be removed from each other by passing slightly round the second pair of

page_text: rollers at the opposite end of the chain band, and the folded paper can then
be pulled out in the direction of the folds on one side, while a second paper is
placed between the clamping plates in question to be folded on the return
stroke or movement of the chain band in the event of the machine not being
made to act continuously in one direction.