IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER
Year: 1850

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
OLDDISS BANCKS, of the Firm of Bancks, Brothers, of Weirhouse Mill, Chesham,
in the County of Bucks, and 20, Piccadilly, London, Paper Makers and Card
Makers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Thirtieth day of November, in the fourteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Robert Olddiss Bancks, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said Robert Olddiss Bancks, my exors, admors, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said Robert Olddiss Bancks, my exors,
adñiors, 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 mentioned, should.
and lawfully might make, use; exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark,
and Man, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER;"
in which said Letters Patent is cóntained a proviso obliging me, the said
Robert Olddiss Bancks, by an instrument in writing, under my hand and seal,
particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled
in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Olddiss Bancks, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the saine is to be performed, is particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof (that
is to say)
-
Although the mode of. producing water-marks in paper is well known to
manufacturers of paper, mould makers, and indeed to persons generally taking
interest in manufactures, it will nevertheless be very convenient briefly to
mention the process, as it will the more readily enable me to shew wherein
the peculiarity, use, and novelty of that of which I claim to be the Inventor,
consists,-
In all hand-made papers made for the purpose of writing or printing upon,
and in many machine-made papers for the like purposes, we see, upon looking
through them, a mark and name and date, or some of them, the former of
various designs, and the latter being the name of the manufacturer and the
date of its making. This mark, name, and date, is of a lighter shade than
the main body of the paper, that circumstance in fact causing it to be observ...
able, and, upon a close examination, it is seen to be thinner than the general
body of the paper, and these appearances are said to be the water-mark. They
are produced, as is generally well known, by attaching to the surface of the
mould or dandy roller used in the manufacture of paper, by some convenient
means (usually by sewing with fine wire) cylindrical, and sometimes flattened
wire previously formed into the designs or marks intended to be produced; in
the paper; these designs or marks thus attached to and lying above the general
surface of the mould, and occupying a space thereon, which, if they had been
absent, would have been charged with pulp, causes the sheet of paper in pro-
gress of manufacture to be thinner at the particular parts of the mould where
the marks or designs are attached, by the thickness of the wire used in the
same marks, or designs; and the same apparent effect is indeed produced
upon the sheet of paper in progress of manufacture as is produced by an
ordinary die upon any substance it may be brought with sufficient force in
contact with, with this difference, however, that on the sheet of paper the
It is obvious, from the use of cylindrical
impression is the sunken one.
wire, or flattened wire having its sides parallel with each other, the mark
ultimately produced will be but one formed of a number of lines of equal
breadth, unless indeed in the same figure wires of different gauges, thick-
nesses, or breadths be employed, and even in the latter case (which
indeed in practice it is believed seldom occurs), the transition from the
different gauges would be abrupt and ill-adapted to the proposed end. In

page_text: forming also designs of intricacy with wire, a frequent crossing of it is neces-
sary, by which means, at the points of crossing, the mark will necessarily
be the thickness of two wires. and consequently the water-mark on the sheet
of paper stronger at those points; or, if to avoid the crossing, the wire be cut
so that an end might abut against the length of the wire in an intricate
design, the pieces of wire would be so short and so numerous, as to render
the sewing or fastening of them to the mould exceedingly difficult and of great
expense, and in some cases wholly impracticable. With respect to the imita-
tion of handwriting, or the introduction of fac-simile autographs as water-
marks, it is scarcely necessary to observe, that the observations before. made
in relation to general designs will apply with greater force to them, and that
at the best they would be very imperfect, and in many cases could not, be
effected at all. The remarks made with reference to the water-marking upon
moulds is equally applicable to dandy rollers.
The object of my Invention is to remedy the defects before pointed out,
and to produce a simple mark or one of the highest ornamental character or
intricacy, and in either case, the lines of which it may be composed may vary
as may be required, from a thin line or faint shade to one of a deeper depth
of tone or breadth, or, on the contrary, from a depth of shade to a fainter one,
and to afford facility for introducing water-marks of the greatest intricacy with-
out the inconvenience or expence before alluded to of crossing the wire, and
thus rendering some parts thicker than the main body of the mark, or cutting
the wire into innumerable small pieces; and these effects I attain by the
following means, whereby also I am enabled to produce fac-similes of ordi-
nary handwriting, and of autograph signatures :-A plate of brass, copper, or
other metal, being provided of the requisite substance to produce the depth
of water-mark impression in the pulp, (which substance must be determined
according to the required weight or thickness of the paper), to one side of
the plate is to be attached, by glue or other suitable means, a piece of card-
board or veneer of wood, for the purpose of giving it rigidity and support.
The design to be produced in the pulp as a water-mark having been drawn on
paper, is then to be affixed by glue or other suitable means to the other sur-
face of the plate. If the sheets of paper to be manufactured are not required
to be very heavy, the plate may be thin, and in that case, two thin plates of
metal may be attached together, and be operated upon at one time. In this
case the
paper, with the draught of the design, may be affixed to the outer
surface of one of a pair of plates previously attached together by glue or other
matter, having a piece of cardboard or veneer of wood between them, for the
purpose of keeping the two thicknesses of metal in contact, and for giving

page_text: them rigidity. The plate supported as stated, or the pair of plates connected
as described, are then to be pierced or perforated round the outlines of the
device by a saw adapted to the purpose, after the method of cutting buhl
work, according to the pattern or design drawn as before mentioned, and
which method of buhl cutting being generally well known, need not be more
fully described. The plate. or plates having been so pierced, perforated, or
cut to the figure of the device, those portions of the metal intended to form
the device or water-mark are then to be disengaged from the parts of the
plate or plates not required, which having been done, the drawn paper, device,
cardboard, or veneer, are to be removed; and if two plates of metal have been
cut at one operation, they are to be separated from cach other, as well as the
drawn paper, device, cardboard, or vencer removed by soaking in hot water,
or other suitable means. The designs or patterns thus produced are now to
be attached to the surface of the mould or dandy roller employed by the paper
maker, which may be done either by sewing with wire, as in the ordinary
method of attaching water-marks to moulds or dandy rollers, or by solder.
In cases where a high finish to the water-mark or design is required or
desirable, the edges, and such other parts of the metal as may be desired,
should be chamferred off, rounded, or cut down. In order to do this, these
metal devices or parts of the plate or plates are to be affixed by some suffi-
cient means to a rigid block, to hold them whilst operating upon; and the
method I have adopted, which answers the purpose well, is to glue the cut
metal device to a flat slab of marble somewhat larger than the device, and
this affords facility by soaking in hot water after the operation next described
has been performed for its ready and clean removal. The pattern or metal
device being thus affixed, the upper surface of the metal device is then to be
dressed, by cutting or filing at the parts where it may be necessary to improve
the effect of the pattern, and the edges which have been left sharp by the
saw can be removed or rounded by the scorper or engraver's tool, and then
finished off by stoning or other sufficient and applicable means. The above
method of finishing the marks or designs applies only where the same is to
be sewn on to the mould or dandy roller with wire, but when solder is used,
the metal device may, after having been cut as before mentioned and cleared
from the other parts of the cut plate, cardboard, or vencer, be at once affixed
by solder to the mould or dandy roller; and the dressing of those parts of the
surface, and of the edges left sharp by the saw, may be then effected by the
scorper or engraver's tool, and the subsequent operation of stoning be performed
as before mentioned.
It will be seen that by the means I employ the defects in the ordinary

page_text: method of forming the water-marks on moulds and dandy rollers will not
occur (namely), the "drawing," as it may be termed, of the device or mark
in lines of the same breadth or shade, and the frequent crossings of the wire
in intricate figures; and the advantages I have pointed out are attained
(namely), the production at a small cost, either of simple water-marks or
marks of a highly ornamental character, great intricacy, and variety in lines,
varying in breadth and depth as may be required, and the imitation in water-
marks with precision of ordinary handwriting, and fac-simile autographs.
I therefore claint as my improvement or improvements in the manufacture
of paper, the adaptation of marks or devices, pierced or cut from plates of
metal or otlier suitable substance by saws or other instruments as described, to
the moulds or dandy rollers used in the manufacture of paper, for the purpose
of producing water-marks therein.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Olddiss Bancks, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one