IMPROVED PROCESSES FOR PRODUCING PRINTING SURFACES
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Henclade Courtenay, of Meyrick Road,
Clapham Junction, in the County of Surrey, Heliographic Engraver,
for the Invention of "IMPROVED PROCESSES FOR PRODUCING PRINTING
SURFACES."
Sealed the 22nd December 1869, and dated the 30th June 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Henelade
Courtenay at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 30th June 1869.
I, ROBERT HENELADE COURTENAY, of Meyrick Road, Clapham
Junction, in the County of Surrey, Heliographic Engraver, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED PROCESSES FOR
PRODUCING PRINTING SURFACES," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to a process by which photographic pictures
from nature, negatives and positives, are produced direct upon a surface
to be employed for printing from printers' ink in the ordinary presses or
-machines, and consists,-
First. In preparing colodion or other suitable solutions with a mineral
such as flint liquor or water glass from which the silex has been pre-

page_text: cipitated and removed. I cover a plate of glass with this mixture and
take a positive picture upon it by the ordinary method of photographic
copying. The positive is printed on to the surface of a substance
composed preferably of parchment size, sugar candy, gum, and chromic
acid; this substance is poured upon a plate of glass and allowed to
settle and become dry before the positive is placed in the printing frame
with it. This substance forms a matrix or mould, from which an
electrotype can be taken. The matrix with the design upon it is well
washed in order to free it from the sensitive salts, and thoroughly
drained; it is then immersed in a solution of chloride of gold, after
which it is drained again; I then coat it. with a solution of nitrate of
silver and grape sugar, and immerse it in a solution of protosulphate of
iron and grape or candied sugar, by means of which the metallic salts
are decomposed into the film as well as on the surface of it, thus
rendering it. impervious to the action of the acid copper solution from
which the copper printing surface is produced. The silver being one of
the best conductors the deposit of copper is instantaneous.
the electrotype is removed from the bath it is immersed in very hot
or boiling water until the whole of the substance forming the matrix
is dissolved or removed therefrom; the plate is then burnished round
the edges and at the parts where the pure lights are situated, when it is
in a state suitable for printing from in the ordinary hand press or in a
machine.
When
The second part consists in producing raised surfaces for printing
from, such as block or type printing from a negative ingraiu.
I produce a negative ingrain, and print the design direct upon a
matrix composed of a substance similar to the matrix before described,
and which is treated in the same manner. In some cases I build up the
lights or other portions of the matrix required to be of greater heights.
In some cases I remove portions from the finished plate to produce pure
lights. The matrix when complete is placed in a bath, and an electro-
type is produced suitable for printing from.
I also print a positive by printers' ink from the negative ingrain on to
a paper prepared with the composition or substance before named, and
transfer it on to stone or metal plate to produce what is known as
photolithographic printing.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Henelade Courtenay in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 30th December 1869..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
HENELADE COURTENAY, of Meyrick Road, Clapham Junction, in the
County of Surrey, Heliographic Engraver, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Robert Henelade Courtenay, Her
special licence that I, the said Robert Henelade Courtenay, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Robert Henclade Courtenay, my 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 King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for IMPROVED PROCESSES FOR PRODUCING PRINTING
SURFACES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Robert Henelade Courtenay, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and scals, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Henelade Courtenay, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof :-
My Invention relates to a process by which photographic pictures
from nature, negatives and positives, are produced direct upon a surface
to be employed for printing from printers' ink in the ordinary presses or
machines, and consists,― .
First. In preparing colodion or other suitable solutions with a silex

page_text: which has been precipitated and removed from liquor of flints or water
glass. I cover a plate of glass with this mixture, and take a positive
picture upon it by the ordinary method of photographic copying. The
positive is printed on to the surface of a substance composed preferably
of parchment size, sugar candy, gum, and chromic acid; this substance
is poured upon a plate of glass and allowed to settle and become dry
before the positive is placed in the printing frame with it. This
substance forms a matrix or mould, from which an electrotype can be
taken. The matrix with the composition above mentioned upon it is
well washed in order to free it from the sensitive salts, and thoroughly
drained; it is then immersed in a solution of chloride of gold, after
which it is drained again; I then cont it with a solution of nitrate of
silver and grape sugar, and immerse it in a solution of protosulphate of
iron and grape or candied sugar, by means of which the metallic salts
are decomposed into the film as well as on the surface of it, thus
rendering it impervious to the action of the acid copper solution, froin
which the copper printing surface is produced. The silver being one of
the best conductors the deposit of copper is instantaneous. When
the electrotype is removed from the hath it is immersed in very hot or
boiling water until the whole of the substance forming the matrix is
dissolved or removed therefrom; the plate is then burnished round the
edges, and at the parts where the pure lights are situated, when it is in
a state suitable for printing from in the ordinary hand press or in a
machine.
The following is a more detailed description of the nature of the 1st
part of my Invention, for the better explanation of the same :-
One of the principal features of my improved process of photographic
or heliographic engraving relates to photographing direct upon a plate
prepared to give the required mechanical conditions suitable for printing
with the ordinary presses in use, by pure and simple photography,
negative or positive, without vesling, transferring, or introducing a tint,
grain, or line of any kind to interfere with the delicacy of the photograph
taken from nature or otherwise. All tint or lines hitherto produced for
mechanical printing, such as copying through the negative or positive,
or other medium has rendered the work flat and unlike the original.
The peculiar improvement in my process of obtaining plates dispenses
with all obstructions to the delicacy of the photograph, the object being
simply reflected on to the prepared plate from the lens as in ordinary

page_text: photography, the chemistry in my process giving the required gradation
of tone in a very fine stipple or grain, transparent in the shadows and
gradually blended with the half tints and lights, a kind of splitting up
and putting together at one operation, thus leaving a delicate tint in the
lights of the picture. For instance, a photoghraph with a white paper
sky may be copied, and the copy when finished gives beautiful effects of
clouds to suit the lighting up of the picture by simply burnishing the
parts required.
My method of manipulation is as follows:-For intaglis plates, first,
a photographic negative is taken as perfect as can be on a plate free
from scratches and other defects, the negative is then placed in a copying
camera, and from it a positive is taken, likewise free from defects and not
varnished. The plate is thus prepared-I take any good collodion or
any other vehicle or suitable solution and add to it either a mineral,
vegetable, or organic substance, or all combined for the purpose of
producing the mechanical conditions for printing. I prefer using for
ordinary work a powder produced thus:-I take a small quantity of
silicate of potash, and precipitate the silex from the liquor, I then dry it
and add a sufficient quantity of it to the collodion to prepare it for use,
or in place of that I take a piece of white glass and pound it to a fine
powder in a mortar; I then wash and dry it and mix it with the
collodion. I do not confine myself to the above, as any other mineral,
vegetable, or other substances that will not injure the collodion or nitrate
of silver bath may be used. I then coat the plate with the prepared
collodion, and produce a positive with a delicate grain perfectly trans-
parent in the shadows, giving a bright spot of copper in the finished
plate, so that the printer can use it in the ordinary manner of plate
printing; I next turn the picture on the glass, and then print it on a
bichromated compound, which I proceed with thus :-I take a quantity
of parchment cuttings and boil them down to a strong jelly, with which
I mix sugar candy, gum tragacanth, and other substances according to
the work to be done. French glue or good gelatine, or any similar
substance singly or combined can be used, that can be acted upon by
light in conjunction with some of the gums or of chromic acid, the
object being to obtain a perfectly smooth and sensitive surface to produce
the matrix to be electrotyped on or from. The electrotyping is con-
ducted as follows:-A mould can be taken from the matrix in almost
any instance used in a liquid state. I prefer working direct from the

page_text: photographic matrix in all cases, whatever its size may be, with care and
cleanliness. Electrotypes can be obtained from parchment size, equal
if not superior in sharpness to wax. After printing on the surface I
wash it well to free the matrix as much as possible from the sensitive
salts used; the plate is then well drained and afterwards inmersed in a
solution of chloride of gold; it is again drained and then coated with a
solution of nitrate of silver and grape sugar, after this it is immersed in
a solution of protosulphate of iron mixed with grape or candied sugar
until all the metallic salts are decomposed in as well as on the film, in
order to render the same impervious to the acid copper solution, which is
afterwards used in electrotyping. The film of silver being one of the
best conductors, the deposit of copper is instantaneous, the silver can be
obtained from the residues the same as usual on immersing the electro-
type in hot or boiling water, the composition becomes dissolved, the
plate needs now only to be burnished at, or on the margin, and the pure
lights also where required.
The second part of my Invention consists in producing raised surfaces
for printing from such as block or type printing from a negative in-
grain. I produce a negative from a positive ingrain, and print the
design direct upon a matrix composed of a substance similar to the
matrix before described, and which is treated in the same manner. In
some cases I build up the lights or other portions of the matrix required
to be of greater heights. In some cases I remove portions from the
finished plate to produce pure lights. The matrix when complete is
placed in a bath, and an electrotype is produced suitable for printing
from, as detailed hereafter. I produce surface blocks with the same
tint as used for intaglio plates, a negative photograph being used for the
purpose instead of a positive. In this case the tint is in the lights
causing the half tints on the picture to be of the same plane as the
shadows through the light acting on or through the tint, and by scraping
or cutting the tint away where lights are required, or by applying strong
gelatine on the matrix in the lights before electrotyping. In some cases
a transfer may be taken from the intaglio plates, and be transferred to
metal or stone, and etched in by a battery, or by any other process. I
also print a positive by printers' ink from the negative ingrain on to a
paper prepared with the composition or substance before named, and
transfer it on to stone or a metal plate, to produce what is known as
photolithographic printing. By this method I produce transfers direct,

page_text: positive or negative, for litho-printing or etching on metal. For intaglis
or surface I reverse the operations in general use. Instead of graining
the transfer paper with any tint or line I obtain the required conditions
for printing without obstructing the light from any part of the design
by the tint before mentioned in the positive or negative photograph on
glass or any other medium.
When I wish to accomplish what is known as heliographic engraving
I obtain a conducting surface on the photograph itself, not only for
photographic purposes, but also for many others, where electro-metal-
lurgy is required for articles in solid metal. I proceed as follows :-I
take standard silver and dissolve it in nitric acid, when dissolved I add
distilled water to it and place it over a fire in an earthen pipkin; I then
add strips of electrotype copper, and stir the contents until the whole of
the silver is reduced to a fine powder or dust. I take the precipitate,
which is pure silver or nearly so, and wash it well to free it from
copper; I then dry it and put it away for use. To silver any surface
non-metallic, particularly gelatine, the matrix for obtaining the electro-
plate, for example, I wipe the surface carefully, and with a flat camel
hair brush spread over the silver powder or dust, the superfluous silver
is then brushed off, when the design will have the appearance of an
engraved silver plate, the gelatine being of a porous nature would absorb
a portion of the metallic solution, in which it is afterwards immersed,
the liquid passing through between the particles of silver powder, but
to prevent. this I coat the plate or surface (by immersion or otherwise)
with a solution of nitrate of silver, which attaches the fine particles of
metallic silver to the gelatine, and after being treated with a solution of
protosulphate of iron it makes the surface complete for causing instan-
taneous deposition of any of the metals in ordinary use by electrotypists.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, as the
first part of my Invention of improved processes for producing printing
surfaces, the combination of ingredients, and the special mode of pro-
ducing a matrix or mould from which printing surfaces may be obtained,
as herein-before described.
Secondly. The mode of producing blocks or raised surfaces ingrain
for printing from, in the manner herein-before described under the
second head of my Specification.

page_text: And, thirdly. I claim producing designs and transfers, in the manner
herein-before described, upon stone or metal plates to effect what is
known as a photo-lithographic printing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Henelade Courtenay, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of
December One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
Witness,
JI. GARDNER,
166, Fleet Street,
London.
R. H. COURTENAY. (L.s.)