IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING ON TIN, TERNE, IRON, AND METAL PLATES
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Barclay and John Doyle Fry, both of
9, College Hill, Cannon Street, in the City of London, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING ON TIN, TERNE, IRON, AND
METAL PLATES."-Partly a communication from abroad by Henry
Baber, of Paris.
Sealed the 7th September 1875, and dated the 31st March 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Barclay and
John Doyle Fry at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 31st March 1875.
We, ROBERT BARCLAY and JOHN DOYLE FRY, both of 9, College Hill,
Cannon Street, in the City of London, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING ON TIN, TERNE, IRON, AND
METAL PLATES," to be as follows:-

page_text: Our Invention consists of improved means of obtaining impressions
or printing on metal plates to be applied for the labelling and decoration
of tin and other metallic boxes, and other purposes, and by which greater
delicacy of work and economy of production are attained.
The two methods generally well known and long practiced by the
printing trade in this country consist,-
First. Of a method of directly printing a sheet of metal upon an
ordinary printing machine by means of raised stones or metal printing
blocks, the sheet of metal being either coated with a varnish or a white
ground, or bare of all coating. This has been described in the Specifi-
cations of the Patents No. 571, in the year 1864, and No. 1452, in the
year 1869, although prior to this various expedients for rendering sheets
of metal perfectly level by coating and grinding the surface so coated,
and by producing such coating by repeated lithographic printing to
cover defects in the surface of the plate have been used, and sheets of
metal printed without the raising of the stone or design.
Secondly. A method of printing a sheet of metal by means of transfer,
such transfer being effected by reversing the design and printing it upon
a sheet of paper coated with starch and gum on one side by means of an
ordinary lithographic or typographic hand press. The metal plate to be
printed, whether bare or coated with a varnish or with a painted coating
or printed ground, is then made tacky or sticky by means of a suitable
varnish, and the transfer paper is laid down firmly on the metal plate by
means of a lithographic hand press or a copper-plate press. One or more
plates are passed through at a time, and the air being driven out from
between the paper and the metal plate as the rollers of the press progress
from end to end of the sheet, the paper is caused firmly to adhere to the
metal plate; it is then placed in water, the softened paper is peeled off,
and the design, however delicate and elaborate, whether printed in white
only or other colors, or whether printed with a white ground or backing
to the whole surface or to any portion of it, is now firmly printed on the
metal plate. A white ground has also been printed both by the direct
process and by the transfer process, and the design printed upon it
afterwards by both processes from the commencement of the art in this
country.
Our improvements are annlied to both those n

page_text: The difficulty of printing a sheet of metal by the direct process pre-
cisely as a sheet of cardboard is that it is difficult to obtain sheets of
metal perfectly equal in thickness, and even when the surface of the
design is raised on a lithographic stone this difficulty is not entirely
removed. It is moreover extremely difficult to register so harsh and
unmanageable a material as metal so as to print two or more colors
rapidly by steam power, and generally to give beauty and delicacy of
result, while by hand power it is too costly. We therefore adapt means
by which a metal plate, whether even or uneven in surface, can be
printed on a metal plate by steam power, and the intrinsic difficulty
overcome of producing rapidly by steam power decorations of great
beauty and delicacy in one color, and also a means by which any number
of colors can be registered with great accuracy.
After preparing the design upon stone or block in the usual way we
print it by steam cylinder lithographic or letter-press machine, cither
platten or cylindrical, upon a Bristol cardboard. We prefer a cardboard
made with hard-sized drawing paper, and rolled very highly till the
surface is highly glazed, and cut so that it can be laid accurately upon
the metal plate. The design may be printed either in a pure varnish or
in colored printing ink, having regard to the stoving of the plates, so
that the varnish and color may resist the heat. These cardboards are
printed rapidly, and as rapidly laid down upon the plates, and the
printing impression is made from these cardboards by passing them
through a steam lithographic or copper-plate press of the ordinary con-
struction either singly or several together. We prefer however to use
two accurately adjusted rollers working (with a table capable of adjust-
ment) and actuated by steam for giving the requisite pressure. When
the impression is produced, if the object is to apply dust color to give a
vivid and solid ground or to produce a white design or white ground by
giving as speedily as possible the greatest opacity of color, we so print as
to allow the printed varnish impression on the plates to become slightly
tacky, and then apply the dust color in the usual way adopted with
printed impressions on paper. The plates are then placed in racks, and
stoved or dried.
In registering one or more colors the usual register marks are printed
on two sides of the sheet of cardboard in the first color printed by means
of the key stone" or "key block" of the design. Similar marks are
printed on the sheets of Bristol board used for the second color, and
66

page_text: paper, because the paper, however rolled or subjected to pressure will
not lay flat, and consequently when printed by the machine laying
process, or even by the pointing process, it cannot be relied upon for
register; we therefore to overcome this difficulty coat the paper with
starch and gum on both sides, and we find that the transfer paper now
lies perfectly smooth and registers with mathematical accuracy, and we
are therefore able to produce by steam power such designs of extreme
delicacy of register.
We sometimes print a roll of paper so coated on both sides in one,
two, or more colors by endless web printing machines by steam power.
We decorate the tin plates by ruling parti-colored lines by means of
a ruling machine and brushes, and add these processes to complete the
design.
We decorate the tin plates at times by crystallizing the surface by
means well known, and apply to them colored designs by our process,
which are transparent, thus producing a rich and beautiful effect.
The plates are after drying and cleaning finally varnished with shellac
or copal varnishes, and dried in a stove in the usual way; and if a very
high finish is required are polished like a japanned tea tray.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Barclay and John Doyle Fry in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 29th September 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ROBERT
BARCLAY and JOHN DOYLE FRY, both of 9, College Hill, Cannon Street,
in the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said Robert Barclay and John
Doyle Fry, Her special licence that we, the said Robert Barclay and
John Doyle Fry, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said Robert Barclay and John Doyle Fry, our exc-

page_text: to cover defects in the surface of the plate have been used, and sheets
of metal printed without the raising of the stone or design.
Secondly. A method of printing a sheet of metal by means of transfer,
such transfer being effected by reversing the design and printing it
upon a sheet of paper coated with starch and gum on one side by means
of an ordinary lithographic or typrographic hand press. The metal plate
to be printed, whether bare or coated with a varnish, or with a painted
coating or printed ground, is then made tacky or sticky by means of a
suitable varnish, and the transfer paper is laid down firmly on the metal
plate by means of a lithographic hand press or a copper plate press. One
or more plates are passed through at a time, and the air being driven
out from between the paper and the metal plate as the rollers of the
press progress from end to end of the sheet the paper is caused firmly
to adhere to the metal plate; it is then placed in water, the softened
paper is peeled off, and the design, however delicate and elaborate,
whether printed in white only or other colors, or whether printed with
a white ground or backing to the whole surface or to any portion of it,
is now firmly printed on the metal plate. A white ground has also
been printed, both by the direct process and by the transfer process, and
the design printed upon it afterwards by both processes from the com-
mencement of the art in this country.
Our improvements are applied to both these processes.
The difficulty of printing a sheet of metal by the direct process
precisely as a sheet of cardboard is that it is difficult to obtain sheets of
metal perfectly equal in thickness, and even when the surface of the
design is raised on a lithographic stone this difficulty is not entirely
removed. It is moreover extremely difficult to register so harsh and
unmanageable a material as metal so as to print two or more colors
rapidly by steam power, and generally to give beauty and delicacy of
result, while by hand power it is too costly. We therefore adapt means
by which a metal plate, whether even or uneven in surface can be
printed by steam power, and the intrinsic difficulty overcome of pro-
ducing rapidly by steam power decorations of great beauty and delicacy
in one color, and also a means by which any number of colors can be
registered with great accuracy.
After prenaring the design unon stone or block in the usual wa N

page_text: print it by steam cylinder, lithographic, or letter-press machine, either
platten or cylindrical, upon a Bristol cardboard. We prefer a cardboard
made with hard sized drawing paper and rolled very highly till the
surface is highly glazed, and cut so that it can be laid accurately upon
the metal plate; the design may be printed either in a pure varnish or
in colored printing ink, having regard to the stoving of the plates, so
that the varnish and color may resist the heat. We are careful that the
sheets of cardboard are all the same size, and that in repeating the
printing on the cardboard used the impression always falls in the same
place, which is effected by means of the ordinary "patent lay" apparatus
in general use on cylindrical lithographic machines; only one sheet of
carboard is made to produce a large number of impressions, and labor
is again economized. These carboards are printed rapidly, and as rapidly
laid down upon the plates, and the printing impression is made from
these cardboards by passing them through a steam lithographic or
copper-plate press of the ordinary construction either singly or several
together. We prefer however to use two accurately adjusted rollers
working (with a table capable of adjustment) and actuated by steam for
giving the requisite pressure. When the impression is produced if tho
object is to apply dust color to give a vivid and solid ground, or to
produce a white design or white ground by giving as speedily as possible
the greatest opacity of color, we so print as to allow the printed varnish
impression on the plates to become slightly tacky, and then apply the
dust color in the usual way adopted with printed impressions on paper.
The plates are then placed in racks and stoved or dried.
-
In registering one or more colors the usual register marks are printed
on two sides of the sheet of cardboard in the first color printed by means
of the "key stone" or "key block" of the design. Similar marks are
printed on the sheets of Bristol board used for the second color, and two
holes cut in the boards at and corresponding to these marks to enable the
attendant to register the second color to its place on the first, it is then
passed through the rollers, copper-plate, or lithographic press, worked by
steam power, and the second printing is produced in perfect register.
If however it is seen that the impression of the second color is not in
perfect register on the cardboard, before impressing it upon the plate
it can be washed off with turpentine without injuring the board and
reprinted, and thus imperfect impressions are not produced upon the
metal sheets and waste and loss are avoided. The same process is

page_text: added.
CUCL URO
is required to complete the design are us
With regard to the colors we use those not affected by the stoving
and varnishing.
The plates are dried or stoved after each printing, and if dusted wo
very carefully remove the adherent dust before proceeding to the next
color and clean when needful with a little powdered tale.
The plates are sometimes used bare and sometimes varnished, especially
when a gold design is to be produced, when a gold colored lacquer or
shellac varnish is used and the colors or grounds are printed upon it
leaving the gold design bare.
In printing white we repeat the printing a sufficient number of times to
produce opacity. By this means impressions of equal delicacy or nearly
equal delicacy may be produced upon sheets of metal without the use,
as heretofore, of paper expensively coated with several coatings of starch
and gum, and therefore a great saving in cost of materials is effected
over the ordinary transfer process as before described. The process does
not require the damping of the plate or its immersion in water, and the
careful removal of the softened transfer paper, and thus effects a great
saving in labor. The whole process can thus be executed with equal
delicacy and success by steam power which has not been effected by any
other process now in use. In a similar way we print in one or more
colors pieces cut from scraps or waste tin plate in sizes for box lids and
such like articles. We print by means of an ordinary printing press a
sheet of cardboard as described, adding to the design outlines which
correspond to the forms of the various pieces of punched or cut tin;
these pieces of tin are then laid down on the cardboard just as a
lithographer lays a number of cards all to be printed at one and the same
impression, another sheet of cardboard is now placed on the top and
both containing the pieces of tin between them are passed through the
cylinders and subjected to great pressure, and the pieces of tin will be
found printed on by the set-off; if more color is required they are then
dusted with color and the same process is repeated. The indent of the.
shape of the tin cut or stamped out impressed on the card assists the
workman in laying down the pieces correctly, while it furnishes no
difficulty to the printer by raised blocks. Sheets of thick paper may be.
used in place of cardboard, but less advantageously.

page_text: Second. The means by which the register is more accurately and
rapidly obtained when printing on tin, terne, iron, and metal plates by
transfer, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Robert Barclay and John Doyle
Fry, have hereunto set our hands and scals, this Twenty-ninth day
of September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-five.
ROBERT BARCLAY. (L.S.)
JOHN DOYLE FRY. (L.S.)