MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR PRINTING ON ENVELOPES, CARDS, CIR- CULARS, AND OTHER SIMILAR KINDS OF PRINTING
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Frederick McCorquodale at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 10th November 1876.
GEORGE FREDERICK MCCORQUODALE, of the Firm of McCorquodale & Co., of
"IMPROVE-
Cardington Street, Hampstead Road, in the County of Middlesex.
MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR PRINTING ON ENVELOPES, CARDS, CIR-
CULARS, AND OTHER SIMILAR KINDS OF PRINTING."
,
This Invention has reference to the novel combination of certain improvements
especially applicable in or to machinery or apparatus used in printing on envelopes,
cards, circulars, and other kinds of "jobbing printing the improvements having
as their special objects the effecting the printing of such articles more expeditiously
than hitherto, and the effecting the feed of the blank forins and delivery of the
printed forms in a better manner than previously.
The Invention comprises the novel and peculiar combination of the following
improvements:-On the printing cylinder of such descriptions of printing machinery
I affix duplicate printing plates, and the shaft of the cylinder I provide with
duplicate cams (which may be arranged to act as one when only one printing plate
is desired to be used at a time) which actuate a drop feed bar and cause it to
seize the blank form to be printed from the feed plate after the latter has with-
drawn it from the feed box as hereafter explained. The motion is communicated
from the cams to the drop bar by means of a pin on a side bar bifurcated at its
top and guided by the cylinder shaft and connected to a crank on a shaft carrying
the feed bar and carried by the side frames of the machine, the said side bar being
depressed by the cams and being raised by a spring or positive motion.
The main shaft of the machine, by means of spur gearing, drives a counter shaft
below it carried by the side frames of the machine, and on which are three excentrics,
one centrally thereof, and two on or near one or opposite ends.
The central excentric, by means of a connecting rod, imparts a slight motion to a
pressing piece provided with fingers, and against which the blank forms in the feed
box-are-fed and pressed by means-hereafter described. This slight motion tends to
loosen the blank forms so that they may be the more easily separated and taken up
by the feed plate. One of the end excentrics, by means of a connecting rod and crank,
imparts a rocking motion to a sbaft carrying the crank, and carried by the side
frames of the machine at the front; this rocking shaft carries an excentric hereafter
referred to, and a tube, to the outer end of which the said feed plate is affixed, the

page_text: face of this plate being perforated with holes communicating with the tube, the inner
end of which is connected by flexible tubing to any suitable air-exhausting ap-
paratus combined with the machine, carried by its bed plate between its side frames,
and actuated from the main shaft.
The excentric on the rocking shaft, by means of two elbowed or adjustable bars
and a pawl on one, actuates a suitable train of wheels which give motion to a
travelling web carried by rollers, which, with the train of wheels are carried by the
upper part of the feed box, which can be adjusted vertically on its framing or lower
part to suit different heights of blank forms so that the feed plate shall always take
them, and is provided with inner sides which may be adjusted horizontally to suit
different widths of blank forms so that they shall be kept straight and taken up
squarely; thus the motion of the excentric on the rocking shaft causes the blank
forms to be fed up to the fingered pressing piece which is slightly moved backwards
by its excentric as the feed plate actuated by its excentric descends into contact
with the foremost blank form, which is thus released from any retaining pressure,
and is forced by atmospheric pressure against the feed plate, this action being in-
duced by the air-exhausting apparatus tending to create a vacuum within the tube
and feed plate; the blank form is then lifted by the feed plate, and is seized by the
descent of the drop feed bar (actuated by its cam) between it and a lower roller, and
is carried by the usual tapes to between the printing plates on the printing cylinder
and the usual cylinder on the main shaft beneath it; the other end excentric on the
counter shaft by means of a connecting bar and crank imparts a rocking motion to
a shaft carrying the crank and carried by the side frames of the machine at the
rear. This rocking shaft carries a depressing piece which as the printed forms are
fed from the machine into the delivery box depresses them, and a false bottom on
which they are carried, and with which the box is provided, and which bottom is
supported by the lateral pressure exerted by a helical spring on depending sides of
the false bottom against the sides of the box.