IMPROVEMENTS IN ORNAMENTING MATCH BOXES
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Melville Clark, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ORNAMENTING MATCH BOXES." A communication from abroad by Joseph
Bandier, of Marseilles, France.
Sealed the 29th December 1876, and dated the 11th July 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Melville Clark at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 11th July 1876.
ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, Patent Agent. "IMPROVEMENTS IN ORNAMENTING MATCH BOXES."
This Invention relates to the application of embossed or stamped designs of
various kinds for the ornamentation of fancy match boxes.
Boxes for containing wax and other matches are usually ornamented with
pictures and caricatures, cither photographed or printed in one or more colors,
the aim of the manufacturer being to render the boxes as attractive as possible.
The object of the present Invention is to still further improve the appearance
of the boxes by producing in relief the subjects or designs which have been
hitherto printed only on the wrappers of these boxes.
The Invention consists in the novel application to fancy match boxes of raised
or cameo-like designs, produced either by embossing the cardboard of which the
boxes are made, and upon which the design to be embossed has previously been
printed, or by embossing paper wrappers printed specially for the purpose, and
pasted or otherwise applied upon plain boxes or boxes already covered with fancy
wrappers.
In carrying out the Invention in practice I combine the operation of embossing
or producing the design in relief with the ordinary operation of creasing the card-
board blank of which the box is made at the proper place where the cardboard
blank is to be folded or turned up to form the sides and ends of the box. This
operation of creasing the cardboard blank is generally performed in a fly or other
pass, and I utilize the pressure thereby obtained to produce the desired embossed
or cameo effect by providing the said press with suitable dies whereby the design
is embossed or produced in relief, and the cardboard blank creased at the proper
places for folding at one and the same operation.
.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Alexander Melville Clark in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 10th
January 1877.
ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, Patent Agent. "IMPROVEMENTS IN ORNAMENTING MATCH BOXES." A
communication from abroad by Joseph Bandier, of Marseilles, France.
This Invention relates to the production of designs of various kinds printed in
colors and embossed in relief in imitation of a cameo for the ornamentation of fancy
match boxes.
The makers of this kind of match box generally from motives of economy print
the pictures or designs directly on the pasteboard of which they are composed
instead of as formerly printing the pictures separately on sheets of paper which
were afterwards pasted upon sheets of pasteboard of cheap quality. The pasteboard
now in use for the purpose is flexible, white, and of good quality, and is admirably
suited for receiving the colored impression, after which it is glazed or varnished,
and is in this state sold to the box makers.
The first operation in the manufacture of these boxes is that of stamping out the.
blank, which is followed by the operation of creasing at the places where it is to be
folded or turned up to form the box. This operation is generally performed in a
fly press by means of a die having ribs formed thereon corresponding with the
rectangular form of the box, the creases being produced in relief upon the outside
and in intaglio on the inside:
Such are the preliminary operations in the manufacture of fancy match boxes
ornamented with pictorial or other designs printed in colors or not, but such designs
are perfectly flat and have no relief whatever. The object of this Invention is to
produce a cameo effect by embossing such designs in relief upon pasteboard match
boxes without any additional hand labor besides that above referred to. This
result is obtained by combining with the ribbed die for creasing the pasteboard
blank other dies corresponding with the pictorial or other design so as to emboss
or raise the different parts of the design in relief, and thus produce a novel cameo effect
and crease the pasteboard blank at one and the same operation. For this purpose
the parts of the die that carries the ribs for creasing, which correspond to the sur-
faces of the pasteboard on which the pictures or designs are printed, are hollowed
out to receive two pieces of pasteboard specially prepared for the engraver and
intended to form a counterpart, that is to say, receive a relief impression from the
gun metal die engraved in intaglio with the two pictures or designs to be produced
on the two sides of the box. The counterpart die above mentioned bearing the ribs
for creasing, and the two thicknesses of pasteboard on which the relief, design, or
counterpart has been previously produced, is placed on the bed of the press, and the
die having the designs engraved in intaglio is fixed to the follower connected to the
screw of the press. It is then simply necessary to place the pasteboard blank in
the press in order to form the creases and emboss the design thercon simultaneously
at one stroke of the press. This operation may be performed by a child, as no
preliminary trials are needed for obtaining the embossing or relief in exact, register
with the design of whatever kind, inasmuch as the blanks are all cut of the same
size and so fit in the lower die so that three of the sides will exactly fit within
the raised edges of the dies, the design must necessarily be embossed in a perfect
manner. The hand labor required to produce these embossed boxes is thus exactly
the same as for ordinary boxes of the kind, although they are rendered much more
attractive in appearance.
The pictorial or other designs printed on paper for application to match boxes as
above described may also be embossed in the same manner as the pasteboard blanks,
the pictorial or other design having been previously printed thereon in the ordinary
way the design is embossed as above described and then pasted upon the finished
boxes.

page_text: The creasing, embossing, and cutting out of the blank may all be combined in one
operation by the addition to the metal die engraved in intaglio of cutters projecting
about th of an inch therefrom, which when the dies are closed together will
sever the pasteboard and enter grooves in the relief die so as to allow of the cm-
bossing and creasing being performed.
Having described the nature of the said Invention, and the manner of performing
the same, I declare that what I claim as the Invention to be protected by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is―
1st. Embossing in relief the pictures, designs, caricatures, or other printed orna-
mentation to be applied to fancy match boxes as described.
2nd. Combining the operations of creasing and embossing, and it may be also that
of cutting the blanks in the manufacture of fancy pasteboard match boxes as
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, have hereunto set
my hand and scal, this Tenth day of January in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven.
A. M. CLARK.
(L.S.)