IMPROVE- MENTS IN METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR PREPARING TRANSFERS, MOULDS, AND RELIEFS FOR LITHOGRAPHIC AND TYPOGRAPHIC PRINTING
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edmund Edwards at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 24th September 1879. A communication
from abroad by George Sutherland, the younger, of Melbourne, in the Colony
of Victoria.
EDMUND EDWARDS, of the Firm of Edwards and Co., Patent Agents and
Engineers, of 40, Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex. "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN METHODS OF AND APPARATUS FOR PREPARING TRANSFERS, MOULDS, AND
RELIEFS FOR LITHOGRAPHIC AND TYPOGRAPHIC PRINTING." [A communication
from abroad by George Sutherland, the younger, of Melbourne, in the Colony of
Victoria.]
This Invention has for its objects improved methods of preparing surfaces having
designs upon them suitable for obtaining impressions in ordinary lithographic and
typographic printing presses.
The first part of the Invention consists in taking a block or surface of wood,
metal, or other suitable material, having its upper surface engraved with a series of
lines or dots in relief of such dimension and at such distances apart as may be
desired. This surface is then inked with lithographic transfer ink, and above it
and parallel with its surface is stretched a piece of lithographic transfer paper
having its prepared face downward or next to the block. Upon the upper surface
or back of this paper is then drawn with a pencil, artist's stump, or other suitable
instrument, the shape of the tint which it is derired to produce upon any design,
the paper being pressed down with the instrument so as to cause it to touch the
block and received the ink from it in dots or lines.
The surface of the block is then re-inked, and it is replaced under the paper but
turned partly round so that where desired the series of dots or lines cross those
previously produced, when the paper is drawn upon as before. By this means a
darker tint can be produced, but for tints specially darker or light a different
specially prepared block may be used.
The paper drawing thus produced resembles a tinted drawing in indian ink, and
may be finished in the same way by hand with a pen or brush, and is then ready
to be transferred in the usual way to the surface of a lithographic stone from which
impressions are taken in any ordinary lithographic press; or to the surface of zinc
D.....631

page_text: for the purpose of being converted into a typographic plate, or to be re-produced by
photo-lithography or other ordinary well understood means.
The second part of the Invention consists in taking a block having its surface
engraved in the same way as that above described, and stretching over its surface
a piece of parchment or other sufficiently flexible membrane or material, having a
thin layer or coating of wax on its lower surface.
The pencil, stump, or other instrument is then passed over its upper surface in
the same way as in the first described process, being pressed with sufficient force
to impress the wax with sunken lines or dots of different dimensions, according
to the character of the engraved block. Upon the wax surface an electro deposit of
metal is then taken in the usual way, and can be used for printing from.
The third part of the Invention consists in taking a flat plate of copper or other
suitable metal and coating its upper surface with a thin layer of wax. A piece of
wire gauze made so that its surface presents lines or dots of any desired dimensions
is then stretched above the surface of the wax.
The shape of the tint desired in the design is then drawn with a pencil or other
suitable instrument upon the back of the wire gauze, pressing it down so that it
impresses the lines or dots down to the surface of the copper plate.
Wire gauze producing any desired degree of light or darkness may be used, one
such tint being worked over the previous one.
The picture is then finished with a needle point or other suitable tool, and an
electro deposit is then taken upon the metal plate, and can be used for obtaining
impressions in any ordinary typographic printing press.