A NEW METHOD OF ADJUSTMENT IN THE ART OF PRINTING BY MEANS OF CERTAIN COMBI- NATIONS OF VARIOUS-SIZED SPACES AND QUADRATS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Purcell, of Patrick Street, in the
City of Cork, Printer, for the Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF
ADJUSTMENT IN THE ART OF PRINTING BY MEANS OF CERTAIN COMBI-
NATIONS OF VARIOUS-SIZED SPACES AND QUADRATS."
Sealed the 8th July 1853, and dated the 5th April 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Purcell at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 5th April 1853.
I, GEORGE PURCELL, of Patrick Street, in the City of Cork,
Printer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"A NEW METHOD OF ADJUSTMENT IN THE ART OF PRINTING BY MEANS OF
CERTAIN COMBINATIONS OF VARIOUS SIZED SPACES AND QUADRATS," to be as
follows, that is to say :-
Firstly, affording greater accuracy and facility in the adjustment of
D. types, rules, and spaces for general printing, but more particularly for
ruled and other forms.
Secondly, by graduating the thickness or dimension of the spaces or
quadrats; as, per example, an em quadrat of pica (of any body) being

page_text: assumed as the unit of breadth, any number of multiples and sub-multi-
ples of this body can be constructed of thicknesses suitable to each body
of type now in use or which may hereafter be in use, and which also
can be adapted to the half bodies. These justifiers are manufactured
and cast in the ordinary manner of type-founding now in use.
Thirdly, by means of these adjustments any length and width of
column may be arrived at with certainty and precision; and squares
for totals, &c., can be formed with greater accuracy and facility than
with the spaces and adjustments now in use.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Purcell, in the Great Seal Patent Office,
on the 30th September 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
GEORGE PURCELL, of Patrick Street, in the City of Cork, Printer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the sixteenth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said George Purcell, Her special licence that I, the
said George Purcell, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said George Purcell, 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
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle
of Man, an Invention for "A NEW METHOD OF ADJUSTMENT IN THE ART
OF PRINTING BY MEANS OF CERTAIN COMBINATIONS OF VARIOUS SIZED SPACES
AND QUADRATS," upon condition (amongst others) that I, the said George
Purcell, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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

page_text: 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 George Purcell, do hereby de-
clare 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 (that is to say):
By means of my adjusting spaces and quadrats of different bodies
bearing correct graduated proportions to pica, to be used in rule work.
and printing in general, greater precision and quickness is obtained by
these than by the method or methods heretofore in use. For instance,
by the method now in use, when any number of columns of different
widths or lengths are to be set, such as pica, small pica, long primer,
bourgeois, brevier, english, minion, emerald, ruby, pearl, and diamond,
spaces or quadrats of such different bodies or sizes have to be fitted
without any one such space or quadrat bearing a correct proportion to
any given standard, with the exception, in some cases, of nonpareil
to pica. Hence, considerable practical difficulty and much delay has
arisen in compositors' work, and more especially in rule work, whenever
it is necessary to set such blank spaces of different bodies to the same
measure of width or length, involving a great loss of time, and occa-
sioning a want of firmness and accuracy in the form. This delay and
inaccuracy is entirely obviated by the use of my uniform graduated
spaces and quadrats; as any length of line and depth or width of column,
blanks, squares, and oblongs, may be instantly arrived at with the
greatest case and certainty; and rule work, which hitherto has presented
so many practical difficulties, will be rendered as simple as ordinary
composition.
Having thus stated and set forth the advantages of my improvements
in the art of printing, I will now proceed to describe more particularly
the manner of securing such advantages, as follows:-I have my spaces
and quadrats of the different bodies of type graduated to pica; as, for
example, an em quadrat of pica, of any body, being taken as a standard,
a number of multiples and sub-multiples of this breadth are to be con-
structed of thicknesses suitable to the following printing types, of any
body, namely, double pica, great primer, english, small pica, long primer,

page_text: bourgeois, brevier, minion, emerald, ruby, pearl, and likewise multiples
and sub-multiples suitable to the half bodies of such respective types.
The multiples of the breadth of an em pica quadrat, which I
propose to
use, are once, twice, three times, four times, five times, and six times;
and the sub-multiples I propose to use are one eighth, two eighth,
three eighth, four eighth, five eighth, six eighth, seven eighth, one sixth,
and two sixth to the body and half body of the before-mentioned types;
and I also propose to add to pica of every body spaces bearing one
eighth and one sixth proportion to such pica.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, what I claim
is to make and use adjustments, that is to say, spaces and quadrats, to
the body and half body of the above-mentioned types, which, while
ranging in depth, and one half the depth, to each particular fount of
type, shall bear graduated proportions to a fixed standard of dimensions.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Purcell, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
GEORGE PURCELL. (L.S.)
Witness, THOMAS FINNCANE.