IMPROVEMENTS UPON, ADDITIONS TO, OR SUBSTITUTES FOR CERTAIN MATERIALS OR APPARATUS MADE USE OF IN THE PROCESS OF PRINTING FROM STEREOTYPE PLATES
Year: 1821

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
FERGUSSON, of Newman Street,, Oxford Street, in the County of Middlesex,.
Stereotyper and Printer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at Westminster,
the Eighteenth day of October, in the second year of His reign, give and
grant unto me, the said James Fergusson, my exors, adñññors, and assigns,
His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
James Fergusson, my exors, admors, and assigns, during the term of years
therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS UPON, ADDITIONS TO, OR SUBSTITUTES FOR CERTAIN MATERIALS OR
APPARATUS MADE USE OF IN THE PROCESS OF PRINTING FROM STEREOTYPE PLATES;"
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the said James
Fergusson, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in
His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said
Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted,
shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same,
relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Fergusson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in the following description thereof (that is to
say)-
In the process of printing from stereotype plates the plates are put upon
and fastened to-certain materials or apparatus called by different names, such
as blocks, matrix plates, risers, &c., which are made either of iron, brass, type
metal, bell metal, Roman cement, gypsum, wood of various kinds, or some
other suitable substance, or without using any such materials or apparatus the
plates are or may be put upon and fastened to the coffins or tables of such
printing presses as are in general use, or upon cylindrical or any other sort of
printing machines. In all cases, however, of printing from stereotype plates it
is necessary to apply some remedy to the unequal thickness of the plates, and
the operation usually adopted is that of putting layers or pieces of paper or
other material under the thinner places of the plates, or over the same, on or
between the tympan or tympans, which operation is technically termed under-
laying and overlaying. Now the nature or object of my Invention is that of
saving the time and expence unavoidably sacrificed in the operation of under-
laying and overlaying, and this object I accomplish by putting elastic
substances under the stereotype plates, whereby the printed impressions from
them are immediately equalized in whole or in part, for the elastic substances
yield to the pressure upon the thicker parts of the plates, and at the same time
afford the necessary resistance for obtaining sufficient strength of impressions
from the thinner parts. It must be evident that the elastic substances are to
be interposed between the stereotype plates and whatever solid or firm
substance may be made use of, whether blocks, matrix plates, risers, cylinders,
printing presses, printing machines, or any other apparatus whatsoever. So
far as I have made experiments and trials of different elastic substances I have
hitherto found cork to be the best calculated for the purposes of
my Invention,
but in virtue of the Letters Patent granted unto me, I claim the exclusive
right and privilege of applying cork and any other elastic substance to all
kinds of printing apparatus and machines with a view of remedying the in-
equalities in the thickness of stereotype plates. And I also claim the sole
right and privilege of manufacturing the elastic articles requisite for the
attainment of this object, of vending such articles, and of granting licences for
the use of the same.
In further explanation of the manner in which my Invention is to be
performed, it may be proper to state that the cork is prepared by cutting,

page_text: sawing, rasping, and filing, and by these means it is wrought to such a uniform
thickness as is required. I consider a quarter of an inch as a proper thickness,
but a lesser or a greater may be adopted. If when a determinate thickness
has been fixed upon, the cork is to be applied to some apparatus now in use,
that apparatus should of course be diminished as much as is the thickness of
the cork, in order that the same height to paper may be preserved. The
layers or beds of cork may be formed either of single pieces cut to the
respective sizes of pages, or made up by several slips, whereby they may be
adjusted to various widths and lengths. Whether the cork be laid loose upon
the blocks, &c., or be attached by soft pitch, shoemakers' wax, or other adhesive
substance, is unimportant, but I prefer attaching it so as to keep it in its place.
Although my Invention essentially consists in discovering the applicability of
elastic substances for the purpose of remedying inequalities in the thickness of
stereotype plates, yet in this Specification I have necessarily given my explana-
tions by particularizing cork, that being the material which I now manu-
facture and prefer. How to adapt any other elastic substance which may
answer the purpose equally well as cork cannot be a matter of doubt or
difficulty to any person practically acquainted with apparatus used in stereo-
type presswork.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Fergusson, have hereunto set my
band and seal, the Tenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-one.