IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO PRINTING MACHINES
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Clinker, at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 11th
February 1875.
I, CHARLES CLINKER, of Yeovil, in the County of Somerset, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
APPLICABLE TO PRINTING MACHINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in printing machinery
whereby I am enabled to feed an ordinary table printing machine with
paper automatically from a reel as at present used in connection with
rotary machines for feeding same.
In carrying out my said object I prefer to adopt the following
arrangements:-The reel of paper is suspended horizontally and moves
freely on its centre, and from the reel the paper is conveyed between two
rollers whose circumference is equal to half the width of the newspaper
or other sheet to be printed. One of these rollers is moved by a shaft from
the machine, and makes two revolutions for every complete run of the
table to and fro. These rollers move continuously but need not be geared
together as one may simply rest on the other, and be so fixed as to be
raised easily so that any slight excess or deficency of speed may be

page_text: corrected occasionally by an attendant. The paper to be printed after
passing through these rollers passes through and between two other
rollers which are the cutting rollers, and made similar to those in the
Walter and other presses. The knife for cutting the paper is on the
circumference of one of the rollers, and on the circumference of the other
the groove is formed into which the knife drops at each revolution when
cutting the paper. The circumference of each of these cutting rollers
is double that of the rollers before described, and exactly equal to the
width of the sheet to be printed, therefore one revolution of these rollers
cuts off just as much paper as is unreeled by two revolutions of the other
rollers, but the motion of the cutting rollers is intermittent while that of
the other rollers is as before stated continuous. The cutting rollers are
geared together.
The intermittent motion is obtained by the following means:- -A disc is
attached to a shaft which makes one revolution for every complete run
(to and fro) of the table, such disc having a groove in any part of which
the centre can be securely fixed. (This is the arrangement by which
the inking apparatus is worked in the Wharfedale printing machine.) A
regular up-and-down motion is obtained for a rod, the exact distance
required being obtained by adjusting the centre in the groove before.
described. The rod gives a backward and forward motion to a toothed
segment. When the rod is rising it gives to a cogged wheel one
revolution but produces no effect on the cutting rollers. When the rod
falls it gives one revolution to the cog wheel in the opposite direction
and the wheel then carries the cutting rollers with it and gives them
exactly one revolution.
It is possible that the momentum acquired by the cutting rollers during
their revolution may carry them beyond the required point; should this
cause any inconvenience a stop may be raised and lowered at every
revolution by means of a cam on the shaft behind the disc before
described.
It is not intended that the cutting rollers should- entirely sever the
sheets. Each sheet should be allowed to retain sufficient hold of its
successor to carry its successor's foremost edge fairly into the tapes..
When the fore edge reaches a certain point the cutting rollers stop, but
as the tapes move continuously and are purposely tightened and brought
together by a roller the preceeding sheet is at once torn away from

page_text: its successor and carried on until its front edge reaches a stop, and its
hinder edge is at a fixed point where it is clear of the tightest part of the
tapes, here it rests until the board which is jointed rises and allows the
grippers to seize the sheet in the usual manner. The pulleys and tapes
are attached to the table and rise and fall with it. A shaft bearing a
pulley is moved by a belt from a shaft to which the disc before described
is attached. The shafts bearing pulleys with tapes are geared together
by means of small cog wheels, and the whole of the tapes therefore
move together, and to allow of the tapes being carried nearer to the
cylinder a shaft is preferred to be used.
In folding machines the sheet is stopped suddenly when travelling at
a high speed, while the tapes continue to run both above and below it;
but in a printing machine the board raises the fore edge of the sheet
above the stop before the grippers have taken hold, and if the sheet were
resting on running tapes it would be carried forward too far into the
grippers. This can be avoided by the use of a roller close to each side
edge of the sheet; this roller should turn freely on the centre and never
drop below a certain rest. When the table is down the sheet runs freely
between the roller and the raised part of the board. The moment the
sheet stops and the board begins to rise the sheet is held between the
roller and the board. The weight of the roller should be so adjusted
that it may be sufficient to prevent the sheet being moved by the running
tapes, but not sufficient to prevent its being dragged away by the
grippers. A pivot and a rest must of course be supported from some
immovable part of the machine.
-
The tail of the sheet may be caught by the following arrangements :—
At the moment at which the fore edge reaches the stops at the cylinder
and be held until the grippers have taken the sheet, I have a lever
turning freely upon a centre (but not with same) and suspended over the
feed board between the two centre tapes, and a moveable weight can be
so adjusted as to allow of exactly the required pressure at the point
required.
A thin plate of metal or wood of considerable area rests on the moving
sheet which is held sufficiently tight by the tapes to support a few
ounces thus spread over a large surface. So long as this plate is
supported by the moving sheet the lever is sustained, but the moment
the sheet has passed under it the support is lost, the lever drops, and the
point pins the sheet against the raised board. As soon as the

page_text: grippers seize the sheet a cam on the machine shaft gives a slight turn
to a rod (which passes loosely through the lever as already described). A
lever is attached to a rod which at once presses on a stud, the opposite end
of the lever is slightly raised, and the sheet is liberated. The moment
the fore part of the next sheet is fairly under the plate the lever is again &
liberated and the plate again rests on the sheet. By means of a slit or.
groove the rest can be adjusted to the greatest nicety.