IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS USED IN PRINTING
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Imray, of 65, Bridge Road, Lambeth, in the
County of Surry, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS USED IN PRINTING."
Sealed the 25th January 1859, and dated the 7th August 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Imray at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 7th August
1858.
I, JOHN IMRAY, of 65, Bridge Road, Lambeth, in the County of Surry,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS USED IN PRINTING," to be as follows:-
My improvements apply to presses for printing two or more impressions in
register on the same sheet. I make the table sufficiently long to receive the
two or more forms disposed at suitable intervals along it. I hold the sheet to
be printed between a tympan and a frisket, which slide with the table under
the platten to receive the impression from the first form. After the first
impression has been taken, the tympan and frisket containing the sheet are
retained, under the platten by suitable stops, and the table is made to slide
onwards till the second form is brought to its proper place under the platten
and a second impression is taken; thus, successively, a third, fourth, or any
required number of impressions may be taken, and finally the table is drawn
back, bringing with it the tympan and frisket containing the printed sheet,
..which can be removed and replaced by a fresh sheet in the ordinary manner..

page_text: In order to secure good register of the successive impressions, I cause the
table to slide between guides fitted to the platten, and I apply adjusting stops
to the table to retain it in its successive positions as each successive form is
brought under the platten.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Imray in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
1st February 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
IMRAY, of 65, Bridge Road, Lambeth, in the County of Surrey, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Imray, Her special licence that I, the said John Imray,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
John Imray, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS USED IN PRINTING," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said John Imray, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same 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 John Imray, do hereby-declare-the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
My improvements apply to presses for printing two or more impressions in
register on the same sheet. I make the table sufficiently long to receive the
two or more forms disposed at suitable intervals along it. I hold the sheet to
be printed between a tympan and a frisket, which slide with the table under

page_text: the platten to receive the impression from the first form. After the first
impression has been taken, the tympan and frisket containing the sheet are
retained under the platten by suitable stops, and the table is made to slide
onwards till the second form is brought to its proper place under the platten
and a second impression is taken. Thus successively a third, fourth, or any
required number of impressions may be taken; and finally the table is drawn
back, bringing with it the tympan and frisket containing the printed sheet,
which can be removed and replaced by a fresh sheet in the ordinary manner.
In order to secure good register of the successive impressions, I cause the
table to slide between guides fitted to the platten, and I apply adjusting stops
to the table to retain it in its successive positions as each successive form is
brought under the platten.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same. The Drawing shows
my Invention applied to a platten press, so as to produce impressions from
two separate forms in register on one sheet, reference being had to the
accompanying Figures and the letters marked thereon. I have not thought it
necessary to represent or describe any apparatus for giving motion either to
the table or to the platten, as that may be done by any of the modes ordinarily
applied to platten presses.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of part of a press arranged according to my
Invention; Figure 2 is a plan; Figure 3 is a transverse section on the line
marked A, A, on Figure 2; and Figure 4 is half of a transverse section on an
enlarged scale through the platten and table. a is the platten, which is made
with cheeks b, b, on each side, projecting downwards so as to guide the table
as it is made to slide between them. The cheeks b, b, have projecting parts
6, 6, and are grooved at c to receive the tympan, as will bereafter be
described. d is the table which is made sufficiently long to receive two
separate forms e, e'; f is a spindle passing through the ribs on the under side
of the table, and capable of rotating in bearings formed therein; g, g, are two
levers fixed respectively on the opposite ends of the spindle f, so that if either
lever be moved upwards or downwards, the other must move with it; h, h, are
two springs fixed to the table so as to press upwards the levers J, I;
i, i, are two pins fixed to the table to prevent the levers g, g, from being
pressed higher than their proper position; j, j, are projections on the inner
sides of the levers g, g, such that when the table is caused to slide forwards
under the platten, these projections meeting the ends of the cheeks b', b', of
the platten, act as stops to prevent the table from sliding farther in that
direction, but when the levers g, g, are depressed, so as to bring the projections

page_text: j,j, under the lower edges of the cheeks b, b, the table can be caused to slide
onwards; k, k, are bosses on the table fitted with adjusting screws, the heads
of which are brought to bear against the ends of the platten cheeks b, b, when
the table is moved onwards to its full extent, and which thus act as stops to
prevent it from being moved farther. By means of the screws in k, k, the travel
of the table may be somewhat varied to adjust the register of the two
impressions. is the tympan, which is a light framing fitted with skin or other
suitable material in the ordinary way; the bar, which forms one end of the
tympan frame, has rounded ends m, m, which drop into jaws in the levers g, g;
these jaws are made somewhat deeper than necessary to support the ends
m, m, of the tympan at their proper level, and these ends m, m, are carried on
springs n, n, attached to the levers g, g, which are stopped against pins pro-
jecting from the outer sides of these levers. o is the frisket, which is as usual
a light frame fitted with skin or other suitable material, and hinged at one
end to the tympan; the bar which forms the other end of the frisket frame
projects beyond the tympan at o', o¹, and these projecting parts, when the
tympan and frisket are folded down, rest on ledges formed on the levers g, g,
to receive them.
I will now describe the mode in which the press is worked. The table
being in the position represented on Figures 1 and 2, the tympan is turned
upwards, as indicated by the dotted lines in Figure 1; the forms e, e', are
inked, the frisket unfolded from the tympan, as is partly indicated by the
dotted lines o, Figure 1, the sheet to be printed is placed on the tympan in
the usual way, and the frisket turned down upon it, and both tympan and
frisket folded down over the first form e, till the end of the tympan rests on
the projecting ends of the platten cheeks at ', 6', the projecting ends o¹, o¹, of
the frisket resting at the same time on the ledges of the levers g, g. The
table is then caused to slide under the platten, carrying with it the tympan,
which slides along the grooves c in the cheeks of the platten until the pro-
jections j,j, on the levers g, g, bear against the ends of the platten cheeks b', 6',
the impression is then given, the springs n, n, which support the ends of the
tympan bar-m,-m,-yielding-sufficiently to permit the tympan to be depressed
with the platten, and as the platten rises from the form it lifts with it the
tympan, frisket, and sheet clear from the surface of the types; the levers g, g,
are then pushed down by hand until the projections j, j, can pass clear under
the platten cheeks, while at the same time the jaws of the levers are with-
drawn from the ends of the tympan bar m, m, so that the table and levers
may be moved onwards without carrying the tympan with them; the tympan,
frisket, and sheet being thus left at rest under the platten, the table is moved

page_text: onwards till the stop screws k, k, bear against the platten cheeks, so that the
second form e' is brought to its proper place under the platten for an impres-
sion to be taken from it on the sheet already resting there. On the rising of
the platten, after the second impression, the table is drawn back, still leaving
the tympan, frisket, and sheet under the platten until the projections j, j, on
the levers passing the ends of the platten cheeks permit the levers to be
elevated rapidly by the springs h, h, so that the jaws of the levers again catch
the ends m, m, of the tympan bar, and the table being moved farther back-
wards, carries with it the tympan, frisket, and sheet to the position represented
on Figures 1 and 2, after which the sheet is removed and a fresh one substi-
tuted, and the process repeated as before. When it is desired to print from
more than two forms, the table is lengthened to receive the additional forms,
and instead of fixed stops k, k, spring levers like g, g, without the jaws, but
with suitable projections to act as stops, are fitted at proper intervals along the
table, so that after the second impression these stops may be depressed by hand
and the table moved onwards to bring the successive forms under the platten,
the printed sheet being in every case retained with the tympan and frisket in
its place under the platten till all the impressions are taken and the table
withdrawn as above described.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I make no claim to any
of the mechanical parts separately, nor do I confine myself to the details; but
what I claim is the combination herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Imray, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
JOHN IMRAY. (L.S.)