IMPROVEMENTS IN TYPOGRAPHIC PRESSES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Victor Joseph Lebel, of Paris, Jean Fourniol, also
of Paris, Printers, and Jean Baptisto Remyon, also of Paris, Merchant,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TYPOGRAPHIC PRESSES"
Sealed the 5th June 1855, and dated the 24th February 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Victor Joseph Lebel,
Jean Fourniol, and Jean Baptiste Remyon at the Office of the Com-
missioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 24th February 1855.
We, VICTOR JOSEPH LEBEL, JEAN FOURNIOL, and JEAN BAPTISTE REMYON,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
TYPOGRAPHIC PRESSES" to be as follows:-
The Invention is adapted for the printing of two or more colours upon the
same sheet of paper, or other suitable material. Thus, if it be required to
print a design in five colours, five stereotype plates, or blocks, or assemblages
of types, or other printing surfaces, are arranged at regular intervals upon a
long table. This table is made to move backwards and forwards by means of
a rack and pinion, or other suitable mechanisın, so as to carry the five printing
surfaces successively under five separate inking apparatus, and under an
impression cylinder, round which the sheet of paper is conveyed. The paper
is held on the impression cylinder by means of grippers or otherwise, and this
cylinder makes one complete revolution during the passage of each printing
surface, so that the paper is carried five times round the cylinder, and receives

page_text: the impression from the five printing surfaces in succession before it leaves the
cylinder. The impression cylinder is raised a little after completing the impres-
sion so that it may not touch the printing surfaces during their return. Each
of the inking apparatus consists of a trough of ink or colour and a roller which
supplies the ink to a cylinder or roller on which it is distributed, and which
cylinder furnishes the ink to two other rollers which transmit it to the printing
surface, and which may be called the inking rollers. These inking rollers
have a small wheel at each end of their spindles, which wheels run upon the
table and support the rollers, so as to prevent their coming in contact with
the printing surfaces; grooves or depressions are made in the table at proper
positions, so as to allow the. inking rollers. to descend upon their respective
printing surfaces. Each printing surface thus receives its proper colour only.
In like manner the machine may be arranged to print any other number of
colours which..may be required. The machine may be made double, with
inking apparatus at each end, so as to print one sheet when the table is
advancing, and another sheet when it is returning.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Victor Joseph Lebel, Jean Fourniol, and Jean Baptiste
Remyon in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 21st August 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, VICTOR
JOSEPH LEBEL, of Paris, JEAN FOURNIOL, also of Paris, Printers, and JEAN
BAPTISTE REMYON, also of Paris, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Victor Joseph Lebel, Jean Fourniol, and Jean Baptiste Remyon, Her
special licence that we, the said Victor. Joseph Lebel, Jean Fourniol, and
Jean Baptiste Remyon, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said Victor Joseph Lebel, Jean Fourniol, and Jean Baptiste
Remyon, our 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 TYPOGRAPHIC

page_text: PRESSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Victor Joseph
Lebel, Jean Fourniol, and Jean Baptiste Remyon, by an instrument in writing
under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, 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 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 Jean Baptiste Remyon, on behalf of
myself and the said Victor Joseph Lebel and Jean Fourniol, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, reference being had to the accompanying Drawing,
and to the figures and letters marked thereon (that is to say):-
The Invention is adapted for the printing of two or more colours upon the
same sheet of paper or other suitable material.
The improved presses are applicable to all sorts of printing in colours either
from blocks, type, stereotype, or stone, and are well adapted for printing
coloured posting bills, show cards, playing cards, patterns for embroidery, and
similar articles. One of the particular arrangements in the machine by which
the required results are obtained consists in the combination or construction
of the inking apparatus. To prevent each of the inking rollers from touching
any but the required parts of the "form" during its passage beneath them,
they are furnished with a narrow roller or wheel at each end, which enters a
corresponding groove at the side of the form. These grooves and the rollers
are not all placed in the same line, but each is placed in a different line, so that
each inking roller only descends upon that block or stone or portion of the form
which is required to receive the colour with which such inking roller is charged.
The inking rollers may be of the ordinary composition of glue and treacle when
ordinary printers' ink is employed on blocks or type or other similar surfaces.
Rollers covered with leather may be substituted when stone or zinc plates are
employed for printing in the manner of lithography, and these rollers may be
loaded or pressed down upon the stone, if necessary.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing is a longitudinal section, and
Figure 2 is a plan of one of our improved presses adapted for printing five
colours. The same construction is applicable for printing a greater or less
number of colours by varying the length and proportions and the number of
blocks or other printing surfaces.
A is the table, the backward and forward motion of which is obtained (as in

page_text: many other printing machines) by means of a rack D attached to the table by
the frame c, and driven by a pinion C on a jointed spindle a, which is driven
by a strap or band passing round the fast and loose pullies B and B'.
The impression cylinder E is driven by the table A by means of pinions d, d,
which geer into racks e, e, fixed at each side of the table. The circumference
of the cylinder E must be equal to the distance from centre to centre of the
forms G, G, so that if there are five colours, it must make five revolutions
during the passage of the table. A sheet of paper is supplied to the cylinder
from the laying-on board F, and this sheet of paper is held by grippers on the
cylinder, and is thus presented successively to the five forms G, G, G, G, G, by
the successive revolutions of the cylinder E. A separate inking apparatus H
with a different colour is provided for cach form G, and thus all the five colours
are printed upon the paper by one passage of the table A. As the table
returns, the cylinder E is raised by means of a lever f, the end of which enters
a groove in the side of the table. At the end of the stroke, the lever again
allows the cylinder with a fresh sheet of paper to descend and receive the
impression from the forms.
The inking for each colour is effected by two rollers 9, 9, baving at their
extremities narrow rollers or wheels h, h, of larger diameter than the rollers g,
which are thus prevented from touching and inking the forms. As, however,
it is necessary that each form G should receive its appropriate colour, a groove
i is made in the table at each side of each form, and in a line with the wheel
h of the inking rollers charged with such colour. The inking rollers are
thus allowed to descend and to apply to the form the colour which they have
received from the corresponding distributing cylinder I. If the grooves i, i,
and wheels h, were all in the same line, all the inking rollers would descend
upon the forms, and the colours would be mixed together.
This is
avoided by placing the grooves for each form in different lines, as shewn
in the plan, Figure 2. The wheels h are placed in a line with their corre-
sponding grooves.
In the plan Figure 2, the word PANTOCHROME is represented as being
printed in five different colours by way of example. The first form has printed
the letters O and M of a blue colour; the second form has printed T and O of
a yellow colour; tho third prints N and R red; the fourth prints A and H
green; the fifth form prints P and C and E of a black colour. The complete
word, combining all the colours, appears on the sheet of paper on the impres-
sion cylinder. Any other design with other colours may of course be printed
in a similar manner. The impression cylinder with the paper upon it makes

page_text: a complete revolution as each form passes under it, so that the paper is
brought again into the proper position for receiving the impression from the
next form.
Each distributing cylinder I is driven by the rack e of the table by means
of a toothed wheel k on its axis and an intermediate wheel j. It receives
the ink or colour from a vibrating or carrier roller J, which brings it from the
doctor roller H. Two distributing rollers K, K, distribute and equalize the
colour upon the cylinder I. The doctor roller H receives a continuous rotary
motion by means of a wheel on the driving shaft, which communicates the
motion through an intermediate wheel m to a wheel n on the spindle of the
first doctor roller H. The wheel n communicates the motion by inter-
mediate wheels 0, 0, 0, 0, to the wheels n, n, n, n, on the spindles of the
other doctor rollers H, H, H, H. Each doctor roller H carries a cam at
one end which acts upon a bent lever q, which carries the vibrating roller
J, so that at each revolution the roller J is brought in contact with the
doctor roller, and takes a portion of ink or colour, which it transfers to the
distributing cylinder I. Supports r, r, are fixed on the frame of the machine
to support the inking apparatus. Suitable adjustments are provided for
varying the positions of the parts, so as to obtain the precision required in this
description of work.
The grippers, tapes, points, and other accessories are not shewn in the
Drawing, being made in the ordinary manner, and the mode of arranging them
being well understood.
The same press may be employed for printing with fewer colours, and in
that case larger sheets of paper may be printed by substituting an impression
cylinder of larger diameter for that shewn in the Drawing. In order to
obtain a greater quantity of work from the machine in a given time, it may be
made double-acting by applying two impression cylinders side by side, and a
series of inking apparatus at each end of the machine. The form is thus
made to print both in its backward and forward motion. The machine may
be employed for printing other fabrics as well as paper.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we wish it to be understood that what
we claim is,
Firstly, the constructing typographic presses for printing two or more colours
with the arrangements for applying the proper colours or inks to the successive
forms, as herein-before described.
Secondly, the constructing typographic presses for printing two or more

page_text: colours with the forms arranged in succession and passing under an impression
cylinder, which makes a complete revolution for each form, in combination
with the arrangements for applying the proper colours or inks to the respective
forms, as herein-before described.
Thirdly, the constructing typographic presses for printing two or more
colours by the combination of the various parts, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jean Baptiste Remyon, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
JEAN BAPTISTE REMYON. (L.S.)