IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR RULING PAPER
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Mitchell Tileston, of 16, Cannon Street,
in the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR RULING PAPER."-A communication.
Sealed the 1st February 1856, and dated the 7th August 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Mitchell Tileston
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th August 1855.
I, WILLIAM MITCHELL TILESTON, of 16, Cannon Street, in the City of
London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR RULING PAPER," a communication, to be as follows; and
consists in certain means whereby the ruling across and along or up and down
the paper is performed in passing the paper only once through the machine,
thereby effecting a great saving in time, and also performing the work with
the greatest regularity and nicety; also in lifting the pens from the paper so as
to leave any desired width of heading; also in supporting the ruling. pens when
not resting upon the paper, whereby the soiling of the paper by the ink is pre-.
vented; also in guiding the sheet from the set of pens which rule the paper in
one direction to the other set of pens which rule it in the other direction; and

page_text: also in discharging the ruled paper from the machine into a receiver, whereby
the sticking of one sheet immediately upon the sheet which preceded it is
prevented.
The ruling of the lines across and along or up and down the paper is per-
formed by feeding the paper in one direction till the first set of lines are ruled,
and then, by a peculiar arrangement of mechanical devices, changing the
direction in which the paper is moving, so as to take it off at right angles to
the former course, and feed-it to another set of pens which rule the other lines.
The machine is constructed in two parts, and arranged at right angles to each
other. The paper to
to be ruled is fed upon a platform to a roll, and kept on its
periphery by a suitable number of bands, which pass round three small guide
rollers, and carry the under side of the paper in contact with the first set of
pens, which are supplied with ink for the purpose of ruling it from a trough,
in the usual manner. The paper then passes to another roll, and kept on its
periphery in a like manner, as before mentioned, and ruled on the upper side
by another set of pens. One set of lines having been thus ruled on both sides
of the paper, it is made to pass, by conducting bands or cards, to a travelling
band, and causes it to travel by suitable means in a direction at right angles to
its first course on to a roll, upon which it is held by bands which guide to other
rolls, similar to those first mentioned, and cross lines will be ruled by pens at
right angles to the lines first ruled both on the under and upper side; and
after such operations the paper is made to pass over another set of con-
ducting bands, and a square revolving roller, and drops into a receiver. The
different rollers have motion imparted to them by spur wheels and pulleys,
bands, etc.
The manner of lifting the pens when the ruling of the lines up and down has
continued long enough to leave a proper heading to the sheet is as follows:-
The edge of the sheet as it is fed in abuts against a bent moveable tongue,
which is attached to the inside of a roller, and is retracted by a spring, and
turns upon a pivot. This roller has a portion of its periphery cut off, so as to
prevent its bearing upon the feed roller before referred to; another portion of
the roller has a cam or projection upon it. As the paper passes along its edge
strikes against a flange on the bent tongue, which bears against a shoulder in
the said roller (which has a portion of its periphery cut off), and thus turns it
on its axis, and the bent tongue turning on its pivot will be forced up and away
from the periphery of the roller. As soon as the said roller has turned suffi-
iently, its cam projection will be brought to bear upon the feed roller and turn
it, so as to lift an arm. This arm passes through a bearing in a vertical bar,
on which slides a box, which is fastened to the pen holders by a set screw, so

page_text: that the raising of the arm also lifts the pens. Thus it will be seen that the
edge of the paper as it passes along turns the roller only enough to bring its
cam projection to bear on the feed roll, and that the whole force expended in
lifting the pen holder is derived from the feed roll, which, as soon as the cam
projection of the roller bears upon it, completes the revolution of the said roller
and lifts the pens. The said roller is prevented from turning until it is struck
by the edge of the paper by a slight spring which bears upon. the said roller.
It will be readily seen, that when the cam projection of the roller ceases to bear
upon the feed roller, the pen holder, which turns upon a proper journal, will
drop again, and allows the pens to bear upon the paper, so that a heading
will be left proportionate to the length of. the cam projection. The pens
which rule the vertical lines on the upper side of the sheet are lifted at
a proper time in a similar manner, and as the length of the heading depends
upon the position of the feed roller, this length can be varied by sliding
the said arm in its bearing in the vertical bar, so that more or less of the
sheet will be fed in before its edge strikes the tongue of the roller.
The manner of preventing the soiling of the sheet with ink is by having all
the feed rollers grooved, so that the pens when not resting upon the paper
come directly over these grooves, but do not rest upon them, so that no ink is
received by the feed rollers; but in the machines heretofore used the sheet
rests upon a traversing apron, keeping the said apron wet, and thereby often
soiling the sheet.
In order that the sheet after. one set of lines is ruled may pass exactly
straight to the pens which rule the lines at right angles to the first ones, the
conducting bands, before referred to, are arranged so as to converge towards
the side framework, and thereby to carry the sheet against a proper guide
in the said framework or against the said framework itself, so that its edge
will bear against the guide, and thus be guided in a straight line to the pens.
The discharge of the ruled sheets from the machine is effected by the square
or other polygonal guide. roller, before. inentioned, which is substituted for a
cylindrical one, which has been commonly employed. The sheets when ruled
are a little wet, which causes them to stick one upon another in falling, and do
not form an even package or ream in the receiver. By making the said guide
roller square or of other polygonal form, its angular projections as it revolves
give a slight vibrating motion to the sheet passing over it, which prevents its
sticking upon the preceding sheet of the receiver as soon as it comes in
contact with it.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Mitchell Tileston in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 1st February 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MITCHELL TILESTON, of 16, Cannon Street, in the City of London, 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-five, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Mitchell Tileston, Her special license that I, the said William
Mitchell Tileston, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said William Mitchell Tileston, 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 MACHINERY FOR RULING PAPER," a communica-
tion, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Mitchell
Tileston, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particu-
larly 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 William Mitchell Tileston, 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:-
The most important feature of this Invention consists in certain means
whereby the ruling across and along or up and down the paper is performed
in passing the paper only once through the machine, thereby effecting a great
saving in time, and also performing the work with the greatest regularity and
nicety. Another improvement consists in a certain manner of lifting the pens
from the paper, so as to leave any desired width of heading. Another improve-
ment consists in a certain method of supporting the ruling pens when not
resting upon the paper, whereby the soiling of the paper by the ink is pre-
vented.. A further improvement consists in a certain method of guiding the
sheet from the set of pens which rule the paper in one direction to the other

page_text: set of pens which rule it in the other direction. And a last improvement
consists in a certain method of discharging the ruled paper from the machine
into a receiver, whereby the sticking of one sheet immediately upon the sheet
which preceded it is prevented.
The accompanying Drawings illustrate the Invention.
Fig. 1 is a plan of a machine constructed according to this Invention ;
Fig. 2 is a detail view, which will be hereafter more particularly referred
to; Fig. 3 is a vertical section of the machine, taken in the plane of the line
A, B, of Fig. 1; and Fig. 4 is a vertical section, taken in the plane of the
line C, D.
The ruling of the lines across and along or up and down the paper is per-
formed by feeding the paper in one direction till the first set of lines is ruled,
and then, by a peculiar arrangement of mechanical devices, changing the
direction in which the paper is moving, so as to take it off at right angles to
the former course, and feed it to another set of pens which rule the other lines.
In order to explain this, the description of the construction and operation of the
machine will now be proceeded with. a, a, a, b, b, b, in the Drawings repre-
sent two parts of the framework of the machine, arranged at right angles to
each other, best shown in Fig. 1. The paper is fed upon a platform c, c, see
Figs. 1 and 3, to the first roll d, being kept upon the periphery of this roll by a
suitable number of bands e, e, which pass round three small guide rollers f,f,f,
as shown in Fig. 3, and carry the under side of the paper in contact with the
first set of pens g, g, which are supplied with ink for the purpose of ruling it
from a trough h, in the usual manner. The paper then passes, as shown by
the arrows in Fig. 3, to the roll i, being kept on the said roll by a suitable
number of bands k, k, which run on three small guide rollers 1, 1, 1, and thus is
ruled on the upper side by a set of pens m, m. One set of lines having been
thus ruled on both sides of the paper, it then passes on to the conducting bands
or cards n, n, across the rolls o, o, to another set of bands p, p, which guide it
to a travelling band g, running at right angles to the bands n, n. The sheet
in passing on this band 7 strikes against a set of inclined revolving drums
r, r,r, the action of which, together with that of the band q, causes it to travel,
as shown by arrows in Fig. 4, in a direction at right angles to its first course
on to a roll s, and a set of conducting bands t, t, which guide it to the roll u,
upon which it is held by bands e', e¹, running round three small guide rollers
fff. The under side of the paper is thus brought against and ruled by
another set of pens v, v, which may be filled with ink of a different color to the
first pens, if desirable. As the paper moves during this operation in a direc-
tion at right angles to its first course, it will be seen that the pens v, v, will.

page_text: rule the cross lines on the under side of the paper at right angles to those first
ruled. The sheet is then conducted by bands k³, k, running round guide
rollers,,, as shown by the arrows in Fig. 4, around the roll w, when cross
lines will be ruled on the upper side by pens x, x, in the same direction as
ruled on the under side by the pens v, v; it then passes, the ruling being
finished, over another set of conducting bands y', y', and the square revolving
roller A¹, and drops into a receiver B¹.
The different rollers have motion imparted to them by the spur wheels C', C',
and pulleys, bands, etc., as will be readily understood without further expla-
nation by reference to the Drawings.
The description of the manner of lifting the pens when the ruling of the
lines up and down has continued long enough to leave a proper heading to the
sheet will now be proceeded with. The devices for effecting this are par-
ticularly represented in Fig. 2, which is a side elevation of them. The edge
of the sheet as it is fed in abuts against a bent moveable tongue D', which is
attached to the inside of a roller E, and is retracted by a spring F, and turns
upon a pivot at F'. The roller E has a portion of its periphery cut off at G,
so as to prevent its bearing upon the feed roller d, before referred to. Another
portion of the roller E has a cain or projection G' upon it. As the paper passes
along its edge strikes against a flange on the bent tongue D', which bears
against a shoulder in the roller E, and thus turns the said roller on its axis,
and the bent tongue turning on its pivot will be forced up and away from the
periphery of the roller. As soon as the roller E has turned sufficiently, its
cam projection will be brought to bear upon the feed roller d, and turn it, so
as to lift the arm H. This arm H passes through a bearing in the vertical
bar I, on which slides a box K, which is fastened to the pen holders J by a
set screw, so that the raising of the arm H also lifts the pens. Thus it will be
seen that the edge of the paper as it passes along turns the roller E only enough
to bring its cam projection to bear on the feed roll d, and that the whole force
expended in lifting the pen holder is derived from the feed roll, which, as soon
as the cam projection of the roller E bears upon it, completes the revolution of
the said roller and lifts the pens. The roller E is prevented from turning till
it is struck by the edge of the paper by a slight spring L, which bears upon
the said roller. It will readily be seen, that when the cam projection of the
roller E ceases to bear upon the feed roller, the pen holder (which turns upon
a proper journal) will drop again, and allow the pens to bear upon the paper,
so that a heading will be left proportionate to the length of the cam projection.
The pens which rule the vertical lines on the upper side of the sheet are lifted
at a proper time in a similar manner, and as the length of the heading depends

page_text: upon the position of the feed roller d, this length can be varied by sliding the
arm H in its bearing in the bar I, so that more or less of the sheet will be fed
in before its edge strikes the tongue of the roller.
The manner of preventing the soiling of the sheet with ink when the pens
do not rest upon it will now be explained, allusion being first made of the
machine heretofore used to facilitate the explanation. In those machines the
sheet rests upon a traversing apron, keeping the said apron wet, and thereby
often soiling the sheet. To avoid this, all the feed rollers d, i, u, w, are
grooved, so that the pens when not resting on the paper come directly over
these grooves, but do not rests upon them, so that no ink is received by the
feed rolls.
In order that the sheet after one set of lines is ruled may pass exactly straight
to the pens which rule the lines at right angles to the first ones, the conducting
bands t, t, before referred to, are arranged so as to converge towards the side"
framework b, b, as shown in Fig. 1, and thereby to carry the sheet against a
proper guide in the said framework, or against the said framework itself, so
that its side edge will bear against the guide, and thus be guided in a straight
line to the pens v, v.
square
The discharge of the ruled sheets from the machine is effected by the
or other polygonal guide roller A'; which is substituted for a cylindrical one,
which has been commonly employed. The sheets when ruled are a little wet,
which causes them to stick upon one another in falling, and do not form a
square package or ream in the receiver B'. By making the guide roller A¹
square, as shown in Fig. 4, or of other polygonal form, its angular projections
as it revolves give a slight vibrating motion to the sheet passing over it, which
prevents its sticking upon the preceding sheet of the receiver as soon as it
comes in contact with it.
Having thus fully described the particulars and nature of this Invention, I
wish it to be clearly understood that what I claim is,-
First, a machine for ruling paper, in which both the lines running across,
and those running up and down the sheet are ruled in passing once through the
machine by any arrangement of devices, which, after one set of lines is ruled by
one set of pens, carries the sheet in a direction at right angles to its first course
to another set of pens, which rule the sheet across the lines first made.
Second, changing the direction of the movement of the sheet after passing
from the first set of pens by means of a travelling band q, and set of revolving
drums r, r, r, substantially as above described.
Third, lifting the pens, for the purpose of leaving a heading to the sheet, by
means of the roller E, with its moveable tongue or cam projection, acted upon

page_text: by the edge of the paper and the motion of the feed roll, so as to lift an adjust-
able arm H, connected to the pen holder, substantially as above described.
Fourth, forming grooves in the feed rolls, so that the pens may rest over
these grooves, and not upon the rolls between the passage of the different
sheets, as above set forth.
Fifth, guiding the sheet to the second set of pens after the direction of its
movement is changed, by arranging the conducting bands t, t, to converge
towards the side framework 6 of the machine, and thereby carry the edge of the
sheet against a proper guide or against the framework, substantially as above
specified.
Sixth, making the last roller A', which carries the sheet after it is ruled to
the receiver B', of a polygonal or angular shape, so that its revolutions may
give a vibratory motion to the sheet, for the purpose above specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Mitchell Tileston, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
WILLIAM MITCHELL TILESTON.
(L.S.)