IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR MARKING, RULING, OR ORNAMENTING SURFACES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Johnson, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields,
in the County of Middlesex, and of Glasgow, North Britain, Civil
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR
APPARATUS FOR MARKING, RULING, OR ORNAMENTING SURFACES."-A
Sealed the 29th September 1853, and dated the 27th April 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Johnson'
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 27th April 1853.
I, WILLIAM JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County
of Middlesex, and of Glasgow, North Britain, Civil Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR MARKING, RULING, OR ORNAMENTING
SURFACES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved construction of mechanism for
ruling or marking and ornamenting paper and other substances. The
apparatus consists of a carriage running on suitable guide rails, and

page_text: fitted with a series of markers or pens, arranged in lines on suitable
holders or bars. These pens or markers may be adjusted to rule or
mark various widths and various colors at one time, if required. The
material to be marked is laid on a fixed table, and the marker is
traversed over it along its guide rails. When various colors are
required, the pens may dip into separate reservoirs. They are all
elevated or depressed simultaneously, by a suitable handle for the
purpose. The same mechanical arrangements may be employed for
the purpose of dicing leather, by the substitution of ivory, metal, or
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Johnson in the Great Seal Patent
Office, on the 27th October 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
WILLIAM JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, and of Glasgow, North Britain, Civil Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of April, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Johnson, Her special licence
that I, the said William Johnson, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William Johnson, my executors,
administrators, or 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 OR APPARATUS FOR MARKING, RULING, OR ORNAMENTING
SURFACES, being a communication from abroad, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Johnson, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe

page_text: 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Johnson, 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, reference being had to the accompanying
drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:
The said Invention relates to a peculiar and improved arrangement
of mechanism for ruling or marking and ornamenting paper and other
substances. The apparatus consists of a carriage running on suitable
guide rails, and fitted with a series of markers or pens, arranged in lines
on suitable holders or bars. These pens or markers may be adjusted
to rule or mark various widths and various colors at one time, if
required. The material to be marked is laid on a fixed table, and the
marker is traversed over it along its guide rails. When various colors
are required, the pens may dip into separate reservoirs. They are all
elevated or depressed simultaneously, by a suitable handle for the
purpose. The same mechanical arrangements may be employed for the
purpose of diceing leather, by the substitution of ivory, metal, or hard
wood markers, in place of the pens used for ruling paper.
Figure 1, on the accompanying sheet of drawings, represents a general
plan of the apparatus. Figure 2, is a longitudinal section of the same.
Figure 3, is a side elevation of the same, full size. Figure 4, is a
transverse section; and Figures 5, and 6, are details of another
arrangement of marker, which may be employed as a substitute for the
markers shewn in Figures 2, and 4.
The whole arrangement rests
upon the fixed table A, which is fitted with two sets of parallel and
grooved rails, one pair of which, B, receives the machine for ruling the
vertical or longitudinal lines; and the
machine for ruling the transverse lines.
these four rails is fitted a square raised
the paper C, to be ruled or marked by means of the hinged frame
D, D. On one side of this enclosed space is fitted a reservoir E, for
other pair, B', carry a similar
Within the space enclosed by
table C, upon which is secured

page_text: containing the ink. This reservoir may be subdivided into various
compartments, each compartment F, containing a differently coloured
ink, if lines of different colours should be required. Each of these
compartments is so placed as to correspond with each series of pens or
markers, which are caused to dip into them when they require replen-
ishing. The moveable carriage containing the pens is composed of a
metal franie G, to the underside of which are fitted the four running
wheels H, H, running in the grooves of the rails. This carriage is
fitted with several sets of markers, which are arranged in parallel rows,
and fixed to straight edges J, resting at their extremities upon the
brackets a, to which they are attached by screws passing through slots
formed in their ends, in order that the pens may be adjusted laterally.
The pens in one series are made to correspond with the intervening
spaces of the series in front, and thus the spacing of the lines may be
readily effected by having a short length on one end of the straight
edges or bars J, graduated or divided to a scale. The first of these
bars or straight edges may be fixed securely, as a datum from which to
adjust or regulate the other series of pens. The pen holders consist of
small metal jaws b, which are fitted into suitable equidistant receivers
or notches in the edges of the bars J, and united by a pin or wire,
which runs through each entire series. A pressing or tightening
screw b', serves to secure the handles of the pens c, and admits of each
or any pen of a series being removed if required. For this purpose it
is merely necessary to slacken the screw, and withdraw the pens, the
ends of which are held between the plates b, and b. Beneath each
series of pens is placed a horizontal moveable rod or bar e, (shewn in
section in Figure 4,) which elevates the whole of the markers of a
series at one time, by a very simple movement. These rods or bars e, e,
are attached at their extremities to the small levers f, which are set on
fixed centres in the plate f', whilst their lower extremities bear against
the studs or rods h, in the sliding bars g. To the outer extremity of
these sliding bars is fitted the rod or stud pins h', upon which press
the lower ends of the levers I, connected by the transverse rod M, at
their upper extremities. If this rod is brought close to the fixed rod
r rail M, as shewn in Figure 3, the whole of the pens will bear upon

page_text: the surface to be ruled, as the bars e, e, will be removed from 'the
under side of the pens, by the levers f, being no longer supported by
the rods or studs h. But after this operation, if the handle or rod M,
is released, the helical spring N, draws back the bars g, thereby lifting
the pens from the paper, as shewn in Figure 4. The mode of work-
ing these machines is very simple, and consists merely in causing the
carriage to advance as far as the iuk reservoirs, when the handle or
bar M, is pressed so as to cause the pens to lower themselves into the
ink; they are then elevated by the helical spring N,,and the carriage is
drawn as far as the edge of the paper c', to be ruled. The pens are
then allowed to come in contact with the paper, and the machine is
traversed over it along the rails B, B. By this simple. operation, the
whole of the lines may be ruled at once, either in the same colour, if
the pens have dipped into the same reservoir, or in different colours if
separate and distinct reservoirs have been employed. The same
process is adopted for ruling the transverse lines, which may be effected
by placing the carriage on the other pair of rails B¹; or, if preferred,
another carriage may be employed, similar to the one represented in
the drawings. If it should be required to break off a line at any
particular part, it may be effected by placing a small wedge or pro-
jection, (shewn in red lines in Figure 3,) upon the table C, which
thereby prevents the falling of the levers f, during a certain space of
time, according to the length of such wedge or projection. It will be
obvious to the practical man, that a machine on this principle may be
adapted to various useful purposes in ornamenting surfaces, such as the
diceing of leather, or ornamenting book backs, and the pens being
simply required to be replaced by suitable dicers or markers.
'
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used
or carried into effect, I may observe, in conclusion, that I do not
confine or restrict myself to the precise details or arrangements which
I have had occasion to describe or refer to, as many variations may
be made therefrom without deviating from the principles or main
features of the Invention; but what I consider to be novel and original,

page_text: and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before
in part recited Letters Patent, is, the general arrangement and con-
struction of apparatus for ruling or ornamenting paper or other
materials, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Johnson, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of October,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-