IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING OR MANUFACTURING BLOCKS FOR SURFACE PRINTING
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Wimbridge, of Great James Strect, in
the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PREPARING OR MANUFACTURING BLOCKS FOR SURFACE PRINTING."
Sealed the 19th January 1869, and dated the 24th October 1868..
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Wimbridge at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 24th October 1868.
I, EDWARD WIMBRIDGE, of Great James Strect, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING OR MANUFACTURING BLOCKS FOR SURFACE
PRINTING," to be as follows:-
The chief object of my Invention is to dispense with the intervention
of the wood engraver in preparing blocks for surface printing.
I prepare or manufacture blocks as follows:-I take a metal plate or
a stone or other suitable surface, and draw the design thereon in ink
which contains gum or other suitable adhesive matter and preferably
a little acid; I then apply Brunswick black or other analogous material
in any ordinary manner; and I next wash the surface with water,

page_text: whereby all the ink is removed leaving the design on the bare surface,
all the parts not composing the design remaining covered with the
Brunswick black; I then apply acid to cat or bite out the design to
the required depth. The surface thus prepared forms a mould, from
which I take a cast in metal on which the design will be in relief;
I then cover this design with Brunswick black or analogous material,
and afterwards apply acid to the metal, whereby the parts not composing
the design are acted upon, and the design is thus produced in greater
relief and according to the depth required.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edward Wimbridge in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 24th April 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
WIMBRIDGE, of Great James Street, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting,
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and succes-
sors, give and grant unto me, the said Edward Wimbridge, Her special
licence that I, the said Edward Wimbridge, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Edward Wimbridge,
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 PREPARING MANUFACTURING BLOCKS FOR SURFACE
PRINTING," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Edward Wimbridge, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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

page_text: months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edward Wimbridge, do hereby
declare the nature of my 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, that is to say:-
The chief object of my Invention is to dispense with the intervention
of the wood engraver in preparing blocks for surface printing.
I prepare or manufacture blocks as follows:-I take a metal plate
or a stone or other suitable surface and draw the design thereon in ink
which contains gum or other suitable adhesive matter and preferably
a little acid; I then apply Brunswick black or other analogous material
in any ordinary manner; and I next wash the surface with water,
whereby all the ink is removed leaving the design on the bare surface,
all the parts not composing the design remaining covered with the
Brunswick black; I then apply acid to eat or bite out the design to the
required depth. The surface thus prepared forms a mould, from which
I take a cast in metal on which the design will be in relief. I
sometimes cover this design with Brunswick black or analogous material
and afterwards apply acid to the metal, whereby the parts not composing
the design are acted upon, and the design is thus produced in greater
relief and according to the depth required.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,
preparing or manufacturing blocks for surface priuting, substantially in
the manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Wimbridge, have here-
unto set my hand and scal, this Twenty-fourth day of April, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
EDWARD WIMBRIDGE. (L.S.)