IMPROVEMENTS IN STEREOTYPING
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I. JOSEPH
MARTIN KRONHEIM, of Castle Street Holborn, in the City of London,
Engraver, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-ninth day of July, in the eighth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Joseph Martin Kronheim, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such
others as I, the said Joseph Martin Kronheim, my executors, administrators, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, and in
the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, an Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN STEREOTYPING," being a communication from a Foreigner
residing abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging
ine, the said Joseph Martin Kronheim, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause
the same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW IE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the said
Joseph Martin Kronheim, do hereby declare that the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is par-
ticularly described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof,
reference being had to the Drawings hereunto aunexed, and to the letters
and figures marked thereon (that is to say):
-
These improvements in Stereotyping are designed to facilitate the operation
of obtaining stereotype metallic plates from any pages or forms of combined
types or other raised printing surfaces, and consist,―
Firstly, in an improved method or means of making or forming matrices or
moulds from types or other raised printing surfaces, in which matrices or
moulds the stereotype plates are to be cast; and,
Secondly, in apparatus for holding the said matrices and performing the
operation of casting the stereotype plates.
The mode of carrying out these improvements is as follows:-Having
prepared the page or form of combined types or other printing surfaces
by confining them together in close contact in the ordinary way, I lay the
back of such page or form of types or other raised printing surfaces upon a flat
table, for the purpose of taking an impression therefrom in counter relief by
means of and in the materials I am about to describe. I first make a plastic
composition of the following ingredients, and in the proportions of each, as
'below stated. I mix with about six and a half pounds of wheaten flour about
nine and a half pounds of starch, which, with the addition of about four pints
of water and a quarter of an ounce of alumn well incorporated, are to be boiled
in the usual way, and thereby made into paste. When this paste has become
cold, I mix in about four and a half pounds of it four pounds of finely
pulverized whiting, passing the whole through a fine sieve or between a pairof
rollers to insure a thorough plastic combination of the materials. With this
composition as a paste 1 attach three or more sheets of thin tissue paper
to one of stout brown paper, which produces a thickness of materials called
by me "a flanc;" this "flanc," having been placed in a press in the ordinary
way of making pasteboard, after three or four days has become thoroughly
moistened and partially dried, and is then ready for use. The page or
form of types or other printing surfaces having, as above said, been placed
upon a flat table, must be locked up or secured in a chase by metal furni-
ture or other suitable means, and the faces of the types properly cleaned;
then, upon the face of the form of types or other printing surfaces, the
"flanc," in a damp state, is to be laid evenly, and the back of the "flauc"
beaten upon gently by the bristles of a brush for the purpose of forcing

page_text: or matting the plastic material of the "flanc" into the inequalities or inden-
tations in and between the faces of the types or other printing surfaces.
In this situation the "flanc" is to remain and to be pressed upon equally all
over its back by flat weights or plates of metal which I prefer to be perforated
with many small holes,in order to allow of the moisture of the damp "Hane"
evaporating readily. When perfectly dry the "flanc" has become a hard
matrix, flat at its back and indented on its face in counter relief to the form
of types or other printing surface upon which it has been pressed,and is then
ready to be employed as a mould or matrix in which type metal may be cast
to produce a stereotype plate, corresponding to the form of types or other
printing surfaces upon which the "flanc" has been impressed. This matrix,
in' order to cast stereotype plates from it, I fix in an apparatus shewn in
several'views in the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, Fig. 1 representing a
portion of the face of a composition matrix, formed, as above described, from
part of a page of combined printing types; and Fig. 2 being an edge view or
section of the same taken through the matrix in the dotted line a, z, of Fig. 1.
The apparatus to be employed for casting stereotype plates from these
improved matrices consists of a suitable frame or stand upon which the mould
and its appendages are mounted. Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the apparatus ;
Fig. 4, a transverse elevational 'section of the same; and Fig. 5, a horizontal
view as it would appear from above the several parts shown in these Figures,
being all standing in the same positions. Fig. 6 is a horizontal view of the
apparatus, the mould being thrown open; and Fig. 7 is a vertical section,
taken through about the middle of the apparatus, in the direction of Fig. 3,
the mould being here shown closed and in the position for casting; in all
which Figures similar letters of reference point out the same parts of the
apparatus. The wooden framework a, a, a, supports a bench or stro ng table b,
to which iron brackets c,c, are made fast for the purpose of carrying the axle
or pivots d,d, whereon the mould box e, f, with its carrier frame and appen-
dages turn, as seen Figures 3 and 7. The mould box consists of two flat
plates connected to a sliding hinge jointy, passing through long slots in the
hinge brackets h, h, and i, i, affixed to the bottom parts of the plates e aud f.
When the mould box is open, as shown in Fig. 6, the plate f falls back upon
its hinge joint, as represented by dots in Fig. 7. In preparing to cast a
stereotype plate, the mould box must be first heated in order that the fluid
metal may not be chilled suddenly in the act of casting. For this purpose a
hot plate of metal may be introduced between the plates e and f, the slots in
the brackets h, h, and i, i, of the sliding hinge joint gallowing the mould box
to open wide enough for its insertion. The composition inatrix must also

page_text: be warmed sufficiently. The mould box when heated must be laid in a hori-
zontal position and its upper plate f thrown back, as shewn in Fig. 6, and
in order to support the mould box in that position a jointed lever or legjimust
be brought up under it, as shewn in Fig. 3. The composition matrix k, k, is
to be laid upon the flat plate e, as in Fig. 6; and to prevent the casting
adhering to the matrix, its surface and interstices might be pounced all over
with powder of talc, which must be afterwards carefully blown out clean.
Angular strips of metal / and m, of about au eighth of an inch in thickness
(dependent upon the required thickness of the casting), are then placed upon
the face of the matrix, as shown at Figure 6, for the purpose of determining
the size of the stereotype plate to be cast, the angular strip m being capable
of sliding in the socket n so as to regulate or adjust the size of the casting, of
which the strips are to define the edges. The matrix being thus placed upon
the horizontal plate e, as in Fig. 6, and the angular strips l and m laid on the
margin of the matrix, the plate f, which has been previously covered with
paper, must be shut down for the purpose of confining the matrix and the
strips and m securely in their places between the plates e and f, which now
will constitute the mould box. The horizontal clasp lever p, turning up on its
joint on one arm of the carrier frame r, is then to be brought over the
mould box, and its outer forked or hooked end passed into the notches of the
other arm of the carrier tramer, as seen in Figures 4 and 5, when the screw
shafts, passed through the clasp lever, being turned and its end brought down
to bear upon the back of the plate f, as shewn at Fig. 4, the plates e and f
will be securely confined together and the mould made ready for the opera-
tion of casting. It will now be necessary to place the mould in a vertical
position, to do which the leg; must be withdrawn and the mould box e, f,
with its carrier frane rand appendages, turned over upon its pivots d, d, into
the situation represented at Fig. 7. Two small wedges t, t, are now to be
inserted into the narrow opening of the mould at its sides, as shewn in the
Figures 3, 4, and 7, when the mould will be ready to receive the fluid type
metal. The type metal, having been melted in the ordinary way, is to be
poured into the mould at the mouth u, formed by the bevelled edge at top,
which fluid metal, descending by its gravity, will insinuate itself into all the
recesses and indentations in the face of the composition matrix, held flat, as
before described, against the inner surface of the flat plate e, whilst the back of
the casting will be made even and parallel to the face by the surface of the
plate f, which latter, being covered with a sheet of paper, will allow of the air
escaping from the mould as the casting goes on. The stereotype plate thus
cast in the mould when cold may be removed by withdrawing the plate f, as

page_text: shewn by dots in Fig. 7, and then removing the metal strips and m and
drawing off the matrix k. The edges of the plate, if necessary, must then be
trimmed and cleared of its "fins," when the casting will be found to be a per-
fect stereotype plate, the counterpart of the matrix, and ready to be employed
as type or a surface for printing from.
In conclusion, I desire it to be understood that I claim under the above
in part recited Letters Patent,-
Firstly, the composition matrices made of the plastic materials above pointed
out, or by any modification of these means, not intending to confine myself to
any particular quality or kind of paper or to any particular adhesive composi-
tion or paste, but intending to use all such animal, vegetable, and earthy
materials as may be found suitable for making matrices of the kind and in the
way above pointed out; and,
Secondly, the apparatus described above and exhibited in the Drawings,or
any modification of the same which may effect the object of casting stereotype
plates by the means herein set forth, and whether made of the materials
described or of other suitable materials.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Martin Kronheim, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of January, One thousand
aight hundred and forty-five