CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING MACHINES
Year: 1830

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AUGUSTUS
APPLEGATH, of Crayford, in the County of Kent, Printer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Thirty-first day of August, in the first year of His reign,
did, for Ilimself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Augustus Applegath, His especial licence, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said Augustus Applegath, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Augustus Applegath, my exors, admors, 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, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING MACHINES;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said Augustus
Applegath, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Inven
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His
said 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Augustus Applegath, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be, performed, are particularly described

page_text: and ascertained by the following description thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say-
The first of my said improvements relate to printing machines or presses
for printing cotton, silk, cloth, or stuff for furnitures, garments, &c., or paper
for paper hangings or other purposes, or any other material suitable for
printing with engraved copper or other metallic plates, and consists in certain
contrivances by which thin copper or other metallic plate may receive and be
printed in a curved or circular form, in the manner more particularly set forth
in the Drawings hereunto annexed and the descriptions thereof hereunto
written, that is to say:-
Fig. 1 is the front view of an improved machine for printing with two curved
plates; Fig. 2 is an end view thereof. The same letters refer to the same parts
in each. A is the cast-iron frame; B, the impression cylinder, upon which
the piece of material receives the impression; it is accurately divided by the
gaps or stops a, a, into aliquot parts, each of which is equal to the engraved
part of the plate, which in this Drawing is seven divisions; C, a toothed wheel
fixed upon the spindle of the impression cylinder B, and furnished with seven
projecting arms b, b; D, a toothed wheel, which revolves loose upon the spindle
of B, and which serves to connect the two wheels on the spindles of the
segment beds G, H. This wheel is not shewn in the end view. E, a small
wheel, called the drawback, which revolves loose upon a pin fixed in the further
side of the frame; it is connected with the loose wheel D, by means of the
pinion F, which is fixed upon a spindle, passing across the frame. At one end
of the spindle is a pinion, which is in geer with the loose wheel D, and not
shewn in the Drawing; on the other end is the pinion F. The drawback E is
furnished with a projecting pin, the back of which is seen at c; this pin occa-
sionally acts against the projecting arms b, b. The drawback and pinion are
fixed between the projecting arms and the frame, so that the arms do not touch
them. G, H, the segment beds, or the beds which support the copper plates;
the lower one G has part of a toothed wheel d, and also the wiper e, fixed upon
its spindle; there is likewise a projecting tooth or tappet f upon its spindle,
which tappet works in the gaps or stops a, a, in the impression cylinder B.
At the other end of the spindle is a toothed g, which is in geer with the loose
wheel D. The upper segment Led H has a similar toothed wheel and tappet.
These toothed wheels are not shewn in the end view. I is the endless blanket
or printing cloth, which carries the piece of material to and from the impression
cylinder B, in the direction of the arrows, by means of rollers, in the usual
manner. When paper in distinct sheets is to be printed, the endless blanket

page_text: must have sets of endless tapes, in the manner employed in letter-press printing
machines. The ink or color is communicated to the plates by a roller revolving
in a color trough or box, and the superfluous color is cleaned off by a ductor,
in the usual manner, as shewn at Diagram 6. To avoid confusion, the color
apparatus is not shewn in Figs. 1 and 2.
The action of the machine is as follows:-Motion is communicated to the
segment bed G, as it revolves the wiper e comes in contact with one of the pro-
jecting arms b, b, and gently starts the wheel C and the impression cylinder B
into motion, whereby the segment wheel d comes into geer with the wheel C,
and the tappet f enters into one of the gaps a, a. By continuing the motion
the plate revolves in contact with the impression cylinder, and the material
upon it receives the impression. When the plate has printed, the segment
wheel d leaves the wheel C, and the impression cylinder B becomes quiescent,
and so remains until the pin c in the drawback acts against one of the projecting
arms b, b, and draws back the wheel C and the impression cylinder B in the
reverse direction, so that the next arm shall point towards the centre of the
spindle of the segment bed G, ready to receive the wiper to make another
impression, and so on. The curved form is given to the plate. in the following
manner: The wheel 9 on the spindle of G is to be taken off, as is also the
drawback wheel E; the segment bed G is to be turned round, so that the pro-
jecting arms b, b, may revolve without touching the wiper c.
The upper
segment bed H is then to be raised by means of its set screws, about 1 inch
from the impression cylinder B. A piece of mahogany, or other hard wood,
fifteen or eighteen inches long, and about two inches wider than the length
of the plate, having fixed to its rounded edge 5 or 6 layers of stout
woollen cloth, is to be entered between the impression cylinder and the
smaller part of the segment bed (which must be made smooth and true),
as shewn in Figure 2 by the red dotted lines, and in Diagrams 1 and 2.
The set screws are to be lowered, to give the mahogany board and
clothing a moderate pressure. The flat plate is then to be laid upon the
woollen clothing with its face downwards, and motion being given by a
long lever or handle, which can be fixed on the square part of the spindle
of H, in the direction shewn by the arrows in Diagrams One and Two, the
copper plate will receive a curved form, as in Diagram Two. The degree of
curvature may be ascertained by a guage, and can be regulated by the pressure
given by the set screws. It is very material that the pattern should be
engraved parallel with the entering edge of the copper plate, and also that the
plate be entered parallel to the spindles of the segment bed and impression
cylinder. The plate being now curved, the mahogany bed is to be withdrawn

page_text: and the machine adjusted for printing as at first. The plate or plates are then
to be fixed upon the holder bars of the segment beds by the screws h, h, and
the pattern is to be made to join accurately by moving the adjusting screws of
the holder bars, which bars are bent to the curve of the segment bed, and
move in a groove therein, as shown in Diagram 7. The plate has now to receive
an additional curvature at the fore or entering margin and at the hinder or
leaving margin; this is necessary partly to diminish the "bruise," or pressure
of the margins upon the material, but is chiefly useful to assist the ductor
in cleaning the plate, and so prevent the material from becoming soiled by any
superfluous color. Diagram 4 represents the form required for each margin;
the fore margin may be shaped by careful hammering, the hind margin
requires a slight equable increasing depression below the pitch line or line of
pressure, yet sufficiently near the line of pressure to allow the ductor completely
to sweep off the color to the very edge of the plato. This may be conveniently
done by turning the cylinder and segment, with the plato fixed upon it, into
the position shewn in Diagram 3; a slip of pasteboard or any other suitable
material (a) is then to be placed upon the hind margin of the plate, which
hangs over the full part of the segment bed, and when the impression cylinder
and it are moved round in the direction of the arrows, the margin of the
plate, being unsupported, will be depressed in the exact manner required. These
contrivances for giving the plate its proper curved forms I prefer, and I also
recommend that the plates be made from one-sixteenth to one-twentieth of an
inch in thickness, and carefully hammered to about the degree of hardness
usual in calico printing. The plates may be engraved either previous to or
after curving. Diagram 5 shews another way of giving the curve, in which
the full part of the segment bed extends about three-quarters of an inch beyond
the engraved part of the plate at each margin; such additional parts being
slightly depressed below the pitch line, to prevent "the bruise;" each end of
the full part of the segment bed is furnished with screws about six inches apart,
The plate is fixed in the manner shown at A; by causing the cylinder to revolve,
the plate becomes curved, and by stopping the motion in the position shewn in
Diagram 3, the hind margin may be easily hammered down and secured by the
In this case, it is necessary that the screw holes be set out exactly
parallel to the line of the engraving, otherwise the pattern will not join, and
it is also more difficult to set the ductor, so as to clean the margins perfectly
in this case, than in the method herein-before described.
screws.
My second improvement relates to printing machines or presses inade for
printing with engraved plates any material upon which the same pattern or
design bas to be repeated across as well as along the material, such as calico,

page_text: silk or stuff for garments, furnitures, et cetera, or paper for paper hangings,
labels, tickets, bankers' notes, or other purposes, and it consists in causing the
plate to move sideways across piece of material, or in causing the piece of
material to move sideways across the plate during the intervals of giving
the impression, so that, instead of engraving a plate in which the pattern
is repeated to the whole width of the material to be printed, the plate
need not be larger than one complete set or drawing of the pattern or
design, as the whole of the material is, by the side motion, successively
applied to the plate in manner following, as explained by the Drawings and
descriptions hereunder annexe.l. Figure III. is a side view of a machine for
printing with two divided plates, curved in the manner described in Figure 1
and 2, and in which the side motion is communicated to the material; and
Figure is an end view thereof. The same letters refer to the same parts in
each Figure. A is the cast-iron frame; B, the impression cylinder, upon
which the piece of material receives tho impression; it is accurately divided
by ten stops or gaps a, a, cut in a rim on one side of the cylinder, which rim
is half an inch higher than the surface of the cylinder. The spindle may be
cast hollow, and must move freely endways, through its bearings and through
the wheels C and D; at one end of the spindle is a long groove or key way.
C is a toothed wheel, furnished with ten projecting arms b; b; it has a feather
or key fixed to it, which acts in the groove on the spindle of the impression
cylinder, so that when this wheel revolves, it causes the impression cylinder B
to revolve with it; D is a toothed wheel which revolves loose upon the spindle
of B; both the wheels C and D are retained in their position near the frame
by the projecting pieces z, z, which act in the grooves in the wheels. E is the
great drawback or returning wheel, connected with the loose wheel D in the
following manner :-A small pinion F, which is in geer with D, is fixed upon
a spindle passing under the impression cylinder across the frame, and which
spindle has another pinion of the same size upon it working into the returning
wheel. The wheel E is three times the circumference of the wheels on the
segment beds, and it is furnished with two projecting pins placed one-third of
its circumference from each other. This wheel is not shewn in the front view.
G. H, are the segment beds which support the copper plates. The lower one
G has a segment wheel d, and also the wiper e, fixed upon its spindle in the
manner shewn in Fig. 1. The segment bed G likewise has three projecting
teeth or tappets, each fixed just before the line of the entering edge of
the plate, as shewn at f, in Figure 1, and for the same purpose, viz', to
enter into the gaps a; therefore, one of these tappets being supposed to be
in such a part of the line (of the edge of the plate) before mentioned as

page_text: geer
to work in the gap a, the next tappet must be placed just as far distant.
from the first as the side motion given, and the third equally distant
from the second, so that when the gap a is moved sideways, there may
always be a tappet to work into it; and in order that the tappets may not
press against the material, they are made just below the line of pressure, while
the gaps being cut in this rim of the impression cylinder B, are a little above
it; at the other end of the spindle is a toothed wheel g, which is in with
the loose wheel D. The upper segment bed II has a similar wheel and three
tappets; I is the endless printing cloth, which carries the piece of material to
and from the printing cylinder, as shewn in Diagram 10; tapes being added, if
required, for the purpose before mentioned; K is the small drawback wheel, of
the same size as the segment-bed wheels; it is connected with the loose wheel
D in the following manner :--The wheel L, which is the same size as K, and
is in geer with D, is fixed on a spindle which goes across the frame; at the
other end of the spindle is a pinion one-third of the size of the segment-bed
wheels working into K, so that the small drawback K makes one revolution
while the segment bed makes three; M is a toothed wheel which is in geer
with a pinion on the spindle of the lower segment bed G, which pinion is half
the size of the wheel g, and one-sixth of the wheel M; this wheel M is fixed
upon the spindle of the shape drum, and it makes one complete revolution
while the segment beds make six revolutions; N is the shape drum, which
gives the side motion by the action of its angular edges against the end of
the spindle of the impression cylinder B. To avoid confusion, that part of the
frame which supports one end of the spindle is not shewn in the end view,
Fig. 4. The ink or color is given to the copper plates in the manner shewn in
Fig. 1, Diagram 6. The action of the machine is as follows:-The revolving
motion, or that motion of the impression cylinder and segment beds which
causes the material to be printed along or longitudinally, is produced in the
manner already stated in Fig. 1 and 2, and the side motion which causes the
material to be printed across, or in the direction of its width, is produced by the
action of the angular edges y, y, of the shape N against the end of the spindlo
of B, which it forces to move endways during the intervals of giving the impres-
sion; while the plate is printing, the straight parts of the shape x, x, passes the
end of the spindle without producing any side motion; the spindle is kept up
against the shape by means of a weight attached to a chain passing over the
pulley w, which chain is fixed to a collar c working loose in a groove in the
end of the spindle of B; when the plate has printed, the segment wheel leaves
the wheel C, and the impression cylinder B becomes quiescent, and continues
so far a short time until one of the pins of the great drawback E acts against

page_text: one of the protecting arms b, b, and in this case the reversing motion will be
continued until the impression cylinder B is returned into the same position
as before printing, in order that the second impression of the divided plate
may be in the same line as the first impression; when the second impression
has taken place, the cylinder has to be returned for the third impression; when
the third impression is made, the material is printed entirely across its width, and
the impression cylinder then only requires to be drawn back the small quantity
of motion which continues after the plate was printed, that is to say, it requires
to be drawn back as much as is usual in the ordinary copper-plate press; this
lesser drawback motion may be performed by the wheel K, which has a pro-
jecting pin upon it, in the manner shewn in Fig. 1. The great drawback
wheel E is divided in three parts or divisions; at two of them are the projecting
pins c, c, which cause the complete returning motion to the cylinder B; at the
third division there is no action, there being no pin; that is the case in this
Drawing, in which the plate is one-third of the width of the material; if the
plate has been one-fourth, the drawback wheel must have contained four
times the circumference of the segment-bed wheels, and have had three pins
and one blank division; also tho lesser drawback K must have been driven by a
pinion one-fourth of the size of the segment bed wheels; and the shape drum,
instead of containing six times the circumference of the bed wheels, and making
one revolution while they perform six, must have been eight times their size,
and they must have made eight revolutions for one of the shape wheel. The
diameter of the segment beds is not material, so that the impression cylinder
always is divided into aliquot parts by the engraved or printing part of the
plates. The modes of giving the curves to the plate are the same as herein-
before described. In this Drawing, the engraved part of the plate is supposed to
be twelve inches long, the standard or width to be six inches; in putting on the
pattern for engraving, the width must be about one-sixteenth of an inch less than
six inches, to allow for an enlargement of the printing surface which takes place
in curving. The margins at each end of the engraving should be two inches,
and they should be gradually sloped or cut away from the engraving to the edge
of the plate, which may be the thirty-second part of an inch thick, which will
diminish the "bruizing" of the end margins. The method of holding the
divided plates drawn to the segment beds is shewn in Diagram 9, which is a
section and front view of part of the segment bed A; B is a divided copper, or
other metallic place, curved and held down upon the segment bed' by means of
the hooks C, C, which pass through bars D, D, projecting from the segment
bed, and which are provided with the screws nuts E, E. The entering edge of
the plate is curved down in the manner shewn in the sectional view.. The

page_text: winder or leaving edge is slightly depressed in the manner herein-before
described, except the small portion of it which receives the hook, and which is
depressed in the manner shewn in the sectional view, it being separated by a
slit shown in the front view. It is necessary to observe, that the rollers over
which the endless blanket and materials to be printed move should be fixed in
a frame, which frame must move sideways with the impression cylinder B;
this may be effected in the manner shewn in Diagram 10, or by any other con-
venient parallel motion, in which Diagram B is the impression cylinder; C, the
roller, which returns the endless blanket; D, D, is a wooden frame, furnished
with several rollers to support the endless blanket and the material to be
printed; this frame is furnished at each end with two grooved wheels Z, Z;
E, E, are ribs of iron properly supported, on which the wheels Z, Z, run in the
manner of a railroad; F is a light rope, one end of which is affixed to
the end of the frame D, it then passes over a pulley a, and takes a diagonal
direction towards the pulley b, it then passes downwards to another pulley
s, which is fixed in the line of the spindle of the impression cylinder B,
shewn in the end view Diagram 10, it then passes to the moveable collar c,
to which it is affixed; G is a similar rope, affixed to the other end of the
frame D; it passes over a pulley d, and takes a diagonal direction of the
pulley e; it then passes downwards to a pulley near the pulleys, and thence
to the moveable collar c, where it is also attached; X, X, are ropes, affixed to
the ends of the frame D; they pass over pullies at II, II, and have counter-
weights attached to them. They serve to keep the ropes F and G in a state
of tension; as the impression cylinder B moves endways, the ropes F and G,
which are attached to the moveable collar in the spindle of the impression
cylinder, move also, and thus cause the frame D, with its rollers, endless blanket,
and the material to be printed to move likewise in the same direction and
degree as the impression cylinder B.
I do not mean or intend hereby to claim as my Invention any of the various
parts of which the said machines are composed, which may be already known
or in use, but only their combinations and applications to the particular purposes
or objects herein before described; that is to say, in the first branch of this Speci-
fication, I claim the curving or bending of a flat copper or other metallic plate,
for the purpose of printing an engraved pattern, and also the right of printing
with such curved plates, not limiting myself to the particular form of apparatus
or machine for printing or curving such flat plates herein shewn, as they may bo
varied according to the particular cases, such, for instance, as the number of
colors to be printed, &c., and in particular I do not claim the use of any kind
of circular shaped blocks or plates for printing made of the form of the seg-

page_text: ment of a cylinder by casting, turning, hammering, or any other way than
those herein-before specified; and in the second part of this my Specification, I
claim the divided curved plate, or the division of a curved plate, for printing a
repetition of a pattern or design across, as well as along a piece of material at
or by several successive applications, not, however, limiting myself to the par-
ticular forms of machines herein described for the reason before given.
In witness whereof, I, the said Augustus Applegath, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of February, in the
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.
year of