CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTING PRINTERS' TYPES, AND SORTS, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF METAL
Year: 1807

page_text: BERTE'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANTHONY
FRANCIS BERTE, of the Parish of Saint Dunstan in the West, in the City of
London, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fifteenth day of April, in the
forty-seventh year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Anthony Francis
Berte, my exors, admiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privi.
lege and authority, that I, the said Anthony Francis Berte, my exors, admors,
and assigns, 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, an Invention communicated to me by a certain foreigner
of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTING PRINTERS' TYPES, AND SORTS, AND OTHER
ARTICLES OF METAL;" in which said Letters Patent, there is contained a proviso,
obliging me, the said Anthony Francis Berte, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, to cause a prrticular description of the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month after
the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the samo, relation
being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Anthony Francis Berte, do hereby declare that the said Invention is described
in manner following, that is to say :-
I do construct a vessel of iron or other fit material for containing type
metal in the fused state, or for bringing it into fusion, and keeping it at the

page_text: proper heat for casting, and I do make in the side or sides of the said vessel one
or more apertures, out of which the fluid type metal is caused or permitted
to flow at the time of casting. The operation of casting is performed by
applying a mould for casting letters or types, either singly or more than one at
the same time, or other articles for printers' use into one of the said apertures,
which at that instant, by means of a cock or valve, or any other well-known
similar contrivance, is opened, in consequence of which the metal suddenly
flows or is driven unto the mould, and applies itself to the matrix or matrixes
with a force which is great or less according to the height of the level surface
of the type metal in the vessel first beforo mentioned, or according to the
magnitude of such an additional pressure as may be applied in the manner or
by the means herein-after to be described. And I do further declare, that though
the said aperture or apertures may be made on any side of the vessel, that is to
say, at top, or bottom, or elsewhere, yet I do give the preference to a surface
or face which shall be nearly horizontal, so that the fluid metal shall spout
upwards into.the mould; and I do prefer, as the most simple and easy method,
that each aperture shall be kept closed when required so to be done by a plate
of metal lying upon the said horizontal surface, and well fitted thereto; and
that I do make and fashion the lower part of my mould flat and truc, in order
that the same may be applied in like manner and slided along upon the
said horizontal surface, and that I do slide the said mould by pushing the
same against the said flat plate until the plate shall become displaced, and
the aperture of the mould shall become directly opposite the aperture in the
vessel, and shall accordingly receive its charge of mictal; after which, the
mould being again drawn back, the plate of metal, by means of a weight
or spring, or other well-known agent suitable to the purpose, is made to follow
the mould and close the aperture by resuming its first situation; and in order
that the said motions and effects may be performed and produced without any
particular skill or attention in the workman, I do make and apply such
guide sliders, stops, or pins, for confining, directing, and limiting the said
motions as will be sufficiently obvious and intelligible, as to their construction,
to artists employed in works of this nature. But that in such other con-
structions of the apparatus herein-before described as may not require or
admit of the said sliding plate for closing and opening the said aperture, I do
apply my mould unto the said aperture, either by sliding the same to its place
as aforesaid, or by any other method of opposition. And, moreover, in order
that the said fluid metal may rise with suflicient force into the mould, I do
in general (except as herein-after mentioned) make my vessel of such a figure
as that the quantity of type metal intended to be contained therein at any one

page_text: time shall have its upper surface sufficiently high above the level of the
aperture or apertures before mentioned, and that I do, in preference, for the
purposes herein-before mentioned, form my vessel of the figure of a box or
closed receptacle, having a pipe or tube rising out of the same, so that the
pressure afforded by the statical action of the metal in the said pipe or tubo
shall produce the desired effect at the aperture or place of casting; or other-
wise I produce or increase the said pressure in such vessel by the statical
action of water or any other fluids which may be used by the well known
means to compress a body of air against the surface of the type metal for tho
purposes aforesaid. And I do further declare that one other of my improve-
ments in casting as aforesaid doth consist in making the said vessel in which
the metal is to be kept in a melted state ready for use close on all sides,
except at the aperture or place out of which it is intended that the said metal
shall flow, and also at another larger aperture terminating upwards in a tube,
pipe, or prismatic cavity, into which I fit a metallic plug or piston sufficiently
well fitted to move up and down with facility therein, without suffering any.
metal to issue out between the parts in their relative motion; and I do make
use of the said plug or piston to produce the extension of the melted metal,
through the aperture before described into the mould when applied thereto,
for which purpose I do give a stroke, or apply a suitable pressure to the said
plug or piston, or I do permit the said plug or piston to descend by its own
weight, in the said tube, pipe, or prismatic cavity, so as to strike the surface
of the melted metal and impel the same into the mould. And in every caso
or construction wherein the said plug or piston shall be applied and used, it
will not be needful or proper to close the aperture to which the mould is to be
applied, as aforesaid, by a cock, valve, plate, or other contrivance; but instead
thereof, I do so regulate the quantity of my metal, or the position of the
parts of my apparatus, that the surface of the fused metal shall be accurately,
or very nearly at the upper part or opening of the said aperture beneath the
mould. And the said machines, consisting of vessels so fitted up, together with
the moulds and other parts respectively, as before described, may be used by
one or more workmen to cast different letters and sorts at the same time from
the same mass of metal; but in case different metallic mixtures should be
required to be used, or in case local circumstances should render it needful
that the workmen should be considerably distant from each other, recourse
must then be had to a number of distinct and separate machines of my said
Invention. And I do further declare that one other of my improvements in cast-
ing as aforesaid, doth consist in making the body of the mould (in which the
letter or types are to bo cast) of four adjustable pieces instead of two, as hath

page_text: heretofore been done, each of which said four pieces hath two external plane
faces, inclined to each other in the precise angle of a square or right angle, so
that all the four convex pieces, when put together with their angular edges in
the same line, will fit and leave no cavity; but when the several pieces are
slided upon cach other, face to face, at right angles to the middle linc or
edges upon every one of the touching faces, a square or rectangular cavity
will be left, which, instead of being adjustable in one direction only, can be
made of any required dimensions, so as to admit of changes in the width as
well as thickness of the body of the letter; and when the desired adjust-
ment hath been made, the plates may be fastened together in pairs and used
like the common moulds. And further, I do, when required, make my moulds
without nicks or notches, or such parts as shall produce nicks or notches in
the shank of the letter, and I do strike out or expel the cast letter from the
mould by a punch or proper tool without opening the mould as is usually done.
And I do further declare that moulds, so improved as hercin-before described,
may be used along with any other improvements in casting which are herein-
before described and specified, as the said improved moulds may be used and
applied for casting in the common way.
In witness whereof, I, the said Anthony Francis Berte, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-second day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seven
Inrolled the Twenty-second day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seven.