IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR TYPOGRAPHICAL COMPOSING AND PRINTING
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Michael Henry, of Fleet Chambers, 68, Fleet
Street, in the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR TYPOGRAPHICAL
COMPOSING AND PRINTING."-A communication from abroad by Louis
Henri Fontaine, of 17, Boulevart Saint Martin, Paris, France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Michael Henry at the
Office of the Cominissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th December 1869.
I, MICHAEL HENRY, of Fleet Chambers. 68, Fleet Street, in the City
of London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR Tiro-
GRAPHICAL COMPOSING AND PRINTING," communicated to me from abroad by
Louis Henri Fontaine, of 17, Boulevart Saint Martin, Paris, France, to be
as follows:-
This Invention consists in a mode of and apparatus for composing and
printing by means of an arrangement similar in many respects to the
Pine 87

page_text: disc printing electric telegraph apparatus. A revolving disc and a dial
bearing characters, symbols, or letters are used. The printing is effected
by types impressed on a continuous band of paper. It is preferred to use
prepared autographic or transfer paper and transfer ink, and electricity is
employed.
In order that the Invention may be understood, I describe one arrange-
ment for carrying it into effect, supposing, for instance, electricity the
motive agent, but I do not confine myself to the mechanical details.
On a spindle are mounted two discs notched or recessed on the periphery
for the reception of the types and actuated by a handle. Another plate
carries a ring or sockets in which a ring turns having notches to receive
the handle. When the handle is in a notch corresponding with any
particular type that type will be brought to a fixed point. As the
handle is lowered the type presents itself. The upper ring is moved to
correspond with different founts; it is held in position by a stop. The
fixed point is under a hammer actuated by an electro-magnet. The
mode of causing an appliance to rise and fall by electro-magnetism
is too well known to need description. When the hammer falls on type
presented to the fixed part it causes it to slide in the notches of the
plates and presses it on a continuous ribbon of paper fed fiom a roller,
thus printing with the type thereon. The hammer acts when the handle
is depressed to the end of its stroke and returns to a state of rest when
the handle rises. The type when released from the hammer is forced up
again by a spring. The paper is fed by a rod passing through the spindle
and connecting the handle with levers acting by pawls on a toothed
wheel on the axis of the paper roller, thus when the handle is depressed
to a certain extent it causes the wheel and the roller to move to a
corresponding extent. To accommodato the instrument to the spaces
between the letters or characters the following arrangements are used:-
Under the ring there are a set of screws corresponding in number with
the types, and so disposed that when any one type comes under the
hammer the handle strikes the corresponding screw, the heights of
which screws vary, thus causing the handle to be depressed in inverse
ratio to the height and according to the size of the type. These
screws also act on the hammer, being mounted on a ring insulated
from the other ring. One pole of a battery communicates at one end
with the handle, so that when the handle is depressed into a notch and
comes in contact with the screw the current passes through the screw,
ring, and electro-magnet, causing the latter to act and the hammer

page_text: strikes the type. The wheel on the paper roller axis has two sets of
teeth corresponding with the respective breadths of the large and small
letters, so that the lines always begin and end exactly in due evenness of
column. The position of the roller is regulated for the spaces between
the lines by shifting it lengthwise. A break is formed by placing on
the axis of the toothed wheel an arm slightly depressed at each motion
of the cylinder, and moving with it a lever and also a bell crank which
carries a catch engaging into teeth on the wheel, and it is, also acted on
by a counterbalance weight and a spring or equivalent contrivances so
that the catch releases and holds the wheel alternately, thereby regulating
the spaces. The ink may be supplied by a pad and the printed matter
transferred to a lithographic stone in order to print off the required
number of copies.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said Michael Henry in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 20th June 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MICHAEL
HENRY, of Fleet Chambers, 68, Fleet Street, in the City of London,
Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Michael Henry, Her special licence that I, the
said Michael Henry, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Michael Henry, 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 THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR TYPO-
GRAPHICAL COMPOSING AND PRINTING," communicated to me from abroad by
Louis Henri Fontaine, of 17, Boulevart Saint Martin, Paris, France, upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Michael Henry, my execu-
tors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or

page_text: 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 months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Michael Heury, 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 thereof, as communicated to me, reference being had
to the accompanying Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked
'thereon, that is to say :-
:
This Invention consists in a mode of and apparatus for composing and
printing for typographic purposes by means of an arrangement of appa-
ratus similar in many respects to the disc printing telegraph apparatus.
A revolving disc and also a dial bearing characters, symbols, or letters
are used. The printing is effected by types impressed on a continuous
band or strip of paper. It is preferred to use prepared "autographic "
or transfer paper and transfer ink, and as the motive agent electricity is
preferably employed.
In order that the Invention may be well understood I describe an
arrangement for carrying it into effect, supposing, for instance, electricity
to be the motive agent. On a spindle are mounted two discs notched
or recessed on the periphery for the reception of types and actuated by
a handle. Another plate carries a ring or socket in which a ring turns
having notches to receive the handle. When the handle is in a notch
corresponding with any particular type that type will be brought to a
fixed point. As the handle is lowered the type presents itself. The
upper ring is moved to correspond with different founts of type and it
is held in position by a stop. The fixed point lies under a hammer
actuated by an electro-magnet. The mode of causing an appliance to
rise and fall by means of electro-magnetism is too well known to need
description. When the hammer falls on a type presented to the fixed
point it causes the type to slide into the notches, and impresses it on a
continuous ribbon of paper fed from a roller which is thus printed by the
type. The hammer acts when the handle is depressed to the end of
its stroke and returns to a state of rest when the handle rises. The
type when released from the hammer is forced up again by a spring.
The paper is fed by a rod passing through the spindle and connecting.

page_text: the handle with levers acting by pawls on a toothed wheel on the axis of
the paper roller; thus when the handle is depressed to a certain extent
it causes the wheel and the roller to move to a corresponding extent. To.
accommodate the instrument for necessary spaces between the letters •
or characters the following arrangements are used:-Under the ring a
set of screws corresponding in number with the types is so disposed
that when any one type comes under the hammer the handle strikes the
corresponding screws; the heights of the screws vary, the handle is thus
depressed in inverse ratio to the height and according to the size of the
type. These screws also act on the hammer being mounted on a ring
insulated from the other ring. One pole of a battery communicates
with the handle, so that when the handle is depressed into a notch and
comes in contact with the screws the current passes through the screw
ring and electro-magnet, causing the latter to act and the hammer to
strike the type.. The wheel on the paper roller axis has two sets of
teeth corresponding with the respective breadths of the large and small,
letters; so that the lines always begin and end in due and exact even-;
ness of vertical column. The position of the roller is regulated for the
spaces between the lines by shifting the roller lengthwise. A brake is
formed by placing on the axis of the toothed wheel an arm slightly,
depressed at each motion of the cylinder, and moving with it a lever,
and also a bell crank which carries a catch (or driver and clawker).
engaging teeth on the wheel, and it is also acted on by a counterbalance.
weight and a spring or equivalent contrivances, so that the catch or,
driver and clawker releases and holds the wheel alternately, thereby regu-
lating the spaces or intervals. The ink is best supplied by a pad, and
the printed matter is transferred from the band or ribbon of transfer
paper to a lithographic stone in order that the operator may print off
the required number of copies.
For the purposes of this Invention the Inventors employ, first,
transfer
r paper for transmitting the inscription to a lithographic stone;
secondly, transfer printing ink; thirdly, a disc telegraph apparatus
carrying the various types.
The accompanying Drawings represent apparatus constructed according
to this Invention.
Figure 1 is an elevation, and Figure 2 a transverse vertical section of.
the apparatus. Z is a cast-iron frame on which are fixed pillars, which

page_text: support a metal plate
carrying an axis C. A metal socket turns
freely on this axis C, and supports two brass discs B, B', notched or
toothed at their edges, the notches or spaces between the teeth correspond
with the number of types to be used. One type is fitted into each notch.
A is a handle fixed to the upper end of the socket for turning the discs
which support the types and all the rotating parts of the apparatus.
Other brass pillars are fixed on the intermediate plate Z', and carrying an
upper plate placed between the handle A aud this first-named disc B.
a is a metal ring placed on the plate Æ. A metal ring H turns in this
ring a, and has at its upper part a number of notches in which the
handle A is engaged when depressed. These notches are in the arrange.
ment shown in the Drawings four times as numerous as the types, but
the proportion of the number of types to the number of notches may
be greater or less at pleasure. Now suppose the handle A is lowered
and engaged in the notch which corresponds with the letter "A," the
type "A" by reason of the arrangement of the types and the rotation
imparted by the handle comes opposite to the fixed point . Now if
we pass to the next notch B three types will pass before the fixed point
without stopping, and the fourth, say "B," comes into position there (that
is, at the fixed point) because the space comprised between each two of
the notches is equal to that which is occupied by four types, as above
explained. Thus each letter of the alphabet or fount comes in due order
up to a fixed point in the order of composition whenever the handle is
depressed in the notch corresponding with the letter which is required.
When types of different alphabets or founts are to be employed, the
ring H is turned about a quarter of the space or interval between two
notches, say exactly the distance of one letter from another. In moving
this ring Hanother interval it will come against another alphabet or
fount, and so on. Thus six or seven founts may be at the printer's
disposal. To maintain the ring H in the position imparted to it a
handle I, Figures 1 and 3, screw threaded at the end, is engaged in the
opening, the number of these openings corresponds with that of the
alphabets or founts. The fixed point is placed under a hammer V
actuated by an electro-magnet D; this hammer drops on the type
when the latter is at the fixed point, and pushes the type into the notch
of the plate, and presses or forces it down on to a strip of paper wound
on a roller E, thereupon the type thus depressed prints its impression on
the paper strip. The hammer only acts by an arrangement herein-after

page_text: explained, when the handle A is depressed at the end of its stroke. It
immediately reassumes a state of rest when the handle rises; when the
type no longer undergoes the pressure of the hammer it rises imme-
diately, being forced upward by a spring. As each type is brought
for ward as required by the compositor it always comes to the same fixed
point, and the roller E shifts to
an extent corresponding with the
intervals betweon the letters and the words.
To make these motions proportionate in extent to the unequal widths
of the various letters so as to obtain proportionate intervals, a steel
rod U, Figure 2, is used. This rod passes to the centre of the central
axis C, and connects the handle A with the levers S, T, O, acting by
means of the detents P, X, on a finely toothed wheel N mounted on
the axis M of the roller E¹, so that when the handle A is depressed
to a small extent the levers cause the wheel N to move round an arc
of a circle equal in length to this quantity, and the roller is at the
same time moved to the same extent. The revolution of the roller is
therefore in constant relation to the stroke or path of the handle A in
its descending movement in entering consecutive notches in the ring H.
Hence to regulate the unequal revolutions producing unequal intervals
the stroke of the handle must be regulated in regard to letters having
an unequal width. For this purpose the ring a has as many stop screws
as there are types between the discs B, B1, so that when any one of these
types is brought under the hammer V the handle A strikes the head of
the stop screw corresponding with this type. This screw may be of any
required height, and it consequently imparts to the handle a down stroke,
the extent of course of which is in inverse ratio to its height regulated
according to the width of the type or the breadth of interval. Hence
the interval for each type may be regulated with great precision. These
screws also act on the hammer, and they are for that purpose mounted on a
metal ring G insulated by hardened caoutchouc from the ring a, Figures
1 and 3. The positive or + pole of a battery is connected at one side
with the frame and is consequently in communication with the handle A.
When this handle is depressed and engages in a notch so as to come
against the stop screw, the electric current pasres through this screw
through the ring G, through the electro-magnet, and returns to the
battery, & the electro-magnet is at once magnetized and the hammer V
strikes on the type and depresses it. Hence it is clear that the depression
of the hammer to the end of its stroke produces the printing action

page_text: whatever be the 'length of such stroke. Instead of an electric motor
other motive power may be used.
The wheel N, Figure 2, is preferably made of steel, and as before
stated it is mounted on the axis of the roller E on which the paper strip
is wound. This wheel is divided at its circumference into sets of 8 and 10
teeth according to the space corresponding with the width of the small
and large letters. This division allows of the lines always commencing
and ending exactly in the same vertical line by arranging the position of
the roller and indicating the number of letters remaining to end the line.
To secure the necessary spaces or intervals between each line of type the
roller E is made to move longitudinally on a carriage L, Figures 1 and 4.
This movement is communicated to it by a handle K abutting against
two fixed points.
Figure 5 represent a break for regulating the interval between each
type. This break is thus constructed :-a2 is an arm mounted on
the axis of the wheel N, and connected by a rod 6 with a lever c
working on a centre d³. At each motion of the roller the arm a³ is
slightly depressed, and moves with it the lever
and the bent piece or
which catches into
The bell crank is
bell crank e², at the upper part of which is a detent
the teeth on the half of the width of the wheel N.
subjected at one part on the one hand to the action of the counterbalance
weight f, and on the other hand to the action of a piece o³ and spring h³,
so that the detent abandons the wheel and hold it alternately, and thus
regulates the spaces between the letters with precision. The types
print the paper with transfer ink or other fatty ink which the types
takes up the course of their rotation by coming into contact with a pad
impregnated with one of these inks. The paper used is transfer paper,
and the impression is applied to a lithographic stone and any required
number of copies struck off.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,―
First. The method of and combination of apparatus for applying
to typographic purposes, (that is to say, to composing and printing for
typographic purposes,) the disc telegraphic arrangements or apparatus
herein-before described.
Second. The mode of and combined arrangements of apparatus for
obtaining spaces and intervals between the types or letters as herein-
before described for the purposes set forth.

page_text: Third. The general arrangement and combination of parts constituting
the apparatus herein-before described for the purposes set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Michael Henry, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of June One thousand
eight hundred and seventy.
Witness,
E. DE PASS,
68, Fleet Street,
London.
M. HENRY. (L.S.)