A NEW METHOD OF MAKING COPPER ROLLERS FOR PRINTING
Year: 1811

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
FOTHERGILL, of Greenfield, in the County of Flint, Copper Forger, do send
greeting.
WHEREAS. His most Excellent Majesty George the Third, by His Letters
Patent under the. Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-third day of September
now last past, did give and grant unto me, the said. William Fothergill, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, his Royal Letters Patent that I, the
said William Fothergill, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF
MAKING COPPER ROLLERS FOR PRINTING;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso, obliging me, the said William Fothergill, under my hand
and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, relation being hereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Fothergill, do hereby declare that my said Invention is fully described
and ascertained in manner following, that is to say :-

page_text: My said Invention, of "A New Method of Making Copper Rollers for
Printing," consists in producing them solid from their centre or core to their
surface from blocks or ingots of copper, instead of making them of flat plates
of copper, which is the present practice, that is to say, I cast from melted
copper in wrought-iron moulds blocks or ingots of copper nearly square; these
I heat in a furnace until red hot, when, by means of cast-iron rollers having
grooves in them, worked by water wheels or otlier convenient and sufficient
power, I draw out or fashion these blocks or ingots into cylindrical shapes;
these I heat again in the furnace until red hot and then immerse them in
cold water, which operation takes off the scales and other impurities from their
surface; then, by means of an iron forge hammer, having a polished groove in
its head, of the size and diameter of the intended roller, and worked by a
water wheel, or other convenient and suitable power, to fall on an iron anvil,
having also a polished groove on its face corresponding to the groove. In the
hammer I am enabled not only to compress and harden the cylindrical ingot,
but at the same time make it perfectly straight and true, fit and ready to be
formed into a roller or cylinder for printing muslins, calicos, cottons, and
linens; I complete the roller by boring the said cylindrical block or ingot
through, by means of the well known methods and machines for boring, and
which I work by a water wheel or other convenient and suitable power.
Note. Hitherto rollers or cylinders for printing piece goods have been
made from flat pieces of copper, which have been turned, and the seams and
joints soldered, or a piece inlaid; in doing of which, one part of the roller or
cylinder is made much harder than the other, so that after being engraved at
a great expence the engraving upon that part of the roller or cylinder upon
using it very soon wears, and the print therefrom consequently defective,
which cannot happen from rollers constructed according to my method; all
parts of such rollers being equally hard, some colours very soon corrode solder,
consequently rollers made in the present way soon become useless from such
cause. The most delicate patterns may be engraved on my solid rollers, and
when worn out or done with may be turned off and other patterns engraved
on the said rollers in their place.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Fothergill, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Sixteenth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and eleven.
WILLIAM (L.S.) FOTHERGILL.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixteenth day of November, in
in the fifty-second year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third,
the said William Fothergill came before our said Lord the King in His
Chancery, and acknowledged the instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing
therein contained and specified, in form above written. And also the instru-
ment aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
forty-eighth year of His said Majesty's reign.