IMPROVEMENTS IN PICTURES OBTAINED UPON PAPER, GLASS, PORCELAIN, OR OTHER SURFACES WITH MAWARDS OF SENT TRANSPARENT MATERIALS."
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Howe Ashton, of Ashton-upon-Mersey, in the
County of Chester, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PICTURES OBTAINED UPON PAPER, GLASS, PORCELAIN, OR OTHER SURFACES WITH
MAWARDS OF SENT TRANSPARENT MATERIALS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Howe Ashton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 17th March 1866.
I, ROBERT HOWE ASHTON, of Ashton-upon-Mersey, in the County of
Chester, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
'IMPROVEMENTS IN PICTURES OBTAINED UPON PAPER. GLASS. PORCELAIN, OR OTHER
SURFACES WITH TRANSPARENT OR SEMI-TRANSPARENT MATERIALS." to be as
follows:-
My Invention relates, firstly, to an improvement upon that process of
printing for which Letters Patent were granted to Walter Bentley Woodbury,
bearing date 23rd September 1864, No. 2338, and consists in combining
therewith another printing or other method of tinting in any desired colours.
[Price 8d.]

page_text: The sheet of paper, glass, porcelain, or other material on which the picture is
to be produced is firstly printed upon or otherwise provided with the desired
number of tints by means of any ordinary process by hand, or by the methods
usually employed for producing the class of pictures known as "chromotypes,"
and subsequently the picture derived from a photograph is printed upon these
tints with gelatine and a pigment or other transparent or semi-transparent ink
as described in the Specification of the said Walter Bentley Woodbury.
Usual means of registration are adopted to cause the several tints to coincide
with the proper portions of the picture. I also propose to print or otherwise
apply with the aforesaid colours, figures, or other pictorial effects which it
may be desired to introduce, and to provide for their not being covered by
dark parts of the superimposed picture by stopping out corresponding parts in
the photographic negative.
According to the Invention of Walter Bentley Woodbury aforesaid the
printing surface is obtained by the aid of photography, but I also propose
for the purpose of this my Invention to use other printing surfaces in
combination with transparent or semi-transparent ink for printing upon tints
as above described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Howe Ashton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th September 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
HOWE ASUTON, of Ashton-upon-Mersey, in the County of Chester, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of March, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Robert
Howe Ashton, Her special licence that I, the said Robert Howe Ashton, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert
Howe Ashton, 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
PICTURES OBTAINED UPON PAPER, GLASS, PORCELAIN, OR OTHER SURFACES WITH

page_text: TRANSPARENT OR SEMI-TRANSPARENT MATERIALS,"
upon the condition, amongst
others, that I, the said Robert Howe Ashton, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, 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 Robert Howe Ashton, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement and accompanying Drawings (that is to say):-
My Invention relates, firstly, to that process of obtaining pictures now
known as the Woodbury photo-relievo process, and consists in combining
therewith another printing or other method of tinting in any desired colours.
The
This "Woodbury photo-relievo process" is the subject of Letters Patent,
dated Twenty-third September One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four,
No. 2338, and is now well known to photographers and others. I will,
however, in the first place point out the general features of the said Invention
as now practiced, in order to connect my improvements therewith.
principle of the process consists in obtaining an intaglio surface of degrees of
concavity varying with the lights and shades of a photographic picture, and
in obtaining therefrom a cast or print in gelatine or other transparent sub-
stance mixed with a pigment. In employing gelatine the colored preparation
thereof is poured upon the mould, and the paper, glass, or other substance
intended to support the picture is placed thereon, after which pressure is
applied by which the superfluous colouring matter is squeezed out, and when
the remaining portion is set the paper or other material is lifted together with
the adhering picture. This picture is thus formed in lights and shades by
different thicknesses of ink, the thinnest almost shewing the bare paper, and
therefore the lightest parts, and the thickest the darkest parts, such parts
being when wet in considerable relief but subsequently drying down to nearly
a flat surface.
According to my Invention 1 produce transparent pictures in the above-
described manner upon paper or other surface which has been printed upon
with tints suitable for different parts of the said picture. For instance in the
case of a portrait I print by means of chromo-lithography or other known
methods of printing in colour the flesh, dress, and other tints upon paper or
other material, and then upon them print the Woodbury relievo picture
above referred to. In order that the several tints may eccupy correct relative

page_text: positions so as to agree with the outline to be printed upon them I furnish
the chromo-lithographer with a print from the mould, and he can then by
tracing and transferring the several boundaries to his stones or other surfaces
produce the combined tints in correct relation to the outlines. When the
second printing is to be effected means must of course be adopted for causing
the several parts of the pictures to fall correctly on the boundaries of the
tints, this is accomplished by any usual method of registration, one of which
I will point out. Upon the metal mould are placed two projecting pins which
penetrate the paper upon which the cast or print is to be taken, thus forming
marks which are to be transferred to the color printing surface, and which
said marks are subsequently reproduced on every chromotype printed, so that
by applying them at the second printing to the aforesaid projecting pins a
true registration is obtained.
In order that these pins may be used a slight alteration of the press
employed by the said Walter Bentley Woodbury becomes necessary, and which
I will now describe by reference to Figs. 1 and 2 of the accompanying
Drawing.
The usual press is shewn in section at Fig. 1, and plan view at Fig. 2. The
metal mould is at a fastened to a loose plate b mounted in a frame c, and
capable of adjustment by three screws, two of which are seen at c*. At d is
another frame provided with a glass plate e, and mounted upon the lower
frame by means of hinges at f. To obtain a print the frame d is turned back
upon its hinges, the coloured gelatine is poured upon the mould a, and the
paper then placed thereon, after which the frame d is turned down into the
position shewn, and fastened by the catch g. By these means the superfluous
colour has been squeezed out, and when, by experience, it is known that the
remaining portion which is to form the picture is set, the frame d is raised
and the paper removed, carrying with it the picture. It will be seen, therefore,
that the plate e presses to a certain degree upon the mould a, and this could
not be if projecting pins were placed thereon as at h. When, therefore, this
description of press is used for the purposes of my Invention the plate e must
be narrowed so as to come between the said projecting pins h. Or, in place
of that arrangement, holes may be formed in the plate e so as to allow the
pins to pass through it when the pressure is effected.
I have above particularly alluded to obtaining prints upon paper; when
they are to be on glass, porcelain, or other hard substance, angle pieces
may be adopted instead of the pins; the position of these angle pieces are
transferred to the surface which effects the color printing, as in the case of
the pins h, and to these marks the colour printed glass or other material is

page_text: cut, so that when it is placed against the said angle pieces it will occupy its
correct position.
I have in the above description supposed that the chromotype is taken to a
press to receive the print in coloured gelatine or other such ink; instead of
this method, however, the two printings may be combined by transferring a
print obtained in gelatine to the chromotype; in order to effect which the
following method may be adopted :-The gelatine print (say upon paper) is
coated with a solution of india-rubber in benzole, such solution being now a
commercial article; and while the said solution is in a "tacky" condition it
is pressed upon the chromotype, and allowed to dry; after which, upon being
steeped in water, the paper may be stripped off, leaving the gelatine print
superimposed on the chromotype.
If the gelatine print be on paper, as above supposed, the registration with
the chromotype may be effected by cutting it to marks as above described;
but, if on glass or other transparent surface, then it may be adjusted to the
said chromotype by hand. I have hitherto supposed that the coloured picture
is produced by printing, but the same effect may be produced by filling in the
required tints by hand, and this method would of course be adopted when a
few copies only were required.
According to the Invention of Walter Bentley Woobury aforesaid the
printing surface is obtained by the aid of photography; but I also propose for
the purpose of this my Invention to use other printing surfaces in combination
with the above-mentioned description of ink for printing upon tints as above
described.
In order to illustrate this I will suppose that a plate is embossed by
ordinary dies so as to produce ornamental scroll work, the said embossing
being of different degrees of depth; a print being taken from this in gelatine
or other such ink will afford a picture similar in effect to those above
described, and may be used in the same manner in combination with a colour
printing or tinting as those produced from the moulds obtained by aid of
photography; and in this manner ornamental devices for windows may be
produced, the two printings or tintings being upon glass or other transparent
substance, or upon one by the process of transfer before mentioned; or instead
of using the embossed surface a drawing may be made on wood or other
substance which will become more or less translucent when certain portions
are removed. By scraping away parts of this surface the desired effect of
light and shade may be obtained, and when that is done a metal mould for
he gelatine printing may be produced by pressing in contact with soft metal
by electrotype or other ordinary process.

page_text: Another part of my Invention consists in combining figures or pictorial
effects with the above-mentioned chromotype or otherwise linted surface.
In order to illustrate this I will suppose it desired to introduce an animal
in a landscape. I take the photographic negative which is the foundation of
the intended picture, and I paint thereon the outline of the said animal in
black or non-actinic colour, when therefore the said negative and the sensitive
film of gelatine are exposed to light the part occupied by the representation
of the said animal will remain unaltered, and will subsequently be washed
away; then when a metal printing surface has been obtained from the
gelatine mould the portion thereof embraced by the outline of the animal
will be level with the highest portions of the metal mould, and will necessarily
print white or nearly so, and when transferred, as above described, to the
stone or other chromo printing surface will afford the exact position in which
the artist is to draw the complete representation of the animal, which will then
be printed in the usual manner, so as to form a portion of the chromotype;
and in like manner clouds or any other pictorial effects may be introduced, it
being remarked that owing to the raised portion of the metal mould the
introduced object will not be disfigured by any dark parts of the picture.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I desire it to be
understood that I claim as secured to me under the above in part recited
Letters Patent,―
Firstly, in reference to the process of printing with gelatinous or other such
ink as aforesaid, combining therewith another printing or other method of
tinting as a substratum.
Secondly, in reference to the said process the introduction of figures or other
pictorial effects as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Howe Ashton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
ROBERT HOWE ASHTON. (L.S.)