AN IMPROVE- MENT IN THE METHOD OF MAKING TYPES OR CHARACTERS TO BE USED IN THE ART OF PRINTING
Year: 1814

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AMBROISE
FIRMIN DIDOT, of Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, 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 Third day of October,
in the fifty-fourth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Ambroise Firmin Didot, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence,
full power, sole priviledge and authority, that I, the said Ambroise Firmin
Didot, my exors, admors, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the
term of years therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Invention,
communicated to me by a certain Foreigner residing abroad, of "AN IMPROVE-
MENT IN THE METHOD OF MAKING TYPES OR CHARACTERS TO BE USED IN THE
ART OF PRINTING;" in which said Letters Patent there contained a proviso
that if I, the said Ambroise Firmin Didot, shall not particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
and cause the same to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and
advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and

page_text: become void, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more
fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Ambroise Firmin Didot, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and manner of performing the same, are particularly described and
ascertained in manner following; that is to say:-
In all the kinds or descriptions of letters or characters formed, made, or used
in the writing called Roman text, or running hand, or any other hand, con-
sisting more or less in hair strokes or fine lines from letter to letter, 1 do cast
my types in a mould as usual, but I do prolong each of the connecting extre-
mities of the letters severally and respectively unto the body of the next
succeeding letter, whatever may be the angle or inclination of the said letters
or extremities with or unto the line to be formed of or by such letters, so that
the place or point of junction shall thereby be rendered complete and without
any interstice upon the printed copy to be taken therefrom. And further,
with regard to such letters as have an inclination or slope in the face
thereof (as is the case with most kinds of the writing in common use), I do,
by suitable alteration in my moulds, cast my types, and the beards and shanks
or tails thereof, with the same, or. nearly the same, inclination or slope of
surface as aforesaid with regard to the said face, so that instead of the types
being set up or composed, as usually is done with common types, by the con-
tact of faces at right angles to the line or direction of the letters, my said
types last mentioned are set up or composed by the contacts of the inclined or
sloped surfaces thereof. And whereas it will follow, by necessary consequence
of the decomposition of oblique force, that the action of the usual means of
securing the line of types in their places would cause the said inclined or slope
surfaces to slide upon each other more or less, and would, if not remedied, be
productive of bad fitting and other noxious effects. Now, I do further declare,
that by a suitable configuration of the said moulds I. do cast each of my said
types with a protuberance or projecting part from one of the said inclined
or slope faces, and a cavity or indentation in the other opposite inclined or
slope face, and I do give such positions and forms, outlines or figures, to the
said protuberances or projecting parts, and also to the said cavities or indenta-
tions, as that the same may in any row or line of types duly compose either
fit into each other in succession, or become so applied together as firnily,
steadily, and effectually to prevent any sliding of the said inclined or slope
surfaces upon cach other, or otherwise I do by angular or curved devia-
tions from, in, or as to 'the strait direction of the said surfaces, render it
impossible that any sliding should take place between the same. And

page_text: lastly, whereas in many of the joinings of letters, whether inclined or upright,
by hair strokes or fine lines, the hair stroke is required to be made with
such varieties of directions (as, for example, when the letter a is followed by
the letter n in an), as will not allow the same to be carried across the place of
junction of the types without greatly impairing the neatness thereof, I do in
this and the like cases, or as convenience may require, not only cast seperate
types for separate letters, but also for the parts of letters needful or expedient
to be set or composed together, and by that means I am enabled to execute
the most difficult or inconvenient joinings upon the face of a type, or in the
middle of the said face, instead of being obliged to make all my joinings at the
place where the said types are in contact, and can insert or use any connecting
ligatures, or joining picces, or strokes, which may be fitting, convenient, or
suitable to the hand or description or kind of writing or printing, or in any
other respect however.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ambroise Firmin Didot, have hereunto
set my hand' and seal, this Sixth day of January, 1815, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifteen.
Monday, the 17th day of June, in the 3rd year of the reign of His
Majesty King George the Fourth, 1822. In the MATTER of AMBROISE
FIRMIN DIDOT.
WHEREAS the said Ambroise Firmin Didot did on this day prefer his Peti-
tion unto the Right Honorable the Master of the Rolls, setting forth that His
Most Excellent Majesty King George the 3rd did, by His Letters Patent
under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
bear date at Westminster the 3rd day of October, in the 54th year of His
reign, give and grant unto the Pet', his exors, adiñors, and assigns, His

page_text: special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that the sd Petitioner,
his exors, adñiors, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of
years therein ment", make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Invention, communicated to him
by a certain Foreigner residing abroad, of an Improvem' in the Method of
Making Types or Characters to be Used in the Art of Pinting; in s Lres
Patent there is contained a proviso that if the Petitioner shod not parlarly
describe & ascertain the nature of the sd Invention, & and in what manner
the same was to be performed, by an instrum in writing under his hand &
seal, & cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next & immed after the date of the
sd Letters Patent, that then the sd Lres Patent, & all liberties & advantag
whats thereby granted, shod cease, determª, & become void; that in purse of
the s Letters Patent the Pet' duly signed and sealed a Specificat" thof,
bears date the 6th day of Jan 1815, and which was inrolled in this Co' on
the s 6th day of Jan, 1815, and stating certain errors that appear in the said
Specification and inrolment thereof; that the property in the sd Letters Patent
still belongs to the Pet', & the Petitioner is advised that the sd Specification,
& the inrolment thof, shod .be corrected, such errors being manifest upon the
face of the sd Specification, and therefore praying as therein is prayed; where-
upon all parties concerned were ordered to attend his Honor on the matter of
the said Petition, and counsel for the Pet this day attending accordingly,
upon hearing the said Petition read, & what was alledged by the counsel
for the Petitioner, his Honor doth order, That the Deputy Clerk of the
Inrolment Office be at liberty to make the following alterations in the Specifi-
cation of the Letters Patent herein-before mentioned, and the Inrolment
thereof; that is to say: In the recital of the Letters Patent, that the date
"fifty-fifth of George the Third" be altered to the "fifty-fourth George the
Third," and in the same recital that the word "the" be struck out in the
passage "said Invention, and the in what manner;" and in the body of the s
said Specification it is ordered that the following alterations be made:-
The word remidied be altered to remedied, and in the following passage,
"when the letter a in followed by," the word in be altered to "is."