IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF TRANSFORMATION PICTURES AND PRINTS
Year: 1885

page_text: and Prints.
We, ANDREW REID of Akenside Hill, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Printer, and JOHN
JAMESON of Akenside Hill, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Consulting Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of our invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF
TRANSFORMATION PICTURES AND PRINTS, to be as follows:―
Our invention consists in improvements in printing pictures and prints so as
that part of a picture or print shall be fixed to and part removable from the paper
on which it is placed, and is a new application of the process of protected cheque
printing patented by John Jameson on 27 December 1883-N° 5878.
We print upon ordinary paper or card any convenient design which we call the
fixed design and then coat the whole or part of the paper so printed with such
material as starch and gum so as to form upon it a soluble invisible or scarcely
visible medium and when this coating is dried we print upon it in register with
the print of the fixed design a superimposed design either covering entirely the
fixed print or partially covering it and forming with uncovered portions of the
fixed design a complete picture.
The effect of this arrangement is that if the print is washed with a solvent of
the film the design will be transformed by the removal and disappearance of all
parts of the print which are placed above the couch of soluble medium, and the
fixed design only will appear.
Our invention is applicable also to other printed matter as well as pictures and
the printing may be produced either in the ordinary printing press or by the
lithograph process or otherwise and may be extended so as that more than one
printing (as in chromo-lithography) shall be fixed and more than one printing shall
be delible.
We purpose to use the invention for advertizements and in Christmas Cards,
Birthday Cards, in Valentines and as a source of amusement and instruction for
children.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Production of Transformation Pictures
and Prints.
We, ANDREW REID of Akenside Hill, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Printer, and JOHN
JAMESON of Akenside Hill, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Consulting Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of our invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF
TRANSFORMATION PICTURES AND PRINTS, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
Our invention consists in improvements in printing pictures and prints so as
that part of a picture or print shall be fixed to and part removable from the paper
on which it is placed and is a new application of the process of protected cheque
printing patented by John Jameson on 27 December 1883 N° 5878.
We print upon ordinary paper or card any convenient design which we call the
fixed design and then coat the whole or part of the paper so printed with such
material as starch and gum so as to form upon it a soluble invisible or scarcely
visible medium and when this coating is dried we print upon it in register with
the print of the fixed design a superimposed design either covering entirely the
fixed print or partially covering it and forming with uncovered portions of the
fixed design a complete picture.
The effect of this arrangement is that if the print is washed with a solvent of
the film the design will be transformed by the removal and disappearance of all
parts of the print which are placed above the couch of soluble medium and the
fixed design only will appear. As an alternative we may use for the first printing
ordinary printing ink, and for the second printing a soluble ink composed of such
material as gum and glycerine or soap, or albumen and treacle with coloring matter
ground up as an ink, so as that on the solution of the soluble ink the transforma-
tion is effected. And it is of course possible still further to vary the process by
using over the fixed print films or soluble inks perhaps insoluble in water but
soluble in other material, or to use one fixed ink with one ink or film soluble in
water, and another ink or film soluble for instance in spirit but not in water.
Our invention is applicable also to other printed matter as well as pictures and
the printing may be produced either in the ordinary printing press or by the
lithograph process or otherwise and may be extended so as that more than one
printing (as in chromo-lithography) shall be fixed and more than one printing shall
be delible.
We purpose to use the invention for advertisements and in Cbristmas Cards,
Birthday Cards, in Valentines, and as a source of amusement and instruction for
children.
Having thus described the nature of our invention we will proceed more
particularly to describe the manner in which the same is to be performed that is
to say:-
In the process we prefer to use, we make a solution of gum arabic in water so
that the density of it is about 1085 to 1100 water being 1·000, and we add to it

page_text: a strong hot solution of starch in such proportion (which must vary with the
quality of the starch) as that when spread on paper it shall dry without a dis-
agreeable glaze. This we employ for the soluble film beforementioned, next
unless the paper be specially prepared in the mill we wet the paper to be used for
printing and allow it to dry again so as to take out the stretch which paper gets
usually in the mill and we prefer to allow it to dry, each sheet by itself, so as that
its contraction may be unhindered.-When it is dry we print it the first time, and
when the print has dried we coat the paper either with a brush by hand or in a
varnishing machine with the film composition before described, and again allow it
to dry each sheet by itself, we then press in considerable quantity the sheets
together so as to make them flat and convenient for the second print and then
apply in register with the first the second printing in the ordinary way and when
this is dry, if there be several in a sheet, we cut into seperate pictures.-If the
exact register of the two prints is not of much importance we omit the first wetting
of the paper and we sometimes omit it if the picture is small and not many printed
on the same sheet. The object of the first wetting is to prevent the difficulty of
register from distortion of the sheets of paper by shrinkage in the drying of the
film. When a soluble ink is used for the second printing and no coating of film is
applied, we omit the wetting of the paper.
The thickness of coat of film should vary with the absorptive power of the
paper, a hard paper will require less and a soft paper more and it also depends to
some extent upon the depth of shading of the top print.-It is impossible to lay
down specific rules to suit the various circumstances excepting that a sufficient
coating must be applied to prevent penetration of the ink of the top print.
Although we have described the material of the soluble film which we prefer to
use we do not confine ourselves to that material as other materials are if not
equally good at least nearly so, for instance dextrine may be substituted for the
gum and ordinary paste may be substituted for both the starch and gum and there
are many other substances which may be used in the same manner.
Although also we have described the application of the film by a brush or
varnishing machine and as if it was over the whole of the paper we sometimes coat
only parts of the paper to be printed, and we may carry this out by the application
of the soluble film as a print with a light pressure from a soft wood block (such as
pear tree) or we may print the soluble film from the wood block as last described
in the form of a more or less minute invisible design, and either before the first
printing of the paper or after, so that only the parts of the visible print which are
over the invisible print are removed by sponging.
It will be clear that all printing in ordinary printing ink over soluble film, and
whether in one colour or more is delible, and all printing in ordinary printing ink
direct upon the paper whether in one color or more is fixed to the usual extent.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is
The production of Transformation Pictures and Prints of such nature as that one
part is fixed and one part removable substantially as described.