AN IMPROVED COMPOSITION FOR PRINTERS' INKING ROLLERS AND OTHER PURPOSES, AND THE PROCESS OF MAKING THE SAME
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Morgan-Brown, of the Firm of Brandon
and Morgan-Brown, Engineers and Patent Agents, of 38, South-
ampton Buildings, London, and 13, Rue Gaillon, Paris, for the
Invention of "AN IMPROVED COMPOSITION FOR PRINTERS' INKING ROLLERS
AND OTHER PURPOSES, AND THE PROCESS OF MAKING THE SAME."-A com-
munication from abroad by Joseph Henry Osgood, of Boston,
Massachusetts. United States of America.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said William Morgan-Brown
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition
and Declaration, on the 21st August 1874, pursuant to the 9th
Section of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
5 TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MORGAN-BROWN, of the Firm of Brandon and Morgan-Brown, Engineers
and Patent Agents, of 38, Southampton Buildings, London, and 13, Rue-
Gaillon, Paris, send greeting.

page_text: ferably, glue in a fine state of division is used because it combines more
quickly and furnishes the product in better shape, but glue in any state
can be used. The result of this process when the fine glue is used is a
mealy moist mass in which each particle of glue retains its original
shape and its identity, except as to increase in size by the combination
with it of the other ingredients; this mealy moist composition can be
handled and stored with the greatest facility, and can be sold to printers
to cast rollers from. By heating it in a proper kettle it melts down at
once into a thick liquid, of which the best rollers can be made.
The advantages of this process and the resultant product over the old
are these,--
First. Less water is required. With the strong glue that must be
used to make good composition nearly one part of water to one of glue
are the proportions that must be used to liquify or dissolve the glue by
the aid of heat, in order that it can be mixed with the other ingredients
of the compound. Now this water is not essential to the composition,
and is only used to facilitate its manufacture by dissolving or liquifying
the glue; it escapes from the composition after it is cast into rollers,
causing them to shrink and crack, and is thus detrimental. It is found
that by the new process the quantity of water can be reduced one-half,
so that one part of glue to one-half part of water is all that is necessary
to be used.
Secondly. The composition is cheaply produced. Since the combination
of the ingredients is effected entirely without the aid of artificial heat
the expense of the production and maintenance of it is saved. Again, no
kettles are required. The vessels in which the glue is soaked in water
by the old process serve to make the finished products by the new
process. There is also a great saving in apparatus, and the labour
required is much less. By the old process constant stirring and
attendance are required while the composition is being made, in order
that the ingredients may be properly and thoroughly mixed and heated.
By the new process, as the combination effects itself, stirring of the
mass is not required more than once or twice in twenty-four hours, and
this is all the attention it needs. It is thus possible for one person to
attend to the manufacture of two or three tons of the composition, a thing
which would be impossible with the old process, except with a large

page_text: outlay for stirring and heating apparatus; there is no loss by waste of
material. By the old process more or less of the composition bakes or
crusts on to the sides of the kettle in which it is made; this has to be
soaked off with water, and is thrown away. From four or five to twenty
pounds are thus lost with every boiling, varying according to the size of
the kettle. By the new process the exact weight of the ingredients is
obtained in composition without a particle of loss.
The product of the new process has many advantages. When made
from the ground glue it is in a much better and more convenient shape
for handling, storing, packing, and using. The old product being in
thick sheets or solid chunks must be cut up with a knife before it can
be remelted. The granular condition of the new product enables one to
weigh the smallest quantities with the greatest case. It can be, packed
in bags, boxes, or barrels with as much facility as granulated sugar, and
used from time to time in just such quantities as may be wanted. The
great and signal advantage the new product has over the old is that it
will keep for any length of time. The old product becomes after a
while so changed that it cannot be remelted. This change is not owing
to its drying up; for even when hermetically scaled in tin cans this
change takes place in three or four months, and the composition as it
cannot be remelted and cast into rollers is useless and is thrown away. All
manufacturers and dealers in and consumers of composition have had
more trouble and complaint from this one point than from all others;
it makes it necessary for the manufacturer to prepare the composition in
only such quantities as can be consumed within a few weeks. The printer
has to buy as he wants it to use from time to time, and in only such
quantities as he can use at once. It almost wholly prevents the sale of
the composition to dealers in printing materials, who would buy to sell
again, and they will not buy it except in small quantities as it is ordered
of them. If the old composition becomes hardened by exposure to the
air and drying, it cannot be remelted, even if it is soaked in water and
heated in a kettle in the usual way. The new article may be dried at
once after it is made at low temperatures. Whenever it is wanted for
use by the addition of the amount of water it lost by evaporation it will
be at once upon the application of heat melt down into a perfect com-
position. It will be obvious therefore that the new composition may be
sold in two forms, either moist, just as it is prepared, and all ready to

page_text: melt and cast into rollers; or dried, that is, the water having been
evaporated from it. This second form may be dissolved at once in the
proper amount of hot water, or soaked in cold water and melted by heat.
The cause of the difference in the two compositions, as prepared by the
old or heating process and the new or cold process, it is difficult wholly to
explain; it is probably owing to some effect which the high temperature
has upon the glue. Something analogous to it occurs in the manufacture
of the glue itself, and perhaps will explain the difference in the two
products. It is a well-known fact to glue manufacturers that the glues
dried by exposure to the direct rays of the sun are much less easily
dissolved than those dried in the shade, and the best manufacturers are
careful to dry their glues under cover. So also if these dried glues be
still further dried by exposure in an oven they become still less soluble.
It will be seen that the essential difference between the two processes
is that in the old, heat is used to combine the ingredients, while in the
new this combination is effected by absorption wholly, without the
aid of artificial heat. It is also the use or non-use of heat which gives
to the two products their different qualities. By the new process a
better article is made at less cost than by the old process. Its
advantages are, first, that it will keep for any length of time, which
is invaluable, and overcomes the most serious objection to the old com-
position; second, its cheapness of production; third, its convenience and

page_text: have it understood that what I claim is, the composition, substantially
as described, and the process of forming the same.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Morgan-Brown, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of August, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.