IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING IMPRESSIONS FROM LITHOGRAPHIC STONES OR PLATES
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Fowell Walton, of Sarratt Hall, in the
County of Hertford, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING
IMPRESSIONS FROM LITHOGRAPHIC STONES OR PLATES"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Fowell Walton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th August 1854.
I, JOSEPH FOWELL WALTON, of Sarratt Hall, in the County of Hertford, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING
IMPRESSIONS FROM LITHOGRAPHIC STONES OR PLATES" to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the obtaining of impressions on paper from
lithographic stones or plates in a more efficient, expeditious, and less expen-
sive manner than heretofore; and this Invention consists in a new mode of
preparing lithographic stones or plates, whether such said plates be of stone or
zine, whereby a new effect of light and shadow in colours, either separately or
in combination with black and white, can be obtained; the drawing, or design
on such said stone or plate being made with a brush, a hair pencil, or a stump,
either separately or combined, in the manner usually practised of drawing on
stone and zinc. But in order to explain the nature of this Invention more fully,

page_text: I will proceed to describe the means by which it may be carried into practical
effect, as follows:-To obtain lithographic impressions, the stone is first grained
as for a chalk drawing, the drawing being completed on the stone with ordi-
nary lithographic ink dissolved in water, with the aid of a brush, a pencil, or a
stump, as above stated, or any of these styles mixed. The drawing is then
prepared with acid, in the manner usually practised with chalk drawings on
stone; and when thus prepared and well dried, the stone is placed in an
inclined position; the drawing is then covered with a solution of resin in a
volatile solvent, such as is generally used in aqua tinting; the effect of which
is, that as the solvent evaporates the resin cracks, and thus exposes those parts
of the drawing which are in the cracks or between the divided portions of
the resin, and protects those portions of the drawing which are covered by the
resinous particles which adhere to the stone. And when this resinous ground is
perfectly dry, the stone is then made gradually warm before a fire, for the pur-
pose of fixing the resin well on the drawing; after which a strong mixture of
nitric or muriatic acid (or any other acid which will operate strongly on litho-
graphic stones) and gum water is thrown over the whole surface of the stone,
and the mixture allowed to remain there for the space of about one minute of
time, after which the resinous ground and the drawing are washed off with
spirits of turpentine, and the stone is ready for for printing; the effect of thus
operating upon the stone with the acid mixture is to decompose those portions
of the stone which are unprotected by the before-mentioned resinous ground,
and thus to produce on stone the same effect as has heretofore been and is now
produced, by pouring an acid mixture on metal, for the purpose of producing a
particular style of engraving, known in the trade as "etching." It should be
observed, that in using plates of zinc instead of stone for obtaining impressions
from, according to this Invention, the same mode of treatment to that usually
adopted of preparing zinc plates is employed for the purposes of this Inven-
tion, the acid mixture in this instance effecting the process of "etching "
above referred to. In conclusion, it should also be observed, that in printing
from zinc in colors, either separately or in combination with black and white,
the processes are precisely similar to those at present employed in printing in
colors or in black & white from stones or plates, and which processes being
well known, it is unnecessary here to describe.
"

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Fowell Walton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 17th February 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH.
FOWELL WALTON, of Sarratt Hall, in the County of Hertford, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Joseph Fowell Walton, Her special licence that I, the said Joseph
Fowell Walton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Joseph Fowell Walton, 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING IMPRESSIONS FROM LITHOGRAPHIC STONES OR PLATES"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Joseph Fowell Walton,
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 Joseph Fowell Walton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof (that is to say) :—
My Invention consists in producing on paper impressions from a plate or
stone or plates or stones of drawings, in imitation of drawings made on stones
or plates, with a camel's hair pencil or stump, or the combined effect of both,
as commonly practised, whether such said drawings be in colors, or in black
and white only, or both combined; said plates or stones being prepared for the
purposes of my said Invention in a novel and peculiar manner, as herein-after
stated. And in order to explain my said Invention as completely as possible,
I now proceed to describe the best means I am acquainted with for carrying
the same into practical effect, as follows:-

page_text: The stone or plate is first grained as for a drawing to be. made with litho-
graphic chalk, in the manner usually practised; a polished stone will not be
found so agreeable for the purpose of my said Invention, but may be used.
The drawing is made on the stone or plate with the usual lithographic ink dis-
solved in soft or distilled water, and I have found the addition of a few drops.
of ammonia to the water to be beneficial; and with a brush.or hair pencil, or.
with a "stump," either separately or all or any of these styles combined, the
drawing is then prepared, in the manner usually practised of preparing chalk
drawings, on stones or plates, and after the drawing has been prepared I then
wash the said preparation thoroughly off, by pouring water copiously over the
face of the said stone or plate, and leave it until it is well and perfectly dried;
or it may be dried by placing it within a few feet of a fire. I then take of
very finely powdered pounce or cuttle fish about half a teaspoonful, more or
less, and placing it upon the surface of the stone, I rub the pounce gently over
the same with a piece of cotton wool, and afterwards dust off the superfluous
pounce; and having thus prepared the drawing, the stone or plate is then
placed in a slanting position, and a solution of resin made with any suitable
volatile solvent (for example, such as is commonly used for aqua tinting,) is
poured over the whole of the drawing; and when this ground is perfectly dry
I warm the said stone or plate before a gentle fire, and then throw over the
same a strong mixture of nitric or muriatic acid (or any other acid which will
act powerfully on the lithographic stone or plate) and gum water, in the pro-
portion of about one part of acid to five parts of gum water, and I let this
mixture remain thereon for about sixty seconds; after which I wash off the
ground and the drawing with spirits of turpentine, and the stone or plate is
then ready for printing impressions from. The ground I find most effective is
composed of common pitch one quarter of an ounce, resin four and a half
ounces, and one quart of the very best spirits of wine; these ingredients are
left to dissolve for six days at the least, after which the mixture is strained,
and is then fit for use.
"
Having thus described the nature and object of my said Invention of
"Improvements in Obtaining Impressions from Lithographic Stones or Plates,"
and in what manner the same is to be and may be performed, I would remark,
in conclusion, that I declare these my said improvements to consist in a novel
and peculiar mode of obtaining impressions, either in colours, or in black and
white only, from stones or plates, by so preparing and treating such said stones

page_text: or plates after the drawing has been made thereon, as that the said drawing
shall be "etched" therein, by which I am enabled to obtain clearer impres-
sions than heretofore; and I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of
the same, and that this my said Specification doth comply in all respects fully
and without reserve or disguise with the proviso contained in the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent, as above stated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Fowell Walton, have hereunto
my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
ALEX. PRINCE,
Patent Agent,
4, Trafalgar Square.
J. F. WALTON. (L.S.)