CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING MACHINES
Year: 1830

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, EDWARD
COWPER, of Streatham Place, in the County of Surrey, and EBENEZER COWPER,
of Suffolk Street, Pall Mall East, Westminster, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth
did, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bear-
ing date at Westminster, the Nineteenth day of July, in the first year of
His reign, give and grant unto us, the said Edward Cowper and Ebenezer
Cowper, IIis especial licence that we, tho said Edward Cowper and Eben-
ezer Cowper, our exors, adññiors, and assigns, and such others as we, the
said Edward Cowper and Ebenezer Cowper, our exors, adñiors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING
MACHINES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that we,
the said Edward Cowper and Ebenezer Cowper, or one of us, shall cause
a particular description of the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, may more fully and at largo appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Edward Cowper and Ebenezer Cowper, do hereby declare that the nature of

page_text: our Invention, and the manner in which the same is performed and carried
into effect, are particularly described and ascertained by the following descrip
tion thereof, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the
figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say:-
Our Invention consists of two parts, first, in the means of distributing the
ink, and, secondly, in the method of attaching the printing cloth (or blanket)
to the printing cylinder. The improvements are applicable to those machines
in which the impression is obtained by passing the form of types under a
cylinder, as in the former Patent of Edward Cowper, to which a Specification
was duly inrolled, and is equally applicable to other printing machines on the
same principle.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Fig. 1 is an elevation of the inking apparatus and some part of the printing
machine. At the end of the type table A (the table on which the form of
type is laid), we attach a drum or cylinder B, of wood or metal, about seven
or nine inches diameter (more or less), the spindle of which is supported in a
frame or in arms C, screwed to the type table A. This drum may be called
the distributing drum, from its distributing the ink, or may be called the
travelling drum, from its travelling with the type table, and in this respect
differing entirely from all other systems of inking. The travelling drum has
one, two, or more distributing rollers D lying upon or against its surface, and
receiving their rotatory movement from the friction of the drum. The distri-
buting rollers are supported in their places in notched bearings E, in the frame
or arms C. If the drum be made to travel under the printing cylinder F, the
upper surface of the drum should be a little below the level of the types, in
order that it may not blacken the printing cylinder, but when the drum does not
travel under the printing cylinder, it may be level with the types. The upper
surfaces of the distributing rollers are about one inch below the surface of the
drum. The spindles of the inking rollers G, G, G, that is, the rollers which ink
the types, lie in notched bearings in the frame of the machine, as in the former
Patent of Edward Cowper; the notches are cut deep enough to allow them to
fall freely upon the travelling drum B, without touching the distributing rollers
D; on the spindle of the drum is a small bevelled wheel II, which is turned by
another bevelled wheel I, fixed on a long square rod or spindle K; this spindle
is supported at one end by a carriage L, fastened to the frame C, and the other
end of the spindle is supported by a square hole in a pinion M, through which
it is made to slide freely; when there is an inking apparatus at each end of the
machine the square rod or spindle K is continued through the pinion to the

page_text: other inking apparatus, to which it also gives motion by a bevelled wheel.
The pinion M has a round boss N on each side of it, on which it turns in a
carriage fixed in any convenient part of the machine in the line of motion of
the type table; this pinion may be a bevelled pinion, or even a pulley receiving
its motion, as may best suit the arrangements of the other parts of the machine.
The edges of the distributing drum B are not at right angles to its spindle, but
are formed into slightly inclined planes or waves, as in Fig. 2, which rub
against fixed bosses or friction rollers O, O, in the arms C; the spindle of the
drum is either square, allowing the drum to slide freely upon it, or is round,
and having a cranked driver P fixed upon it, the cranked end Q of the driver
fitting loose into into the arm of the drum, to allow the drum to be pushed in
the direction of its length by the inclined planes or waves on its edge. The
ink trough, or, as it is technically called, the ductor R, is placed at the
end of the frame of the machine and the ink is conveyed from the ductor
to the distributing drum by a vibrating roller S, vibrating in bearings on
the frame C, which supports the distributing drum B. The vibrating roller
runs in two light arms T, which are firmly fixed on the spindle V, on which it
vibrates; a forked arm, or one of the arms T, is lengthened and divided into a
fork, to admit a stud W, fixed on the frames of the machine. The operation
is as follows:-As the type table moves backward and forward, the distributing
drum B and its appurtenances travel with it; the drum receives its rotatory
motion by the bevelled wheels H and I, and the pinion M, which turns the
square spindle K, while the spindle passes freely through the pinion M; in the
meantime the drum is receiving its lateral or end motion by means of its
inclined edge rubbing against the friction rollers O. When the drum arrives
under the inking rollers G, it imparts ink to them and leaves them in a fit
state to ink the type. As the drum approaches the ink trough R, the fork of the
arm T of the vibrating roller comes in contact with the fixed stud W, which
tilts the vibrating roller towards the ink trough. The remaining motion of the
type table pushes the vibrating roller against the iron roller, or, as is called,
the ductor roller X of the ink trough; as the type table returns towards the
printing cylinders, the fork of the arm T again strikes against the stud W,
when the vibrating roller is tilted back again to the drum with the ink it has
received. There are various ways in which the Invention of the travelling
drum may be modified, but the above is the method we prefer. The rotatory
motion may be given by a cat-gut band passing over a pulley on its spindle,
the ends of the band being fixed to the frame of the machine, as in Fig. Fig. 3
and 4, or the band may be endless, and go round two other pulleys, as at a, in
Fig. 5, one of these pulleys a receiving its motion from any convenient part of the

page_text: machino; or the motion may be given by a broad pinion running in a rack fixed
on the frame of the machine, as in Fig. 7. The lateral or end motion may be
given to the distributing rollers instead of the drum, by placing them in a
sliding frame, as at a in Fig. 6, the drum being fixed on its spindle, and the
edges of the drum being made to push the frame backward and forward in
the direction of the spindle. We do not claim the exclusive right of distri-
buting the ink upon a drum or cylinder revolving in fixed bearings, but we
claim as our Invention the distributing the ink upon a cylinder or drum,
which is attached to the type table, and travels with it.
.
Our second improvement, viz, the method of attaching the printing cloth
or blanket to the printing cylinder, consists in forming the printing cylinder F
with two recesses b, b, Fig. 1, in each of which we fix a roller c, of wood
or metal, turning in carriages d fixed to tho cylinder at each end of the
recess, or we make only one recess in the cylinder, and put both rollers
into it, as in Fig. 8, at e, or the rollers c may be placed within the
printing cylinder, as in Figs. 9 and 10, allowing the cloth to run through
a narrow opening or slit in the cylinder F; in this case the arms of the
cylinder must be so arranged as to give the necessary strength to the parts
so divided. One end of a long 'piece of printing cloth f is fixed to one
roller, and the other end is fixed to the other roller; there is a small ratchet
wheel on the spindle of each roller, and a click or pall (fixed on the carriage
or cylinder) falls into the ratchet; when the cloth is first put on, it is wound
up on one roller as far as it will go, and retained there by the click and
ratchet. When the cloth becomes blackened by use, or begins to "set off"
(as the printers term it), a portion of the cloth is unwound from one
roller and wound up on the other. The ends of the spindles of the rollers
are square and are turned by a loose handle or key. If very thin cloth be used
in the above Invention, it will be necessary to fix another cloth between it
and the cylinder in the usual manner; and although fine woollen cloth is the
article referred to in the above description, we do not limit ourselves to the
use of such fino woollen cloth, but avail ourselves of any other suitable fabric;
yet such fabric forms no part of our Invention, and being well understood,
needs no further description; but what we claim as the second part of our
Invention is, the wrapping such fabric upon rollers within the printing cylinder,
or in a recess or recesses in its circumference.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Cowper, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of January, One thousand eight
hundred and thirty-one
EDWARD (L.S.) COWPER.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighteenth day of January,
In the year of our Lord 1881, the aforesaid Edward Cowper came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Nineteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.