CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN TOOLS, IMPLEMENTS, OR APPARATUS, WHICH ARE EITHER USED IN, OR ARE SUBSERVIENT TO THE ART OF LETTER-PRESS PRINTING
Year: 1835

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HOUSTOUN, formerly of Fleet Street, now of Crane Court, Fleet Street, in the
City of London, Printer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-fifth day of March, in the fifth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs, and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Houstoun, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said William Houstoun, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said William Houstoun, my exors, adiñiors, 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 expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN TOOLS, IMPLEMENTS, OR
APPARATUS, WHICH ARE EITHER USED IN, OR ARE SUBSERVIENT TO THE ART OF
LETTER-PRESS PRINTING;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso,
that I, the said William Houstoun, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my 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

page_text: Letters l'atent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Houstoun, do hereby declare that my said Invention of certain
improvements in tools, implements, or apparatus which are either used in or
are subservient to the art of letter-press printing is described and set forth in
the following statement in words, aided by a diagram annexed for illustration
of some part of the same.
My object has been to facilitate the labour of the compositor in setting
up the form, and my Invention consists in the production or formation of
compound types or types of two or more letters, and in the arrangement of
them in such a manner in the case as shall bring them most conveniently
under the hand of the compositor. With a view to this end, I prepare types
of such monosyllabic words, of such syllabic portions of polysyllables, and of
such two or more letters of common recurrence in juxtaposition, as most
frequently present themselves to be set up in the act of composing a form.
With these words and elementary parts of words already formed, and which
need not be so numerous as to distract the eye or to extend the case beyond
the convenient reach of the compositor's hand, his labour in composing and
the distributor's in breaking up a form will be diminished in an important
degree. And not only in the using but also in the founding of these compound
types there is a great saving of labour, the compound type being cast in the
same time and with the same ease as a type of a single letter. The method
of forming these compound types differs in no essential matter from the method
commonly pursued for the formation of types of single letters, save that the
punch for the impression of the matrices is cut or fashioned with the conjoined
letters arranged in the reverse order from that of the legible impression as they
would present themselves when set up in form from single types. It would be
possible to impress the compound matrices by punches of single letters struck
in succession, but such an operation could scarcely be effected with due regard
to the symmetrical position of the letters in line, or to the perfect sameness of.
depth of the different letters in the same matrix; or punches of single letters
might be combined and fixed together to impress the matrix at one stroke, but
this plan would leave a possibility of derangement of individual letters in the
combination; I therefore prefer to cut the combined letters on one punch,
which obviates these objections.
The combinations of letters which I have caused to be executed in types,
according to the method above indicated, are the following, namely, ac, all, am,

page_text: and, are, as, at, ace, ad, age, ant, an, ba, be, bi, bo, bu, by, ber; ble, bly, ca, cu,
can, com, con, cor, cal, cle; ch, cy, ek, ct, da, de, di, do, du, did, dry, dle, dye,
dy, ear, eat, end, ew, ere, cyc, ex, ed, ec, el, er, ent, et, css, fa, fe, fi, fo, fu, for,
fle, ful, fy, ga, ge, gi, go, gu, get, ge, gle, gl, gy, ha, had, he, him, his, ho, hu,
ht, if, im, in, it, ir, is, ie, ine, ing, ion, ism, ive, ja, je, ji, jo, ju, id, ic, ke, ki,
ko, ku, la, le, li, lo, lu, lar, ly, ma, me, mi, mo, mu, my, na, ne, ni, no, nu, not,
nd, ob, of, on, or, our, out, ood, ow, ous, op, pa, pe, pi, po, pu, pre, pro, ra,
ro, ri, ro, ru, rd, rn, rt, ry, sa, se, si, so, su, she, st, sh, ta, te, ti, to, tu, ty, the,
th, un, up, us, wa, we, wi, wo, ve, yet, yes, you, wn.
These compound types, with the single letter types, I arrange in the case
according to the order shewn in the Diagram, which forms a part of the
present Specification. This order appears to me the most convenient, but further
experience may indicate the propriety of some deviation from it, or even of a
totally different system of arrangement..
Types comprising two or more letters have been long in use in the art of
letter-press printing, but they are of very limited number. My present
Invention consists in rendering into type, under a comprehensive system, the
greater number of such elementary parts of words comprising two or more
letters as occur most frequently in the composition of a form. The com-
bination of letters in the same type therefore for the purpose of printing being
not now done. by me for the first time, I have no claim generally to such mode
of combining them as a principle; but I claim types for the purposes of
letter-press printing having the special combinations of letters above enu-
merated, now first introduced by me into the printer's art.
And I claim such special combinations of two or more letters in one type,
whether the said types shall have been generated or produced by the means of
matrices and punches in the way abovo indicated, or they shall have been cast
from moulds or matrices in any other way produced.
I do not claim the combinations of letters in type which have been long in
use, namely, ff, fi, fl, ffi, ff, æ, æ, nor those which were attempted to be
introduced by the late Lord Stanhope, namely, th, in, an, re, se, to, of, on.
Such my Invention of especial combinations of letters in single types, as
facilitating the composition of a form for letter-press printing, being to the best
of my knowledge and belief entirely new, and never before used in that part
of His said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called
England, His Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do
hereby declare this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily
believe this my said Specification doth comply in all respects fully and without

page_text: reserve or disguise with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent contained, wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive
right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Houstoun, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-five.
WILLIAM (L.B.) HOUSTOUN.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fifth day of September,
the year of our Lord 1835, the aforesaid William Houstoun came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged tho 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 Twenty-fifth day of September, in the year of our Lord
- One thousand eight hundred and thirty-five.