IMPROVEMENTS IN CHROMOGRAPHIC PRINTING
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henri Laurent Müller, of Paris, France, Printer, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CHROMOGRAPHIC PRINTING."
Sealed the 22nd September 1858, and dated the 23rd March 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henri Laurent Müller
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 23rd March 1858.
I, HENRI LAURENT MÜLLER, of Paris, France, Printer, do hereby declare
5 the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CHROMOGRAPHIC
PRINTING," to be as follows:-
These improvements relate to printing in one or more colours on any suit-
able surface or material, or what is generally called chromographic printing.
They consist in causing the colours or pigments to be brought to the solid
state after the same have been previously mixed up with any suitable binding
material, such as water, gum, resin, starch, dextrine, or others, then to give to
the thus solidified colours or pigments suitable forms, and assemble them
together side by side according to the pattern or design, and in this assembled
state make use of them as matrices, punches, blocks, or dies for printing with,
after having previously moistened their surface or the surface of the paper,
fabric, or other body on which the coloured impression is to take place with
the same liquid that has served for mixing up the colours or pigments, or any
other liquid by which a suitable quantity of the colour or pigment is dissolved,
and thus caused to adhere to the surface to be imprinted.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henri Laurent Muller in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 23rd September 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRI
LAURENT MULLER,. of Paris, France, Printer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Henri Laurent Muller, Her special licence that I, the said
Henri Laurent Muller, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Henri Laurent Muller, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN CHROMOGRAPHIC PRINTING," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henri Laurent Muller, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals, 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 Henri Laurent Muller, 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:-
These improvements relate to printing in one or several colours on any
suitable surface or material, and consist principally in an improved mode of
what is called chromographic printing. In ordinary chromographic printing
the various colours of a design are applied separately and successively on the
surface that receives the impression; thus, for instance, a pattern containing
10 colours requires the impression to take place 10 successive times, viz.,
one impression for each colour, which consequently demands much labour, and
requires a great nicety in causing each colour to be applied exactly on the
required spots. My method, on the contrary, allows of printing any suitable
number of colours at a time, that is, by one single impression. For this

page_text: purpose each of the pigments that have to serve for giving the required
colours is reduced to an almost impalpable powder, after which each of them
is mixed up separately with a sufficient quantity of a solution of any suitable
binding material, such, for instance, as a suitable solution of gum, starch,
dextrine, or others in water, or a suitable solution of resinous bodies in alcohol
or essence of turpentine, or other suitable solutions, according to the require-
ments of the pigments or of the printing, and so as to bring the pigments to
the state of a thick paste, from which are then made sticks, types, or punches.
of a round, square, or any other suitable form, the section or cross cut of
each stick or type having to correspond exactly with the surface of that part
of the design of which the same is to give an impression, which may be done
by means of suitable moulds, or in any other suitable manner. These sticks,
types, or pieces of any other suitable form are then dried, and in this solidified
state they are fixed together side by side and in exact correspondence with the
arrangement of the colours of the design, suitable interstices being left
between them in certain parts, if required, so as to form one solid or block,
the smooth surface of which resembles a block of mosaic or inlaid work,
offering a perfect copy of the pattern or design to be imprinted, the said sticks
or types being further caused to adhere firmly together by moistening their
surfaces with the same liquid that has served for dissolving the binding
material with which the pulverised pigment has been solidified. The solid
block or matrix formed in this manner by the suitable combination of the
said sticks or types is then fixed on a wooden board, metal plate, cylinder, or
other suitable base, in which state the entire may then serve instead of the
ordinary printing blocks, lithographic stones, metal plates, printing cylinders,
or other bodies hitherto made use of for imprinting figures or designs on
fabrics or other surfaces. In order further to obtain the required impression
it will be necessary only to moisten either the smooth or printing surface of
this mosaic block with any suitable liquid that has the property of dissolving
from the pigments the quantity required for an impression on any suitable
material or fabric, or the fabric or the material itself on which the impression
is to take place; after which the block is applied to the surface that has to
receive the impression, or to which a required portion of the pigments is to
be applied, for, instead of printing at once with the said blocks on the surface
of the paper, fabric, or other material that has to receive the impression, it
may in some instances be found usefull, first to transmit the impression from
the block on a lithographic stone, metal plate, cylinder, or other suitable
surface, from which afterwards the printing may be transferred at once

page_text: on the surface of the paper, fabric, or other material that has to receive the
impression.
My improved method may be made use of as well for printing in several
as with one colour at a time, and as well on white as on coloured or other
ornamented grounds. Instead also of keeping the colours or pigments
entirely separate from each other, the same may, while yet in the plastic state,
be more or less pressed or mixed together, from which consequently afterwards.
a spotted or marbled impression will be obtained.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
putting the same into practical operation, I hereby declare that what I claim
as my Invention consists of employing blocks or printing matrixes formed by
the agregation or combination of suitably solidified pigments for printing
simultaneously any suitable number of colours on any suitable material or
surface in the manner as has been described.
. In witness whereof, I, the said Henri Laurent Muller, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
J. SOUTH.
H. L. MULLER. (L.S.)