IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURES TO METAL. AND OTHER SURFACES. AND IN RENDERING THE SAME APPLICABLE AS PRINTING SURFACES
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Kinder Cheetham, of Rochdale, in the County
of Lancaster, Doctor of Medicine, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE APPLICATION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURES TO METAL. AND OTHER SURFACES.
AND IN RENDERING THE SAME APPLICABLE AS PRINTING SURFACES." ;
Sealed the 2nd June 1857, and dated the 3rd-December 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Kinder Cheetham
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents; with his Petition, on the
3rd December 1850.
I, JAMES KINDER CHEETHAM, of Rochdale, in the County of Lancaster,
Doctor of Medicine, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURES TO METAL AND
OTHER SURFACES, AND IN BENDERING THE SAME APPLICABLE AS PRINTING SURFACES
to be as follows:-
My Invention relates, firstly, to obtaining designs upon 'copper and other
metallic surfaces, so as to constitute a picture, which may so remain for
ornamental or other purposes, or upon which the engraver may work by any
of the usual methods. The principle I proceed upon is to obtain a photo-
graph by any ordinary means, and transfer the reduced silver, or other
substance coniposing it to the copper or other such surface, in such
manner that it shall be free from the film which supported it; and in
direct contact with the metal. Thus I obtain a coating of mercury upon á
surface of copper, upon which the photograph is then placed; the silver
D

page_text: be
thereof enters into combination with the mercury, and I then dissolve the
substance which originally supported the photograph; the mercury may
driven off by heat or otherwise.
Another part of my Invention relates to obtaining surfaces for printing from
photographs without the aid of ordinary engraving. For this purpose I proceed
according to the first part of my Invention, and then treat the plate with a
chemical substance, as nitric acid, so as to eat away one portion of the design
and leave the other in relief, the mercury being driven off as above described
if necessary.
Another part of my Invention relates to obtaining printing surfaces upon
the "lithographic" principle. To effect this, I render the stone a conductor of
electricity, by a coating of phosphorus or other suitable substance, and deposit
a film of copper or other metal thereon; upon this I transfer the design, as
before described, and dissolve away the bare copper or other metal; the stone
which was beneath this is then run over with the ink roller, and the metal
picture subsequently removed, leaving a clean surface of stone for the light
portions; or this operation may be reversed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Kinder Cheetham in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 2nd June 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
KINDER CHEETHAM, of Rochdale, in the County of Lancaster, Doctor of
Medicine, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reigu, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Jaines Kinder Cheetham, Her especial licence that I, the said James
Kinder Cheetham, ny executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said James Kinder Cheetham, 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 Mau, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURES TO METAL AND
OTHER SURFACES, AND IN RENDERING THE SAME APPLICABLE AS PRINTING SURFACES,"

page_text: upon the condition, amongst others, that I, the said James Kinder Cheetham,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of my 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 l'atent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Kinder Cheetham, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement (that is to say):-
My Invention relates, firstly, to obtaining designs upon copper or other
metallic surfaces, so as to constitute pictures, which may so remain for
ornamental or other purposes, or upon which the engraver may work by any
of the usual methods. The principle I proceed upon is to obtain a photograph
by any ordinary means, and transfer the reduced silver, or other substance
composing it, to the copper or other such surface, in such manner that it shall
be free froin the film which supported it, and in direct contact with the metal.
In order particularly to explain this I will point out a method I adopt. In
the first place, I obtain a photograph by the collodion process; while this is on
the plate I apply to it, by pouring or otherwise, a varnish composed of shellac
dissolved in water by aid of borax, say, one part of borax, three shellac, and
ten of water. but the exact proportions are not important; when this is dry, a
piece of paper painted with the same materials is applied wet, and the whole
allowed to dry, after which the plate is placed in cold water, and the film will
then separate from the glass. I now take a sheet of copper or other metal
and coat it with mercury, after any of the usual methods, and upon this place
the film; pressure being then applied simply by rubbing, or by an ordinary
press, the silver constituting the picture will adhere to the mercury, a
and upon
a gentle heat (the amount of which will easily be ascertained from practice)
being applied, the film will be separated therefrom, leaving it perfect upon a
metallic surface. The picture thus transferred may be used as a tracing for
the guidance of the engraver, or it may constitute a permament design upon
ornamental or other metallicarticles. I have particularly alluded to copper as
the substance upon which the design is to be produced; but zinc, silver, steel,
or other materials. may be employed, and these may be first coated with copper
by electro-metallurgy, then treated as above, and those parts of the coppernot
covered by the picture subsequently removed by acids, or by other means. As
a variation on the above process, the film, with its picture, may be removed
from the glass by the use of a solution of gutta percha in benzole, as now

page_text: practised, and applied to the mercurialized metallic surface; but in this case
the film must be removed by dissolving it in methylated chloroform or other
solvent, and the mercury may then be driven off by heat if desired. It will
be observed, by the above description, that the picture is not caused to adhere to
the metallic surface by any glutinous substance, as gums or varnishes, but is
connected thereto by the mercury, after the ordinary manner of gilding.
Another part of my Invention consists in a method of obtaining surfaces for
printing from photographs. For this purpose I proceed according to the first
part of my Invention above described, so as to obtain the silver picture upon
a surface of copper or other metal, and then treat the plate with a substance,
as nitric acid, which will eat away one portion of the surface and leave the
other in relief.
Another part ofiny Invention relates to obtaining printing surfaces upon the
lithographic principle. To effect this, I render the stone a conductor of
electricity, by a coating of phosphorous or other suitable substance, and deposit
a film of copper or other metal thereon; upon this I transfer the design,.as
before described, and dissolve away the bare copper or other metal; the stone
which was beneath this is then run over with the inking roller, and the metal
picture subsequently removed, leaving a clear surface of stone for the light
portions; or this operation may be reversed.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner of carrying the same into effect, I desire it to be understood that
I claim, as secured to me under the above in part recited Letters Patent,―
Firstly, for the purposes above set forth, transferring photographic pictures
to metallic surfaces without the aid of gum, varnish, or other such substance;
and I claim specially for that purpose the use of metallic mercury, as
aforesaid.
Secondly, the etching of photographic pictures transferred to metal, as above.
Thirdly, the method of producing printing surfaces upon the lithographic
principle.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Kinder Cheetham, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of May, in the year of our
Lord Oue thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
JAMES KINDER CHEETHAM, M.D. (L.S.)
JAMES KINDER CHEETHAM, M.D. (L.S.)