IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING MACHINERY
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING MACHINERY."-A communi-
cation from abroad by Stephen Davis Tucker, of New York City, United
States of America.
Sealed the 23rd February 1864, and dated the 2nd December 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
2nd December 1863.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING MACHINERY," to be as
follows:-
This Invention of "Improvements in Printing Machinery" relates more
particularly to that class of printing machinery in which the type or printing
surface is arranged in a curved form and forms part of the circumference of
a large rotating cylinder.
The object of the present Invention is to produce a perfecting machine,
that is a machine in which the paper will be printed on both sides before it
leaves the machine. To this end there are, of course, two sets of type or
printing surfaces, each secured on its separate and distinct cylinder, and pro-
vided with a suitable inking surface and inking apparatus, and two impression

page_text: cylinders are employed, one for each type cylinder. The paper to be printed
is wound on a roller in a long sheet, from which pieces of suitable size or
length for a sheet to be printed are cut off at the proper moment by means of
a cutting edge, or knife, or serrated bar, which is mounted in any suitable
bearings, and has a longitudinal reciprocating motion communicated to it when
it is brought in contact with the paper. The paper passes over a table in which
a groove is made immediately below the serrated knife or cutting instrument,
so that when the latter is brought down against the paper it will produce
a draw cut thereon, and divide a piece of the proper size from the long length.
Instead of a grooved table the paper may be passed between two grooved cylin-
ders, in one of which is mounted the reciprocating serrated cutting instrument,
and the groove of the other is provided with a pair of elastic cushions or lips for
the purpose of holding the paper steady while under operation. Or instead of
the elastic cushions, a spring placed within the cylinder may be made to act
on a piece of wood, cloth, metal, or other substance, so as to press forward
the paper at each side of the opening, into which will enter the edge of the
serrated cutting instrument. This serrated bar knife or cutting instrument is
self-acting, and is thrown in and out of the cylinder at the moment of junction
by means of any suitable gear wheels and cams. As the paper is made in a
long length, the employment of boys for feeding in the sheets and attending
the machine may be to a great extent dispensed with, as immediately the
sheet is cut off from the roll it is carried into the machine by nippers or
fingers which take hold of one edge of the sheet as in ordinary cylinder
printing machines. The paper may be conducted in, either above or below
the impression cylinders, as may be found most convenient, and after being
printed on one side by the printing surface of one cylinder is conducted to the
impression cylinder of the other form of type, which will print the other side
of the paper and thus perfect the sheet. It will, of course, be understood
that two sets of inking rollers will be required, one for each type cylinder, and,
if desired, two or more sets or pairs of impression cylinders may be adapted
to each type cylinder, and each pair of impression cylinders will of course
be supplied from a separate roll of paper, provided with the cutting apparatus
above referred to for dividing the sheet from the long roll. The sheet when
printed is conducted away from the impression cylinders by suitable tapes to a
pair of delivering rollers, which conduct it out of the machine to a fly frame,
whereby the sheet is deposited upon the pile. In combination with the fly
frame there is a pair of pullies, over which pass guide tapes for supporting the
sheet when carried out of the machine. The sheet is carried under these
tapes, and is kept up against them by means of a blast of air produced by a

page_text: rotating fan or blower, or coming from a reservoir of condensed air, or in any
other convenient manner. This blast of air is made to act on the under side
of the sheet of paper as it is carried forward by the delivering rollers, and
thereby keeps the sheet up against the tapes, above the pile of printed sheets.
The blast issues from holes made in a pipe extending across the machine, and
is intermittent, that is, it only acts at the proper moment, or while the sheet
is being delivered from the machine, and for so long a time as will be necessary
to carry the sheet forward until it comes above the pile of printed sheets;
the blast then suddenly stops, and the fly frame comes down and deposits the
newly printed sheet on the pile.
Another mode of producing the blast is by means of a kind of bellows in
connection with a perforated tube. The bellows will be worked from any
convenient part of the mechanism, and as the blast is required to be inter-
mittent, this arrangement will probably be, under ordinary circumstances, the
most convenient. It will be evident that some of these improvements may
be adapted to other printing machinery besides that above described, I there-
fore wish to reserve to myself the right to adapt such improvements to other
printing machines in which the type is arranged on a curved surface. It will
be obvious, for instance, that feeding in paper from a long roll from which
sheets are cut off by a reciprocating or vibrating serrated knife or other
suitable cutting instrument acting at the proper moment may be adapted to
machines in which the paper is printed on only one side. It will also be
obvious that the mode above referred to, of delivering the printed sheet and
depositing it on a pile by a combination of travelling tapes with a fly frame,
and an intermittent blast of air for holding up the paper may be adapted to
other printing machinery.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 2nd June 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Edward Newton, Her special license that I, the said William

page_text: Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said William Edward Newton, 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 PRINTING MACHINERY," being a communication from abroad,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Edward
Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should parti-
cularly 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 William Edward Newton, 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, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
This Invention of "Improvements in Printing Machinery" relates more
particularly to that class of printing machinery in which the type or printing
surface is arranged in a curved form, and forms part of the circumference of
a large rotating cylinder.
The object of the present Invention is to produce a perfecting machine,
that is, a machine in which the paper will be printed on both sides before it
leaves the machine. To this end there are, of course, two sets of type or
printing surfaces, each secured on its separate and distinct cylinder, and pro-
vided with a suitable inking surface and inking apparatus, and two impression
cylinders are employed, one for each type cylinder. The paper to be printed
is wound on a roller in a long sheet, from which pieces of suitable size or
length for a sheet to be printed are cut off at the proper moment by means of
a cutting edge, or knife, or serrated bar, which is mounted in suitable bearings,
and has a longitudinal reciprocating motion communicated to it when it is
brought in contact with the paper. The paper passes over a table, in which a
groove is made immediately below the serrated knife or cutting instrument, so
that when the latter is brought down against the paper it will produce a draw
cut thereon and divide a piece of the proper size from the long length.
Instead of a grooved table, the paper may be passed between two grooved
cylinders, in one of which is mounted the reciprocating serrated cutting
instrument, and the groove of the other is provided with a pair of elastic

page_text: cushions or lips, for the purpose of holding the paper steady while under
operation; or, instead of the elastic cushions or lips, a spring placed within
the cylinder may be made to act on a piece of wood, cloth, metal or other
substance, so as to press forward the paper at each side of the opening, into
which will enter the edge of the serrated cutting instrument. The serrated
bar, knife, or cutting instrument is self-acting and is thrown in and out of the
cylinder at the moment of junction by means of suitable gear, wheels, and
cams. As the paper is made in a long length, the employment of boys for
feeding in the sheets and attending the machine may be to a great extent
dispensed with, as immediately the sheet is cut off from the roll it is carried
into the machine by nippers or fingers, which take hold of one edge of the
sheet, as in ordinary cylinder printing machines. The paper may be con-
ducted in either above or below the impression cylinders, as may be found
most convenient, and after being printed on one side by the printing surface
of one cylinder is conducted to the impression cylinder of the other form of
type, which will print the other side of the paper, and thus perfect the sheet.
It will, of course, be understood that two sets of inking rollers will be re-
quired, one for each type cylinder, and, if desired, two or more sets or pairs of
impression cylinders may be adapted to each type cylinder, and each pair of
impression cylinders will, of course, be supplied from a separate roll of paper,
provided with the cutting apparatus above referred to for dividing the sheet
from the long roll. The sheet when printed is conducted away from the
impression cylinders by suitable tapes to a pair of delivering rollers, which
conduct it out of the machine to a fly frame, whereby the sheet is deposited
upon the pile. In combination with the fly frame there is a pair of pullies,
over which pass guide tapes for supporting the sheet when carried out of the
machine. The sheet is carried under these tapes, and is kept up against them
by means of a blast of air produced by a rotating fan or blower, or coming
from a reservoir of condensed air, or any other convenient manner, and
made to issue from holes made in a pipe conveniently placed for the purpose.
This blast of air is made to act on the under side of the sheet of the paper as
it is carried forward by the delivering rollers, and thereby keeps the sheet up
against the tapes above the pile of printed sheets. The blast issues from
holes made in a pipe extending across the machine and is intermittent, that
is, it only acts at the proper moment, or while the sheet is being delivered
from the machine, and for so long a time as will be necessary to carry the
sheet forward until it comes above the pile of printed sheets. The blast then
suddenly stops and the fly frame comes down and deposits the newly-printed
sheet on the pile.

page_text: Another mode of producing the blast is by means of a kind of bellows in
connection with a perforated tube. To the moveable part of the bellows is
attached an arm or lever, which is acted on by a tappet mounted on the axle
of one of the impression cylinders, or on a wheel actuated thereby, so that
every time the tappet comes round it will act on the arm of the bellows and
thereby produce a blast from the perforated pipe. The moveable part of the
bellows is brought back to the normal position by means of a spring, so as to
be ready again to be acted on by the tappet. The bellows may, however, be
worked from any convenient part of the mechanism; but as the blast is
required to be intermittent the arrangement above referred to will probably
be, under ordinary circumstances, the most convenient,
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 is a diagram representing the arrange-
ment of parts I propose to employ for adapting the present Invention to a
perfecting machine, in which two sets of impression cylinders and two rolls of
paper to be printed are employed.
As the present Invention is an improvement or modification of the cylinder
printing machines invented by Mr. Richard March Hoe, of New York, and
for which I have obtained several Letters Patent in this country, I would
remark that the type cylinders, inking rollers, and apparatus, and the impres
sion cylinders, with their fingers for carrying in the sheets to be printed,
together with the vibrating fly frame, are precisely similar in construction and
operation to those heretofore made by the said Mr, Richard March Hoe, of
New York, and which are well known and in use here. In order, therefore,
to avoid complexity in the Drawing, I have not shewn the mechanism for
actuating such parts, as they are well known and constitute no part of the
present Invention.
In the Diagram, Fig. 1, A, A*, are the large cylinders on which the
curved forms of type are secured in the manner adopted in Hoe's cylinder
printing machines. B, B, and B*, B*, are the impression cylinders provided
with fingers or nippers for taking the sheets of paper and bringing them in
succession in contact with the printing surface of the type in the usual
manner; C is the ink fountain, and C, C', the inking or distributing rollers,
all of which parts are constructed and worked in the usual manner; D and D*
are rollers on which are wound rolls of paper of considerable length, and from
which sheets of the proper size are cut off in succession by means of the
cutting or dividing apparatus, which consists mainly of a thin steel blade with
a serrated edge, as shewn in the detached view, Fig. 2, which represents a
portion of the blade broken off. This serrated blade may be made to work
either in a slot cut in a table over which the paper to be printed is drawn

page_text: from the roll D, as before described, or it may be adapted to a pair of
drawing-off rollers E, E¹, as shewn in the Drawing; these drawing-off rollers
are shewn detached in end elevation at Fig. 3. The upper one E of these
drawing-off rollers has a long slot made longitudinally along it to receive the
serrated knife a of the lower roller E¹, which is shewn in longitudinal section
at Fig. 4. The edges of the longitudinal slot in the upper roller E are
provided with elastic lips b, b, made, by preference, of vulcanized india-rubber.
and these lips are made to press on the lower roller whenever they come in
contact therewith. The axles of the rollers E, E¹, carry toothed wheels of
equal size and number of teeth, and as these wheels gear into each other the
two rollers work in unison, and the lips b, b, are always brought over the same
part of the lower roller which it will be seen is slotted in the same manner as
the other for the purpose of receiving the serrated blade a, which is secured
between two clamping bars or holders whereby it is carried. This bar is
provided with lugs whereby it is secured to a round rod c, Fig. 4, which is sup-
ported at its ends in links d, d, whereby it is connected to the ends of lever
arms e, e, mounted on studs e¹ inside the roller or cylinder E¹. The studs e¹
also carry tappet arms f, Fig. 3, the outer ends of which project beyond the
periphery of the roller or cylinder E¹, so that as the latter rotates, the tappet
arm f may be brought in contact with and forced back by a block or tappet g,
which may be fixed to any convenient part of the framework of the machine.
By thus forcing down or back the tappet lever f, the lever e, links d, rod c,
and serrated blade a will be suddenly forced up through the slot made in the
roller E, as shewn at Figs. 3 and 4, and as the paper will have been drawn
forward over the slot, and will be held by the elastic lips b, b, of the upper
roller above the serrated edge of the blade a, it will be perforated right across,
aud the piece so partially divided may then be easily detached from the long
length on the roller D. The serrated blade a, it will be seen, is suddenly
forced up by the tappet g, and is made to perforate the paper, but immediately
the lever f escapes from the tappet g, the spring h will pull back the serrated
away from the paper, which may then be carried forward by the rollers
and tapes F, F, until its forward edge is brought up against the register
pins i, i, on the table h' precisely as in Hoe's cylinder machine, aleady referred
to. The sheet will remain there until the nippers or fingers of the upper
impression cylinder B come round and take it away in the usual manner, and
carry it round into contact with the surface of the type on the large cylinder A.
From the first impression cylinder B the sheet printed on one side is carried
round to the second impression cylinder B*, the nippers or fingers of which
will take hold of it and carry it round in the direction of the arrow, so that
blade

page_text: the unprinted side of the sheet will be presented to the type or printing
surface of the cylinder A*. The sheet printed on both sides will be carried
round by the impression cylinder B* until its nippers or fingers come against a
rotating shaft j, which is mounted in bearings in a lever, so that it may be
raised up out of the way when the sheet goes in, and is brought down at every
alternate revolution of the cylinder B*, so that it may open the nippers and
release the sheet. The shaft j is also provided with a row of stiff bristles,
which as the shaft rotates will come under the edge of the sheet, and lift it
up into the nip of the delivering rollers and tapes G. The sheet is carried
forward by the rollers under the tapes and also under the arms of the fly
frame H, against which it is supported by a strong blast of air issuing from
perforations in the pipe I, which is supplied with a blast of air under pressure
by any of the plans herein-before referred to. When the printed sheet has
been carried forward to its proper place, the fly frame H comes into action
in the ordinary manner, and deposits the sheet on the pile J, the blast of air
issuing from the pipe I having been suddenly arrested while the fly frame is
in action. It may sometimes be found advantageous and convenient to give a
slight endway motion to the serrated blade a when it rises to perforate the
paper; should this be considered desirable, it may be effected in the manner
shewn in Fig. 4. To this end wedge-shape blocks k, k, are cast on or other-
These blocks are
wise secured to the clamping bar of the serrated blade a.
made to bear against corresponding blocks 1, 1, with inclined surfaces fixed to
the arms of the roller E¹; and it will be seen that as the serrated blade a is
moved up by the action of the tappet g, Fig, 3, a slight endway motion will
be given to it, and will make the teeth of the serrated blade cut through the
paper entirely, and not partially, as would be the case if the blade had only a
simple vertical motion given to it. This endway motion of the serrated blade
may be produced in various other ways; I do not, therefore, mean to contine
myself to the plan shewn and described.
It will be evident that some of these improvements may be adapted to
other printing machinery besides that above described; I therefore wish to
reserve to myself the right to adapt such improvements to other printing
machines in which the type is arranged on a curved surface. It will be
obvious, for instance, that feeding-in paper from a long roll from which sheets
sheets are cut off by a reciprocating or vibrating serrated knife or other suitable
cutting instrument acting at the proper moment may be adapted to machines
It will also be obvious that
in which the paper is printed on only one side.
the mode above referred to of delivering the printed sheet, and depositing it
on a pile by a combination of travelling tapes with a fly frame and an inter-

page_text: mittent blast of air for holding up the paper may be adapted to other printing
machinery.
Having now described the Invention of improvements in printing machinery,
which has been communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, and
having explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I claim as the
Invention secured to me by Letters Patent, as aforesaid, the combination with
two type cylinders A, A*, and two impression cylinders B, B*, of a long
length or roll of paper D from which pieces of suitable size for a printed sheet
are cut off or partially divided by a suitable cutting apparatus, as herein
described.
Second, I claim the use of the serrated blade a for the purpose herein set
forth, and the combination of the blade a with the lips b, b, whether adapted
to a perfecting machine or to a machine for printing on one side only of a
sheet.
Third, I claim the application of an intermittent blast of air issuing from
a perforated pipe, such as that shewn at I, or any other convenient source, for
the purpose herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Second day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.S.)