Printing Representations of Fabric Surfaces.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 23rd Aug., 1898-Accepted, 24th Sept., 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Printing Representations of Fabric Surfaces.
A communication from ALEXANDER BELLEMERE SHERWOOD, Manufacturer, of
118, Harrison Street, Chicago, in the State of Illinois, United States of
America.
I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT, of 111, Hatton Garden, in the County of Middlesex,
Chartered Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this invention. and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to the art of reproducing upon sheets or webs of paper,
or other surfaces capable of being printed upon, surface patterns or designs
peculiar to woven fabrics, and produced by relief effects in the weaving, in con-
tradistinction to patterns formed by mere variations of colour in the thread. The
object is to provide an improved method of printing, upon paper and other sur-
faces, light and shade surface designs or patterns in imitation of the surface appear-
ance of woven fabrics whereby the representation shall be particularly realistic
in appearance and be produced at comparatively low cost.
There is a surface appearance to all woven fabrics, irrespective of any variations
of colour, which is peculiarly distinctive, and hitherto fabrics have been employed
for decorating in numerous instances where the surface appearance alone was
the end sought and not, especially at least, strength or durability of texture.
Attempts have hitherto been made to print upon paper imitations of the surface
appearance of canvas, for instance, for decorative uses, the printing being done
from engraved or moulded surfaces, prepared at comparatively great expense,
which effect at the best but indifferent results.
This invention consists in reproducing upon a web or sheet of paper or other
suitable surface, the surface appearance of a woven fabric, by providing a fabric
woven with the pattern or design to be produced, covering the surface of the
fabric itself with ink of desired colour, and then impressing the inked surface
upon the paper etc.
In carrying out this invention, as it is preferred to practice it in printing upon
paper, the fabric to be reproduced is fastened upon the cylinder or bed of a print-
ing press, to afford the printing surface, and the press is operated to ink the fabric
and feed the paper thereto in the usual way to receive the impression directly from
the inked surface of the fabric. When the fabric is sufficiently coarse and the
paper sufficiently thin the latter is embossed with the design as well as printed
therewith.
The drawing shows a pattern or design printed from watered silk.
By employing paper suitably tinted or coloured to represent the ground colour
of the design and then printing from the fabric upon the ground colour with a
more or less contrasting shade of ink of the same or another colour, singularly
realistic effects, as of watered silk, for example, may be obtained which cannot,
at least without very close inspection, be distinguished from the surface of watered
Bill itself

page_text: The invention is not to be limited to the use of any particular mechanism for
carrying it out; nor to printing directly from the fabric upon the surface which
is to preserve the design, as a press may be employed, for example, wherein the
fabric will print upon a transfer surface, and the design thereby reprinted or
transferred to the paper or other surface to be decorated. The word "ink" is
to be understood as including any other suitable colouring agent.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion (as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent) and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is:
1. A paper or other surface having printed thereon the representation of a fabric
produced by an impression taken from the inked surface of the fabric represented.
2. A paper or other surface having printed and embossed thereon the repre-
sentation of a fabric produced by an impression taken from the inked surface of
the fabric represented.
3. Producing a pattern or design upon a paper or other surface by covering one
side of a sheet of fabric woven with the design to be produced with ink of the
desired colour, and then impressing the inked side of the fabric upon the said
surface.
1
4. Reproducing a design or pattern upon a flexible material, by securing a sheet
of fabric woven with the design to be reproduced upon the cylinder or bed of a
printing press covering one side of such fabric with ink of desired colour and then
impressing the inked fabric upon the flexible material substantially as described.
5. Producing an embossed and printed pattern or design upon a sheet or web
of paper or other flexible material by covering one side of a sheet of fabric woven
with the design to be produced with ink of desired colour and then impressing the
inked fabric upon the paper or the like with force sufficient to emboss as well as
print the pattern or design upon the latter.
Dated this 23rd day of August 1898.
BOULT & WADE,
Agents for the Applicant.