IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING ORNAMENTAL OR OTHER DEVICES UPON EARTHENWARE ARTICLES, PIPE-CLAY' SQUARES, CLAY TOBACCO PIPES, AND OTHER TOBACCO PIPES, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR.
Year: 1878

page_text: "
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Liston at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 6th July 1878.
ALEXANDER LISTON, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Machinist. "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING ORNAMENTAL OR OTHER DEVICES UPON
EARTHENWARE ARTICLES, PIPE-CLAY' SQUARES, CLAY TOBACCO PIPES, AND OTHER
TOBACCO PIPES, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR.'
"
This Invention has for its object the printing ornamental or other devices upon
earthenware articles, "pipe-clay" squares, clay tobacco pipes, and other tobacco
pipes, in an improved and simplified manner.
In carrying out the Invention the ornamental or other device is formed upon
plates of rubber vulcanised, or a composition of glue and molasses, or other suitable-
elastic material, and the plates may be attached to suitable holders for fixing on the
periphery of a wheel or drum, or for use by hand.
The ink or coloring matter employed when printing or ornamenting earthenware
articles is a mixture of any suitable coloring matter with glycerin or molasses, and
The earthen-
it may be supplied to the printing plates in any convenient manner.
ware articles are printed by hand when in what is known as the "biscuit" form,
and after being printed they are put through a kiln and glazed.
According to one modification of the improved apparatus to be used for printing
ornamental devices upon the bowls of clay or other tobacco pipes, which are other-
wise finished, a drum or wheel for carrying the printing plates is keyed upon a
spindle carried in an eye formed in the lower part of a small vertical cast-iron
frame, and a hand wheel or grooved pully for a driving belt is fixed upon the other
end of the spindle at the opposite side of the frame. Another eye is formed at the
top of the vertical frame for a spindle, which at the side over the printing drum or
wheel is made adjustable as to length, and carries a plug or mould for fitting into
and holding the bowl of the tobacco pipe. The printing plates are attached to the
periphery of the printing drum or wheel with springs in any convenient manner so
as to be adjustable radially. The bowl of the tobacco pipe to be operated on is
placed on the plug or mould of the upper spindle, which is free to rotate, and as the
outer edge of the bowl of the tobacco pipe is in contact with the printing plates on

page_text: the wheel or drum the rotation of the latter causes the printing of the device upon
the pipe.
In another modification of the improved apparatus for printing the bowls of
tobacco pipes a vertical arm of a small cast-iron bed plate has fixed on its side a
small toothed wheel or pinion keyed upon a fixed horizontally projecting spindle,
which carries a wheel or grooved pulley free to revolve upon it. This wheel or
grooved pulley has an eye formed near its periphery for carrying a spindle, and this
spindle has fixed upon it a spur wheel, gearing with the small pinion on the vertical
arm of the frame, whilst the outer end of the spindle carries a small wheel upon
which the printing device is adjustably attached so as to project beyond the
periphery of the wheel. The bowl of the tobacco pipe to be operated on is placed
upon an adjustable movable plug or mould, carried at the outer end of the spindle
carrying the grooved pulley. The relative size of the spur wheel and pinion is as
2 to 1, and causes the printing plate upon the smaller wheel to make alternately a
revolution clear of and in contact with the bowl of the pipe. Inking rollers are
carried by the cast-iron frame in such a manner as to supply ink or coloring matter
to the printing plate, and the ink or coloring matter employed for printing upon
clay tobacco pipes, and other tobacco pipes, also upon "pipe-clay" squares, is by
preference a mixture of aniline coloring matter with glycerin.
For printing ornamental or other devices upon the stem of the tobacco pipe the
printing plate formed of rubber vulcanised, or a composition of glue and molasses,
is fixed upon a stand or table and the stem of the pipe is passed over it by hand.
The Invention is also applicable for printing ornamental or other devices upon the
"pipe-clay" squares in common use for domestic purposes, and the 'pipe-clay'
square after being dried in the usual manner is stamped by hand with the desired
device made upon plates of vulcanised rubber, or a composition of glue and molasses,
or other suitable elastic material.
11
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