A NEW OR IMPROVED PRINTING FRAME FOR OBTAINING PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Henry Beck at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 17th May 1881. A communication
from abroad by Paul Piquepé, otherwise Morgan, of Paris, in the Republic of
France, Photographer.
WILLIAM HENRY BECK, of 139, Cannon Street, in the City of London,
Consulting Engineer and Patent Agent. "A NEW OR IMPROVED PRINTING FRAME
FOR OBTAINING PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS." [A communication from abroad by Paul
Piquepé, otherwise Morgan, of Paris, in the Republic of France, Photographer.]
The suppression of glass in photographic operations, specially for work outside
the study, is, as is well known a great desideratum.
My Invention consists, firstly, in the manufacture and arrangement in rolls of
sensitive paper (however prepared) intended for the production of photographic
prints or copies, which rolls are adapted to the mechanical frames hereafter
described. Secondly, in a special frame constructed in such manner that notwith-
standing the new adaptation thereto of the above mentioned rolls of sensitized
paper, it may be adapted to existing dark chambers without necessitating any
alteration in the material at present in use.
The new or improved printing frame consists of the following arrangements:-
The frame itself is made somewhat in the form of a box of sufficient depth to
receive a roller with the sensitive paper mounted on it, and to allow the said roll
of paper to turn freely therein. The front and back of the frame are provided
with sliding shutters or other suitable means of closing, so as to exclude light
therefrom when necessary. The frame is also furnished with a stretching board
which may be plane or slightly convex, over which the sensitized paper is stretched
by the action of a second roller on to which the said paper is wound after the
printing action has been effected upon it. This second roller may be caused to
rotate by the action of a spring or by hand as may be preferred. A guide roller
may also be interposed between the stretching board and the second above
mentioned roller. A piercing apparatus may be employed when desired, either
moved by hand or automatically, so arranged that when a certain length of the
sensitized paper has been subjected to the action of light, a row of perforations
shall be formed across the paper to facilitate its subsequent separation into the
required parts. The rollers may be provided with suitable crank handles to
facilitate their being turned as required.

page_text: It will now be understood that the roll of sensitized paper being placed upon
the first roller is with it put into the frame, and the free end being led over the
stretching board is carried over the guide roller to the second winding roller, and
is wound thereon as printed either by the automatic action of the spring or by
hand by means of the appropriate handle. When a sufficient quantity of paper is
printed, it is wound back off the second roller on to the first and the printed part
removed, after which the rest of the paper on the first roller may be printed on, or
a fresh supply of paper placed on it as may be required.
By means of these rollers, which may be made of any required size, six, twelve,
twenty-four, or more prints may be obtained in the same frame without opening
it, and without altering anything