IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING PRESSES OR MACHINES
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Gedge, of No. 4, Wellington Street,"
Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the In-
vention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING PRESSES OR MACHINES."—A
communication.
Sealed the 17th January 1853, and dated the 30th October 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Gedge at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 30th October 1852.
I, JOHN GEDOE, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING PRESSES OR MACHINES" to be as
follows:-
For carrying out these improvements I intend to alter the arrange-
ment of the printing machines in general use, (more particularly those
used in newspaper or other large printing establishments where great
celerity is required,) and to make my machine consist of two "pairs".
of cylinders, instead of two cylinders; one pair being employed in
printing one side of a sheet of paper, and the other pair perfecting or
printing the other side. I employ two pairs of cylinders in order that
may be enabled to divide cach form (printing form) into two parts,
making, when ready for use, four small forms. The sheet of paper is
I
passed by the tapes, &c. under the first and second cylinders, and one

page_text: side is printed; the sheet is then carried over by guides to the other
pair of cylinders, and the opposite side of the paper is by them and the
two forms under them printed; thus, it receives its impression from four
distinct forms by the action of four distinct cylinders. The object sought
to be attained by the Invention is, an increased rate of production
without increasing the speed of working the press or machine. The
subsidiary apparatus and arrangements will be fully explained in my
Final Specification; in the above I have only endeavoured to give a clear
statement of the principal new improvements and the objects for which
they are useful.
¡SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Gedge in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 29th April 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JOHN GEDGE, of No. 4, Wellington Street, Strand, in the County of
Middlesex, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of October, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in
the sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said John Gedge, Her especial
licence that I, the said John Gedge, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Gedge, my execu-
tors. 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, au Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN PRINTING PRESSES OR MACHINES," such Invention being a communi-
cation made to me, the said John Gedge, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I. the said John Gedge, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the sanie was to be per-

page_text: formed, and cause the same to be filed in the Office of the Commis-
sioners of Patents, within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE that I, the said John Gedge, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention so communicated to me, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be partially described and
ascertained in and by the following statement, reference being had to
the annexed Drawings, comprised in four skins of parchment here-
unto annexed, and having illustrative diagrams with letters of reference
marked thereon.
The distinguishing character and object of this Invention is, that by
the use of the improved machine herein-after described, the power is
obtained of producing a greater number of impressions on a sheet of
paper from a form of types (with or without wood or other engravings
encased therein) without increasing the speed or rate of movement
of the apparatus or machinery employed, or, in other words, without
increasing the speed at which the form of types passes under the
cylinder or cylinders (technically termed impression cylinders) which
give the impression. The great advantage, therefore, of the Invention,
compared with the present modes of borizontal cylindrical printing, lies
in the greatly increased power of producing a given number of printed
sheets of paper of a given size with cylinders of similar diameter, the
rate in both being the same.
.
As a rule applicable to printing from flat or horizontal surfaces, the
quantity of sheets that can be printed in a given time will bear some
proportion to the width of the sheet to be printed, or, what is the same
thing, to the width of the form of types; for example,―
Figure 1, shows the arrangement of a single and complete "form,"
composed of eight pages, for impressing one side of a sheet of paper.
The width of the form is measured from A, to C, say 31 inches; if the
form were equal only to 15 inches in width, b, to N, C, and the machine
constructed for the same width, the rate of printing with the same
power or means would considerably exceed that from a form of the
width of A, C, or 31 inches. If, therefore, an arrangement be devised,
admitting of the form Figure 1, being divided into two parts a, b, and

page_text: b,c, in such a way that a whole sheet of paper shall be printed on one side,
with each of the forms in succession, without removing the sheet of paper
from the machine, each form having its own impression cylinder, it
follows that such an increase in the rate of printing will be obtained as
though only a single small form were being worked; and by extending
the same arrangement to what may be called a duplicate of a single
machine, a sheet of paper may be printed on both sides before leaving the
machine. This duplicate arrangement is what I call the "multiple" per-
fecting machine;" a reference to the diagram, Figure 2, Sheet 1, shews the
arrangement of a multiple perfecting machine. F1, F2, F3, F4, are
the forms of type; F 1, and F2, are the two halves of the whole form,
Figure 1, to impress the sheet of paper on one side; F 3, and F 4, are
the halves of the other form, which impresses the other side of the sheet,
what is technically called perfecting it. D1, D2, D3, D4, are the im-
pression cylinders serving the forms F1, F2, F3, F4. A, B, are feed-
ing drums. A sheet of paper being alternately laid on to A, and B, is
taken by tapes to the impression cylinder D 1, when the latter half of one
side of a sheet of paper receives an impression from the form F 1; the
sheet then pass in the direction of the arrow over the roller E, to the
second impression cylinder D 2, when the fore part of the same side
of the sheet of paper is impressed with the form F2. At this stage of
the operation one side of the sheet of paper has received a completo
impression, and has now to be carried by tapes, in the direction of the
arrows, over the rollers G, H, to the feeding drum I, from whence it
passes to the impression cylinder D3, and D 4. It will now be remarked
the blank side of the sheet is downwards, and is impressed with the
forms F4, and F3, in succession, thus completing the impression ou
both sides of the sheet. The sheet is now technically termed perfected,
that is, perfectly printed on both sides; it is then carried by the delivery
tapes, and is delivered alternately into the receiving boxes R 1, and R 2.
In this diagram the impressions cylinders are shewn of about 16 inches
diameter.
The scale of the Figure being about a tenth of the original size,
each cylinder making one revolution for an impression, that part of
the circumference of the cylinder which does not come in contact with

page_text: the form being cut away to prevent contact with the form on its return.
Cylinders of half the diameter might be employed, with the usual
arrangement for lifting them to prevent contact with the return of the
form. The inking of the forms and distribution of the ink are similar
to the methods employed in other printing machines. Each of the
impression cylinders may be fitted with grippers to avoid the necessity
of long return tapes. It may be almost unnecessary to remark that a
single machine on the principle of this Invention corresponds in its
arrangements, with some small exceptions, to half of the multiple
perfecting machine.
Figures 3, Sheet 1, 4, Sheet 2, 5, Sheet 8, shew the arrangement of
a single machine for completely printing one side only of a sheet of
paper before leaving the machine. It may here be remarked that, to
increase the rate of printing or the number of printed sheets in a given
time, the division of a form into two balves has before been employed,
but in this case each half has been either printed by separate machines
or with half sheets of paper, or the half forms have been worked
alternately by the same machine.
In my new machines both halves of one or two forms are at work.
in the same machine and at the same time, and the sheet of paper after
entering the machine leaves it completely printed on one or both sides,
according as the machine is single or double. To proceed with the
description of the single machine-A, B, are the feeding drums; the
sheet to be printed enters between the drums, and is carried, as before,
to the impression cylinder D, to receive the first half of an impression
from the half form F 1; it is then carried in the direction of the arrows
over the roller E1, E2, to the other impression cylinder D 2, when it
receives a second impression from the other half form F, completing the
impression on one side of the sheet. The sheet is then carried by tapes
on the roller 8, by tapes, to the delivering boards R 1, and R 2, when
the sheets are delivered alternately by this arrangement.
Having now described the Invention of a multiple and perfecting
machine," and all the arrangements by which such machine is made to
perform its functions, I expect it to be clearly understood that although
a full description is given, and diagrams elaborately illustrating the said

page_text: machine and the parts thereof, as well as the divided forms which are
necessary to the purposes of this Invention, it is not my intention to
confine myself to the precise details given or shewn, as the arrangements
may be considerably varied in their details without in anywise departing
from the principle of the Invention, which is entirely new in what is
termed letter press printing, and which principle 1 designate
following claims: --
the
Firstly, I clain the principle of printing with an horizontal machine
from a form of types (it has hitherto been the practice to print there-
from by or at one impression) into two or more parts, using an
impression cylinder for each part into which each form shal! be
divided, with such arrangements, as described, that a sheet of paper
shall be completely printed or impressed on one or both sides thereof
by the cylinders acting in rotation upon their own relative and
individual parts of the complete form previous to such sheet of paper
leaving the machine.
Secondly, I claim the combination of parts, as arranged, for passing
or guiding the sheets of paper by which the feeding drums are made to
drive each other, with or without an intermediate wheel, directly geared
with the impression cylinder, the laying on boards facing each other,
and the means by which the sheets of paper are are guided from each
laying in board so as to pass directly into the same pair of tapes and
between the two feeding drums.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Gedge, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of April, in the
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
year
Witness,
FELIX P. ROVERE,
8, Cambridge Villas,
Fulham.
JOHN GEDGE. (1.8.)