IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUSES FOR COLLECTING OR PICKING UP LETTERS, PAPERS, REQUIRING TO BE STAMPED OR PRINTED." OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Roger George Salter, of Alphington, in the County
of Devon, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUSES
FOR COLLECTING OR PICKING UP LETTERS, PAPERS,
REQUIRING TO BE STAMPED OR PRINTED."
OTHER ARTICLES
Sealed the 15th July 1859, and dated the 17th January 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Roger George Salter at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th January 1859.
I, ROGER GEORGE SALTER, of Alphington, in the County of Devon, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUSES FOR COLLECTING OR PICKING UP LETTERS. PAPERS, AND OTHER ARTICLES
REQUIRING TO BE STAMPED OR PRINTED," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in arranging a combination of apparatuses in the
manner hereafter explained for taking from an inclined feeding tray, and one
at a time, letters, papers, &c., inpressing any required stamp or imprint
thereon, and delivering them stamped from the machine. In the following
description, for brevity's sake, I propose only to speak of letters, but various
other articles may be subjected to and operated on by my apparatus.
I place the letters edgewise upon an inclined feeding tray or through, and
between or upon endless belts, which conduct them against the side of a
revolving cylinder containing on the inside one or several apparatuses for
exhausting air and perforations or apertures at intervals in the side. The
face of the cylinder carries stamps or dies, which are inked upon the re-
volution of the cylinder by contact with an inking roller. Over another part
of the cylinder is a pressure roller. The operation is as follows:-As soon as
Price 8d1

page_text: an aperture or series of holes comes opposite the feeding trough, one letter is
drawn by the exhaustion of the air inside the cylinder, and held against the
side of the cylinder and over the stamp or die which has been inked. The
cylinder continues to revolve with the letter adhering thereto, and carries it
under the pressure roller between the cylinderand roller, whereby the required
impression is made on the letter after passing from under the roller, the
suction made to bear on that particular letter ceases, and it falls dulystamped
Several letters are in course of being taken up stamped and delivered, and each
separately by the same apparatus and at the same time. Or the apparatus
may be arranged to operate only upon one letter at a time.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Roger George Salter in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
16th July 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROGER
GEORGE SALTER, of Alphington, in the County of Devon, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine,in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Roger George Salter, Her special licence that I, the said Roger George
Salter, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Roger George Salter, 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUSES FOR COLLECTING OR PICKING UP LETTERS, PAPERS, AND OTHER
ARTICLES REQUIRING TO BE STAMPED OR PRINTED," upon the condition (amongst
others) that. I, the said Roger George Salter, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly 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 Röger George Salter, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-

page_text: formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is to say:-
My Invention consists in arranging a combination of apparatuses, in the
manner hereafter explained; for taking from an inclined feeding tray, and one
at a time, letters, papers, &c., impressing any required stamp or imprint
thereon, and delivering them stamped from the machine. In the following
description, för brevity's sake, I propose only to speak of letters, but various
other articles may be subjected to and operated on by my apparatus.
I place the letters edgewise upon an inclined feeding tray or trough, and
between or upon endless belts, which conduct them against the side of a
revolving cylinder containing on the inside one or several apparatuses for
exhausting air and perforations or apertures at intervals in the side. The
face of the cylinder carries stamps or dies, which are inked upon the re-
volution of the cylinder by contact with an inking roller. Or any other
suitable arrangement of inking apparatus may be employed. Over another
part of the cylinder is a pressure roller. The operation is as follows:-As
soon as an aperture or series of holes comes opposite the feeding trough, one
letter is drawn by the exhaustion of the air inside the cylinder, and held
against the side of the cylinder and over the stamp or die which has been
inked, the cylinder continues to revolve with the letter adhering thereto, and
carries it under the pressure roller between the cylinder and roller, whereby
the required impression is made on the letter after passing from under the
r.ller, the suction made to bear on that particular letter ceases, and it falls
duly stamped. Several letters are in coure of being taken up stamped and
delivered, and each separately by the same apparatus and at the same time.
Ör the apparatus may be arranged to operate only upon one letter at a
time.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings shews in side elevation, partly in
section, so much of an apparatus for collecting or picking up letters, &c.
required to be stamped, as will be necessary to explain my Invention;
Figure 2 is an end view of the same; and Figure 3 is a side clevation of the
reverse side of the apparatus to that shewn at Figure 1.
+
A is a drum or revolving cylinder mounted upon a shaft B, working in
bearings formed in the frame of the machine. The revolving cylinder has a
number of bellows or apparatuses for exhausting air C, C, arranged round its
internal periphery; eight of these are shewn in the Drawings, but I do not
limit myself to any definite number. The interior of the bellows is placed in
communication with the exterior or concave surface of the cylinder by holes

page_text: a, a.
One end of the frame of the bellows has a rod b attached to it, which
carries a spring c working between abutments d, d¹, formed on or attached to
the rod b; e is a friction roller fitted to the abutment d'; D is a cam held by
a bracket or shaft not shewn in the Drawing, the action of which will be
hereafter fully described; E is an inclined feeding tray or trough, over and
around which endless straps or bands pass for carrying the letters, papers,&c.,
to be stamped. These straps pass round rollers f, f, which have rotary
motion communicated to them through a strap or straps g passing round
pulleys h,, to the main or driving shaft B. F, F, are receivers to receive the
letters from the feeding tray E; these receivers form part of the drum, and
consist of a case having two sides or projections x, x, against which the letters
rest and act in the following manner:-One end of the receiver F is jointed
or pivoted at i to the drum A (shewn clearly at Figure 3), the other end is
connected to a rod k jointed at k¹. and working through bearings l, l, fitted to
the side of the drum; G is a stationary cam of the shape shewn in the
Drawing, having a groove formed round it, in which groove the other end of
the rod slides, so that as the drum A revolves in the direction indicated by
the arrows, the trays F, F, will be drawn further from or pushed nearer to the
end of the tubes that communicate with the bellows, according to the positions
the rods,, occupy in the cam G; H is a brush attached to a rod extending
across the machine, between which brush and the drum the letters, &c., pass.
The drum A is driven by a winch handle; or fast and loose pulleys may be
employed driven by any prime mover. A cogged wheel I is keyed on one end
of the shaft B, which wheel gears into a pinion J on a shaft K, which carries
a roller L in which the dies or obliterating stamps 1, 1, 1, are fitted; springs
are placed in the roller L round the rods that carry the dies, &c., to cause the
dies to yield to packets of unequal thicknesses, and to regulate the pressure
thereon; m is a spur wheel on a shaft n gearing into the pinion J, the shaft n
carries an inking roller o, which the dies touch each time they pass it. The
spur wheel m gears into and drives another spur wheelp on a shaft q, which
carries a "ductor" roller r that revolves in a trough s, containing the ink
used for stamping with. The roller r in its revolution just touches the inking
roller o, and thus supplies it with ink. M is a platform to guide the letters
when released to a box N. An apparatus for registering the number of
letters, &c., that pass through the machine can be fitted to it, and be so
arranged that when there is no letter on the receiving tray F, the registering
rod passes
into the hole a, but when there is a letter there the resistance that
it offers causes the registering rod through other levers to work a ratchet
wheel and paul fitted in the interior of a dial.

page_text: The action of the machine is as follows:- I will describe the progress of
one letter through the machine. Motion is imparted to the apparatus when
as soon as the holes a,a,which communicate with the interior of the bellows C,
come opposite the receiving trough E; the spring at the back of the bellows
forces the abutment d into the recess formed in the cam G. This occasions a
sucking action, which draws one of the letters from the tray E on to the
mouth of the apertures that communicate with the interior of the bellows.
As the drum A continues its revolution the receiver is gradually caused to
advance nearer to the letter by the rod / sliding in the cam G. The letter
during its course passes beneath the brush H, which assists in keeping it
on the mouth of the bellows, and preserves the letter in a proper position to
be stamped. After the letter has passed the brush the registered rod descends
and just touches the letter either before or at about the same time that it
passes underneath the dies which have been previously inked by coming in
contact with the roller o. When the letter is about to be stamped, the rod k
has brought the receiver F flush with the holes or tubes that form a com-
munication with the letter and the interior of the bellows, and as soon as
the stamping has taken place, the letter falls by its own gravity on to the
platform M, and from thence to the box N.
Although I have described and shewn the machine for printing letters
only, yet it can be employed for printing other articles, such as newspapers,
bill-stamps, &c,
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,-
First, the application of apparatuses for exhausting air to apparatuses
for collecting or picking up letters, papers, and other articles to be stamped
or printed, as herein-before described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawings.
Second, the general arrangement of apparatuses herein-before described
and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Roger George Salter, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of July, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-nine.
ROGER GEORGE SALTER. (L.s.)