A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF PRODUCING STEREOTYPE NEWS PLATES
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Griffin, Printer, of Observer Office, Walsall, in the
County of Stafford, for the Invention of "A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF
PRODUCING STEREOTYPE NEWS PLATES."
Sealed the 7th February 1879, and dated the 15th August 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Griffin at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th August 1878.
८८
SAMUEL GRIFFIN, Printer, of Observer Office, Walsall, in the County of Stafford.
A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF PRODUCING STEREOTYPE NEWS PLATES."
Stereotype news plates at present are either cast in solid metal (which process
consumes a vast amount of type metal) or are cast on a block of wood so as to be
type high, which process renders the wood useless for use hereafter.
My new and improved method is to cast a thin plate of metal with a flange under-
hanging the plate, so that when locked up in forme it will rest on bases either of
wood or metal, and so when locked up in forme will cause the said flanged plate to
be securely fixed, and also the required height for printing. This method, it will be
seen, over the solid metal plates will save over four-fifths of the metal required in
their production, while over the plates cast on wood will save the wood so used in
their manufacture, as one set of bases in my new and improved method will last
time after time instead of having to be destroyed each time, as is the case by the
present method.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Samuel Griffin in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 14th February
1879.
SAMUEL GRIFFIN, Printer, of Observer Office, Walsall, in the County of Stafford.
"A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF PRODUCING STEREOTYPE NEWS PLATES."
Whereas newspaper stereotype columns are at present cast either in solid metal
of the required height of type, thus requiring a great body of type metal in their
manufacture, or are cast in a thin plate of metal and then mounted on wood to the
required height, thus requiring great labor in truly adjusting, besides rendering the
wood on which they are mounted useless after once using.
My new and improved method is to cast a thin plate of metal in such a shape as
it will save all such waste of wood or other material on which it may be mounted,
while at the same time it will form a solid plate when backed up in chase for
printing.
In Figure 1 of the Drawing I show my new and improved cast metal plate, one-
eighth more or less of an inch in thickness, marked A 1, with an underhanging
flange placed on two bases, which may either be made of metal, wood, or other
substance, marked A 2, placed in position ready for locking up and printing. It
will thus be seen that when pressure is applied on each side of the bases it will clip
the underhanging flange, and thus secure the plate.
In Figure 2 I show the plate with its underhanging flange, more particularly as
received from the foundry, marked A 1, just in the position of being placed on the
-bases A 2, which are always kept in hand ready for use.
As this underhanging flange may be cast in a variety of forms and shapes (see
Fig. 3 of Drawing, for another method, where a shaped plate B1 is so made that it
can be slid into a corresponding base B 2 made in one piece), so as to answer the
same purpose, provided the bases are made in corresponding form to receive the said
flanged or shaped plate. The Specification covers every and all such shapes and
forms of plates, which shall seek by corresponding bases, whether the latter be in
one or more pieces or whether the said shape of plate shall secure itself to the base
by either clipping or being slid into a corresponding groove in a specially prepared
base.
My method of taking the mould and casting this plate, especially the same as
employed in the ordinary method of stereotyping, with the exception of the casting
box, which has to be made to the pattern, whether as figure
or whatever other shape I may elect to make the plate.
ог
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Griffin, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Twelfth day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-nine.
S. GRIFFIN. (L.S.)