IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR TYPOGRAPHICAL COMPOSING AND PRINTING
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Michael Henry at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd June
1869. A communication from abroad by Louis Henri Fontaine,
of 17, Boulevart Saint Martin, Paris, France.
I, MICHAEL HENRY, of 68, Fleet Street, in the City of London,
Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR TYPOGRAPHICAL COMPOSING
AND PRINTING," communicated to me from abroad by Louis Henri
Fontaine, of 17, Boulevart Saint Martin, Paris, France, to be as
follows:-
This Invention consists in a mode of and apparatus for composing
and printing by means of an arrangement similar in many respects to
the disc printing electric printing telegraph.
It must be understood that the object of this Invention is not to
obtain telegraphic dispatches, but to facilitate, expedite, and effect the
production of impressions for various typographical purposes. A re-
volving disc and preferably a dial bearing characters, symbols, or letters

page_text: Are used. The printing is enected by types impressed on a continuous
band of paper. It is preferred to use prepared autographic or transfer
paper and transfer ink and electricity or other power may be used the
motive agent.
In order that the Invention may be understood. I describe one
arrangement for carrying it into effect; supposing, for instance, elec-
tricity to be the motive agent, but I do not confine myself to the
mechanical details. On a spindle are mounted two discs, notched or
recessed on the periphery for the reception of the types and actuated
by a handle. Another plate carries a ring or socket in which a ring
turns, having notches to receive the handle. When the handle is in
a notch corresponding with any particular type that type will be
brought to a fixed point, as the handle is lowered the type presents
itself. The upper ring is moved to correspond with different founts.
It is held in position by a stop, the fixed point is under a hammer
actuated by an electro-magnet. (The mode of causing an appliance to
rise or fall by electro-magnetism is too well known to need description.)
When the hammer falls on types presented to the fixed point it causes the
type to slide in the notches of the plates, and presses it on a continuous
ribbon of paper fed from a roller, thus printing with the type thereon.
The hammer acts when the handle is depressed to the end of its strcke,
and returns to a state of rest when the handle rises, the type when
released from the hammer is forced up again by a spring.
• To accommodate the instrument for the spaces between the letters
and words and the unequal breadths of letters or characters the
following arrangements are used The paper is fed by a rod passing
through the spindle and connecting the handle with levers acting by
pawls on a toothed wheel on the axis of the paper roller, thus when the
handle is depressed to a certain extent it causes the wheel and roller to
move to a corresponding extent. Under the ring there are set screws
corresponding in number with the types, and so disposed that when any
one type comes under the hammer the handle strikes the corresponding
screw, the heights of which screws vary, thus causing the handle to be
depressed to an extent in inverse ratio to the height and according to
the size of the type. These screws also act on the hammer, being
mounted on a ring insulated from the other ring. One pole of a battery
communicates at one end with the handle, so that when the handle
is depressed into a notch and comes in contact with the screw the

page_text: current passes through the screw, the ring, and the electro-magnet,
causing the latter to act, and the hammer strikes the type. The wheel
on the paper roller axis has two sets of teeth, corresponding with the
respective breadths of the large and small letters, so that the lines
always begin and end exactly in due evenness of column. The position
of the roller is regulated for the spaces between the lines by shifting
it lengthwise. A break is formed by placing on the axis of the toothed
wheck an arm slightly depressed at cach motion of the cylinder, and
moving with it a lever and also a bell crank which carries a catch
engaging into teeth on the wheel and also acted on by a counterbalance
weight and a spring or equivalent contrivances, so that the catch
releases and holds the wheels alternately, thereby regulating the spaces.
The ink may be supplied by a pad and the printed matter transferred
to a lithographic stone, in order to print off the required number of
copics.