CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR ENGRAVING METALLIC CYLINDERS OR ROLLERS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Rigby, of Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Engraver, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR ENGRAVING METALLIC CYLINDERS OR ROLLERS
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Rigby at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 7th
April 1854.
I, WILLIAM RIGBY, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Engraver,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR ENGRAVING METALLIC CYLINDERS OR ROLLERS
EMPLOYED FOR PRINTING CALICO AND OTHER SURFACES" to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to machinery or apparatus for etching or engraving
upon metallic cylinders or rollers, and is equally adapted for making single or
multiplied copies of any required design. The principal features of novelty
consist, first, in the pattern or design to be engraved being fixed upon a bed,
the face or upper surface of such bed being an arc of a circle bearing a relative
proportion to the cylinder to be engraved upon; secondly, the tracer and its
carriage sliding laterally upon a lower rail of an iron framework, and having
free play within the said arc, such framework swinging or revolving upon an

page_text: axis in either direction at right angles to the lateral movement or lower bar,
and so situated that the distance of the centre of its axis may bear a relative
proportion between the circumference of the cylinder and the arc of the pattern
bed. Any number of etching or engraving points or tools may be fixed upon
a top bar running the whole length of the cylinder, and may be caused to
adapt themselves whilst in action on the surface of the cylinder to any straight
or curved line that may be followed by the tracer, which is connected with
them by means of wheels and bands of watch spring or other suitable gearing,
such gearing being suspended in the swinging frame. A treadle suspends the
etching points when not in action, and an endless screw and wheel at the side
of the frame serve to shift the position of the cylinder, if required.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Rigby in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 7th
October 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
RIGBY, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Engraver, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of April, One thousand eight hun-
dred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself,
Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said William Rigby,
Her especial license that I, the said William Rigby, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Rigby, 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR
APPARATUS FOR ENGRAVING METALLIC CYLINDERS OR ROLLERS EMPLOYED FOR PRINT-
ING CALICO AND OTHER SURFACES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said William Rigby, 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 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that 1, the said William Rigby, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
and accompanying Drawings (that is to say):-
My Invention relates to machinery or apparatus for etching or engraving
upon cylinders or rollers, and is an improved method of producing any figure
or repetitions of a figure upon the surface of a cylinder through a combination
of two motions; one in the direction of rotation, which I recommend being
given to the cylinder, and one in the direction of its length, which I recom-
mend being given to the tool or tools; and the novelty of my Invention con-
sists in the peculiar arrangement of the mechanism or apparatus, by means of
which both these motions are simultaneously effected, on the passing of a tracer
over an enlarged drawing of the figure, the tracer being affixed to a carriage
which travels upon a bar or rail connected with the cylinder, by arms attached
thereto in such way as to impart to it its rotatory motion; which carriage also,
in travelling along the said rail transmits a longitudinal motion to the tool or
tools through gearing attached to the rail, and intermediate between the
carriage and the tools.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, I will now explain
the mode of operating with the same, for which purpose I have attached to
these Presents a Sheet of Drawings, representing a convenient and effective
form or arrangement of the machine, made upon a scale of about two inches
to a foot, and having in the several Figures the same letters of reference
placed on similar parts of the machinery or apparatus. Fig. 1 represents a
transverse sectional clevation of a machine arranged according to my Inven-
tion; Fig. 2 exhibits a front elevation with the table or bed in section, thereby
more plainly shewing the tracer, &c.; Fig. 3 is a diagram, delineating a method
by which a plain or flat table or bed may be substituted for the circular or
concave bed (as shewn in Figs. 1 and 2), that being the more simple or
elementary form of the machine. a represents the cylinder to be operated
upon; and b, the bed or table, for the reception of the enlarged pattern or
original device. It will be observed, on reference to the accompanying Draw-
ings, that upon the tracer c being made to traverse in the direction of the arc
of the bed or table, it will, by means of its connection with the carriage h, the
rail d, and the connecting arms e, e, communicate part of a revolution to the
bar or axis f, and thence to the cylinder through the discs g, g, on which
the cylinder rests. The cylinder, being thus moved in a rotatory direction, will
receive from the tools in contact with it diminished copies of the transverse

page_text: line which may have been gone over by the tracer on the enlarged pattern or
device. It will also be observed, that the tracer c, being connected with the
carriage h, which travels along the rail d, will, in passing over a line running
longitudinally with the machine, communicate a partial revolution to the
wheel by means of the watch springs j, j, which pass under and over the
small wheels k, k, and are passed round or secured to the large wheel l.
The wheel is mounted on a vertical shaft m, carrying at its upper end a small
drum m*, round which passes the watch spring n, secured at each end to the
pieces o, o. These pieces are secured by bolts or screws to a sliding frame p,
which carries the upper or tool bar q which supports the graving, drilling, or
etching tools 7, 1, 1. It will now be scen that any motion of the large
wheel would be imparted to the drum m*, and by it through the watch
spring n to the sliding frame p and tool bar q, and consequently to the tools 1',
thereby transferring to the cylinder diminished copies of any line in a lateral
direction that may be gone over by the tracer. Having shewn the method by
which these two separate motions are obtained, it will be evident that the result
of the simultaneous action or compounding of the two motions, by passing the
tracer over any diagonal or curved line, will be the production of a diminished
copy of such diagonal or curved line by each of the tools. Upon the roller s
is a treadle, with vertical bar and appropriate leverage, by which the tools
may be brought in contact with the cylinder when required. t, t, are counter-
balance weights for the connecting arms, lower rail, &c.; d, and u, v, are a
worm and wheel, for the purpose of giving the roller an extra partial revolu-
tion, when it is required to engrave upon a different portion of the circumference
of the cylinder; and to effect a similar purpose in the longitudinal direction,
the tool bar may be made to shift in its sliding frame, with an adjusting screw
attached to it, by means of which any degree of exactitude in the setting of
the tools may be obtained. In the machine or apparatus, as shown in the
Drawings, the design executed on the cylinder would bear the same proportion
in size to the enlarged pattern on the bed or table that the small drum m*
bears to the large wheel 1, and the radius of the discs g, g, to the radius of the
circular bed; but by the adaptation of wheels and discs of different diameters,
any desired proportion between the pattern engraved and the enlarged pattern
may be adopted. In the foregoing illustrated description of my Invention it
will be observed that one of the motions is communicated to the roller and
the other to the tools, which arrangement I recommend as preferable to giving
both motions to the roller or both to the tools, but it is evident that the
Invention may be applied in either of these latter ways, if desired.

page_text: Having now particularly described my Invention, I wish it to be distinctly
understood that I claim as of my Invention, the peculiar arrangement of appa-
ratus, or such modification or variation thereof as shall be substantially similar
in effect for transmitting the motions of the tracer to the cylinder or to the
tools, or, as I recommend, to the cylinder and tools respectively, so as to produce
the figure or repetitions of the figure upon the cylinder as desired, and which
arrangement of mechanism is herein particularly described and set forth and
fully exhibited in the Drawings annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Rigby, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Sixth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
*זמזם
Ioniמוזזזז
LIAM
RIGBY
TAT TITVTCTCTT AL
(L.S.)