CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN BLOCK PRINTING
Year: 1828

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AUGUSTUS
APPLEGATH, of Crayford, in the County of Kent, Printer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth
did, by His Letters Patent under the Greal Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of January, One thousand eight
hundred and twenty-eight, in the eighth year of His reign, give and grant
unto me, the said Augustus Applegath, His especial licence that I, the
said Augustus Applegath, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, and such others
as I, the said Augustus Applegath, my exors, adñññors, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN BLOCK
PRINTING;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that
I, the said Augustus Applegath, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in His Majesty's High of Chancery with four calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,.
as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Augustus Applegath, do hereby describe the manner in which my said Inven-

page_text: tion is to be performed, by the following description thereof, (reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon (that is to say):-
manner.
Fig. 1 is a side view and elevation of an improved apparatus for printing
handkerchiefs, shawls, &c. with blocks having the patten cut or raised upon
them in the usual manner. Fig II. is a plan thereof; (A, A,) is a series
of flat surfaces or tables, made of stone, metal, or wood, or any other
convenient substance, corresponding in size and number with the hand-
kerchiefs, shawls, &c. in the piece of goods to be printed, and which are
fixed upon brick piers, or any other convenient supports, at the same
distance from each other as the width of the division or margin between
the handkerchiefs, &c. The blanket or printing cloth is turned down into
the spaces between the surfaces or tables, and retained there either by
nailing it to the pieces of wood at the top of the piers, or by rods of metal
passing into staples; it is also fastened at the sides by hooks in the usual
One end of the series of tables is furnished with small tenter
hooks (h) to hold one end of the piece of goods, the other end of the table
has a moveable bar (b), also furnished with hooks, to which the other end of
the piece of goods is attached; the moveable bar is then drawn so as to slightly
stretch the piece, and is secured by means of two cords passing through
staples fixed in the pier. B is a set of guide frames, made perfectly square,
corresponding in size and number with the tables, and connected with them by
the hinges (a, a). When the piece is fixed upon the tables the frame is shut
down upon it. The under side of the frame is furnished with small brass points
or pins, which enter the piece of goods, and prevent it from moving during the
printing; these pins are shewn by the dots. (C) is a block, which may be
made to print one quarter of the pattern; the sides of the block marked (S, S,)
are squared, and the pattern put on so as to join accurately. The color may
be applied to the block either by dipping it in a sieve, or by rollers, or in any
other convenient manner. The block is then laid so as to be in contact with
the corner of the frame, which contact forms the guide pitch or register for
the successive blocks. The block may then be either struck with the maul, or
pressure be communicated to it in any other convenient manner. The frame
and table, marked (1) in Fig. II., shews one impression of a block; (2) shews
two impressions; (3) shews three impressions, and the block laid ready to give
the fourth, and complete the pattern. The blocks for printing in the suc-
cessive colors or grounds are to be made and applied in the same manner.
When a centre object or medallion is required, which sometimes consists of
several colors, an inner frame (Fig. 111.) is used, in the manner shewn

page_text: in frame 7 (Fig. 2.) The medallion blocks (D) are laid in the corner of this
inner frame, which serves as the register guide or pitch for them. The frame
(5, Fig. II.,) shews a convenient form of block (E) for a border only, which is
laid successively to each corner of the frame, in the before-described manner.
In cases where the cloth is longer than the series of tables, the excess of cloth
may be taken into the spaces between the tables, and retained there by means
of rods of metal passing into staples, similar to stair-carpet rods, or the
rods may have weights attached to them when the cloth corresponds with
the size of the tables; they may be made without the spaces between them.
In using this apparatus, it is convenient that the color tubs or boxes should
be mounted upon a table or carriage furnished with wheels, in order that
the color seive or other furnishing apparatus may accompany the printer
as he proceeds along the tables, in the manner sometimes used in printing
floorcloths, and which moveable color stage or carriage I do not claim as part
of my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Augustus Applegath, hath hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of May, in the year of our
AUG (L.S.) APPLEGATH.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fourth day of May, in
the year of our Lord 1828, the aforesaid Augustus Applegath came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight.