Improvements in and connected with the Reproduction of Writing, Printing and the like, by the Röntgen Rays.
Year: 1898

page_text: Improvements in and connected with the Reproduction of Writing,
Printing and the like, by the Röntgen Rays.
I, GEORGES IZAMBARD, of 13, Rue Girardon, 13, at Paris, in France, Literary Man,
do hereby declare the nature of my invention for "The X-block-printing by means
of the X-rays," and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
I. PURPOSE OF THE INVENTION.
It is a new process for the simultaneous and instantaneous printing on both sides,
by means of the X rays, of numerous sheets (of sensitized paper) superposed in quires
or blocks (news papers, trade-papers, etc., whatever their size may be). It
purposes to obtain new results analogous to those obtained as yet through typographic
printing and other processes derived therefrom. It tends to suppress: firstly
composition, secondly striking off by the printing-machine.
1° It can suppress composition, it allows mere handwriting or any kind of
writing-machine to supply the place of the long, complicated and tiresome work of
associating and disassociating printing-types, (composition and distribution). This
will cause an economy of time and workmanship in as much as a small number of
workmen will be able to do more work in a few minutes than a large number in
several hours.
20 It can suppress striking off by the printing-machine: the operation of striking
off, in spite of the progress realized and the marvellous improvements press-machinery
has received, remains nevertheless very slow work, the sheets having to be printed
one by one. Nobody had yet come across the idea that a means might exist of
printing them all at the same time. This means it is to that, stating from the
known property of the X rays, I have endeavoured to find. I cause these rays to act
at one time on a block of sensitized paper or even on several blocks placed circularly
around the radiant centre, thence a new saving of time which the plainness of the
working-stock employed easily accounts for.
II. WHAT MEANS DOES THE PROCESS EMPLOY? THE RAY-PROOF INK, THE RAY-
PROOF DUST-THE TYPE-SCREEN.
The means thanks to which the X rays may be employed, I consider as the very
substance of my invention, it consists in a ray-proof substance, be it an ink or a
powder with which characters are to be traced upon a screen. This screen 1 call
"the type-screen." It consists of a sheet of paper, pasteboard, thin wood, leather or
tissue drawn over a frame-work. We place the screen between the radiant centre
and the block of sheets we wish to act upon at one time. The characters alone,
stopping the X rays on their way, will prevent their acting on the sensitive emulsion
spread over every sheet of the block, whereas the remainder of the screen being
of paper or wood will let the rays through as easily as a plate of glass would any
מ.

page_text: ordinary light. This type-screen here plays about the part of what is called in
photography a "phototype." In fact, the type-screen will let the X rays through
just as the plate or film of a phototype exposed in a framework will the white light
or day-light.
III. THE VARIOUS OPERATIONS. -ALL THE SHEETS FORMING A BLOCK IMPRESSED AT THE
SAME TIME. THE RAY-PROOF INK, THE TYPE-SCREEN.-PRINTED AND HAND-WRITING
REPRODUCED.
We take some photographic paper which an emulsion has sufficiently sensitized
(a gelatino-bromide emulsion for instance). This paper must be cut out into sheets
of an equal size which we will then superpose (the gelatinized side turned upwards)
in order to form a more or less voluminious quire. This block having to be exposed
to the X rays must be wrapped in black paper, in order that the day-light may not
affect it. Before operating, we place above the block as we would a screen, a sheet
of paper, card board or wood bearing characters of a metallic substance.
We can
strike out of a sheet of metal the full or hollow characters we want and stick then
on the screen in the desired order; but this would need much time and patience.
It will be better in order to simplify our task, to compose a page of typography by
means of ordinary printing types. We must ink this page and draw a proof of it on
the paper or tissue of the type-screen. Only, instead of smearing the inking-roller
with ordinary printing-ink (of which the Roentgen-rays would leave but insignificant
traces on the sensitized paper), we must have recourse to a special sort of ink, much
less pervious than this to X rays and which must therefore be composed in greater
part of metallic or calcareous ingredients. Thus, just as during the exposure the
white rays are intercepted by the shades of the phototype, so will the X rays be
during the radiographic process by the ray-proof ink, (I shall not speak here of the
composition of this ink, considering I give later on all necessary information
regarding as well the various manners of preparing it as the possibility of substituting
a likewise metallic or calcareous powder). We are equally free to fill up the page
with handwriting, to use the pen or the brush in order to reproduce autographs,
drawings, music, etc. We only have to dip our pen or pencil into the specially
prepared ink, and, as before, the type-screen, thus covered with ray-proof characters
or lines will give us after a few minutes or even a few seconds exposure to the X rays
as many proofs as there are sheets in the exposed block. The number of proofs
thus obtained (which must next be "developed" and "fixed") will be in proportion
to the time of exposure, to the thickness of the layer of ink as well as to the
radiographic "opacity" of this ink, to the thickness of the sensitized paper, to the
degree sensitiveness of the emulsion and above all to the combined strength of our
elements and induction coil and tubes, especially to the length of the spark given by
the Rühmkorff's coil.
OPTIONAL USE OF A WRITING-MACHINE.
But why should we take the trouble to compose when any writing machine will do
our work with an imcomparably greater speed? We need only smear the machine's
inking apparatus, be it a tympan or a roller with ray-proof ink to be able to draw in
a fews seconds an unlimited number of copies of the text which will have been
directly printed upon the type-screen. The idea we have had of using, instead of
metal-characters, a ray-proof ink, has alone rendered possible and even easy the
assistance of a writing-machine which until now would have been considered
totaly impracticable, because no other means of striking off was contemplated but
the press with which indeed the use of a writing machine is incompatible.

page_text: the block, the other not having been previously sensitized, and this with good
reason, for had it been otherwise all we should have printed on the obverse would
have more or less appeared on the reverse, but inverted as a drawing on transparent
paper would appear were we to look at it on the wrong side. This however can
be avoided, the sheets remaining nevertheless liable to be impressed on both sides an
even simultaneously to obtain this result, the lines on the odd page, instead of
coinciding with those of the even one, must on the contrary alternate with them,
the paper having been of course sensitized on both sides, not on its entire surface,
but by parallel stripes, alternating from one side to the other, the lines of the
obverse (sensitized) coinciding exactly with the space lines of the reverse (unsensi-
tized unterlines), and vice versa. In consequence, we must adopt a constant space
between the lines. This space may be as wide as the total height of the type, or
wider, but in no case narrower; or the tops and the feet of the letters would get
entangled thus producing a sort of "fulling."
To prepare the type-screen in order to print the sheets on both sides, we write
page 2 directly on the back and between the lines of page 1, or else we write page 2
on a separate sheet which we stick on the back of the other, being careful however
not to let the lines coincide. Likewise placing this double screen in front of the
block we wish to impress and which is still protected by its wrapper, we shall have to
take all necessary measures in order that the lines on the screen should coincide
exactly with the sensitized parts which are to be impressed.
FINAL OPERATIONS: AUTOMATIC DEVELOPING, FIXING AND RINSING.
I need not describe here the operations which consist in developing and fixing;
these will take place in the usual manner with use of the best adapted chemicals,
doses and methods. We must grant however that the time and care required to
develop, fix and rinse, as these operations are practiced in photography in order to
obtain fine proofs, may seem a hinderance in the present case. We must simplify
the work for the reproduction of a photographic page may be carried through with
care and taste without requiring nevertheless the refinement that a work of art, land-
scape or portrait would. I will therefore print out, should speed be sought for above
all, the simplifying means that can be adopted in developing and fixing.
In a room lighted with a red light, some large square vats will be prepared to
receive the impressed blocks as soon as they have been rid of their protection
wrappers. The bottom of these vats must be provided with taps to let the water run
out, while a movable double bottom consisting of a metallic trellis will render the
drainage easier. The developing and fixing liquids will at the right moment and in
the needed quantity flow into these vats through a system of pipes laid on the sides,
so as to supply a rotatory current. Other pipes will in the same way bring us the
water required as well for the intermediate as for the final rinsings. After the suit-
able immersion and the water having run out, the blocks may be allowed to remain
in the vats where they will drain through the metallic trellis; or else they may be
conveyed into a room heated to the purpose or even exposed to draughts of hot air.
Their drying may also be hastened by the immediate neighbourhood of quantities of
chloride of lime, which is known to absorb dampness very rapidly. We may let the
gelatino-bromidized paper drying on over or in front of a clear fire provided it has
been steeped before the rinsing in a solution of ordinary formol at 3% : the gelatine
becomes thus intirely insoluble.
No doubt that in some cases the very weight of the block may prevent the
developing and fixing liquids from penetrating entirely between the superposed
sheets. This inconvenience will be avoided if the sheets in the blocks are separated
one from another by sheets of blotting-paper. The draught-printing off by means of
the X rays as the subsequent bathing will not take us longer for this, as the block
can be prepared beforehand in the manner we mention. In this case however, they
will of course contain, half as much sensitized paper as before, their thickness

page_text: remaining the same, and the number of drawn-proofs will in consequence be smaller
by half.
PRINTING IN BLACK ON A WHITE GROUND.
The actually manufactured (gelatino-bromide) papers and other similars ones used
to reproduce phototypes give as is usually said a positive from a negative and vice
versu, which means that the portions of their surface reached by the light blacken.
If we make use of this sort of paper our sheets will be printed in white characters on
a black ground. Should we wish to obtain the opposite result, black characters on a
white ground, we must add to the developer some product known to "
upset" the
image. Such products are mentioned in all the most recent photographic treatises.
We might reach the same end by furnishing the writing-machine with hollow
characters (caracteres en creux) instead of full ones, (caracteres en relief). It would
then be the little square surface surrounding the letter that the ray-proof ink would
cover and transfer upon the screen. The result being a black impression on a white
ground obtained on both sides of the paper as easily as on one alone.
It is to be remarket that (to produce a negative on the type-screen, and conse-
quently a positive on the sheets composing the block), we can take advantage of the
well known properties of bichromated compounds (gum, gelatine or albumen), and
obtain thus with the help of photocollography and without loss of time the photo-
typographic " cliché " we require. For the radiographic ink we use being like
printing ink, a fatty substance, will adhere as the foriner would to the bichromated
parts of the sheet which will have been previously exposed to the sun. (See here
below).
THE
66
12
66
22
RADIOGRAPHIC OK X RAY-PROOF INK.
The composition of this ink will vary according to the use we wish to make
of it, but in all cases it may be composed in greater part of a very divided
metallic or calcareous powder in order that it may form with the other ingredients
a close mixture. To produce this powder we can use bronze or copper, white zinc
or white lead. For handwriting white lead in a solution of gum will be vere
suitable. The powder may be mixed preferably with boiled linseed oil, for the
writing machine or ordinary typography. White lead well ground down as it is
manufactured for painting purposes, will be found preferable. The various
compounds may also contain some alkaline bromide, like bromide of potassium
which oppose a pretty strong barrier to the X rays. I form there a weighty
claim regarding the appropriation of this ink to constitute what I call the type-
screen. There are two kinds of radiographic ink: one is fatty, the other non- fatty.
Besides, we may add, with either in several cases, a bichromatic mucilage. But
we need not do it always; not even with employ of the photocollography, as in the
following instance :
Let us prepare, instead of ordinary ink, a bichromatic mucilage (that has not been
previously exposed to the action of light) wherewith we write by means of a pen, or
wherewith we print by means of a type-writing machine. We roll thereupon an
ink-roller that is coated with fatty radiographic ink; therefore the letters, having not
taken the fatty radiographic coat, (by virtue of their preventive mucilage), remain
alone perineable to the X rays, whilst all the page is elsewhere impermeable. Here is
the requisite negative type-screen for the printing in black on a white ground.
ANOTHER WAY OF PROCEEDING; THE IMPERVIOUS POWDER EMPLOYED SEPARATELY.
One need not necessarily use a ready prepared ink or paste; but wet the pen, the
brush, the tympan, or padd or ball, or roller, or ribbon of a typewriting machine with
any unmetallized substance provided it be sufficiently gummy or sticky and do not
dry too quickly, say as a solution of gum, a varnish, or ordinary printing ink.
then print the type-screen, over which we next sprinkle the pulverised metal as we
might to powder ordinary ink in order it should dry quicker. The powder adhering
We

page_text: The proofs obtained with the type-writing machine will be almost faultless, pro-
vided we be sufficiently attentive. This is not the case with manual composition,
where mistakes are often made in distributing, letters often placed upside down in
the composing stick, etc. Nothing takes more time or is more wearisome than the
overrunning required to correct typographic proofs, not to speak of the delays that
may be consequent on a slip of a letter-packet, of a column or an entire page "fall-
ing into pie at the last moment. With the new process nothing of the kind is to
be feared. We scratch out on the screen the defective words and use the writing-
machine to write them over again, an operation which will leave no trace upon the
proofs. Is an intercalation necessary P We use a second sheet of paper upon which
we write the lines and paragraphs required to complete the text, even as the addi-
tional readings proceeding from the authors. The passages which are to be sup-
pressed or lenghtened having been previously cut out of the text with a pair of
scissors, we take advandtage of the inaking-up and stick the corrected passages in
the spaces left vacant for them. This will not require, as might be thought a minute
cutting-out; for, provided the additions be properly adjusted to the text of the proof,
a little more paper (than necessary for them to coincide exactly with the empty
spaces) may jut out without inconvenience, whereas all paper untouched by the ray-
proof ink remain absolutely permeable to the X rays.

page_text: Any sort of writing-machine, the inking-roller of which be provided with a
ray-proof ink, may serve to write on a single sheet ray-proof letters.
This single
sheet is placed as a screen between the X rays and a block of sensitized paper.
Thereof results a simultaneous and instantaneous print-impression on numerous
sheets, there remains to develop and to fix. Such is, in substance, my
"block-
printing-process."
This elementary combination suffers different readings, viz.
I) If we use an ordinary writing-machine, the characters of which are in rilievo, a
white text appears on a black ground, as would a negative proof. But if we furnish
the writing-inachine with characters in hollow, viz., if we reserve on the tip of the
keys a little metallic cube, wherein the letters are scooped, endeed the type-screen
is figured by a continued series of lines, and the lines by a series of little opaque
squares; each square in its middle contains a clear letter permeable to the X rays.
is really a negative, the final result, after the radiographic operation, will be positive
pages, aiz., a black text on a white ground.
It
II.) If we use, to prepare the type-screen, an uninetallized ordinary ink, provided
it be sufficiently gluish, it will suffice to sprinkle pulverised metal over the screen-
sheet. The inked places will become thereby quite impervious to the X rays.
III) If we use, to write on the type-screen, a bichromatized mucilage not
previously insolated, and thereupon set in motion an inking roller coated with
"fatty" radiographic ink, this fatty coating will adhere to the unwritten surface
of the page which becomes opaque, while the letters, not receiving this ink, remain
permeable to the X-rays. The text, as before, appears black on a white ground.
(III bis) Here again the metalline powder can be separately sprinkled on the
screen, and adhere to the unwritten surface, the letters excepted, which will remain
permeable, and appear black.
IV) If we use, for the blocks, a paper partially sensitized on both sides, viz. by
parallel allotments, alternated in order that the sensitized lines of the right page

page_text: coincide exactly with the non-sensitized interlines of the back page, our blocks are
thereby enabled to be impressed on both sides.
V) We are at liberty not to use one radiant centre alone, but may place suitably
several induction-tubes in front of oue same block, separating the tubes from each
other by metallic partitions. We shall thus print large-sized blocks and avoid
spherical aberration.
VI) We may, by virtue of our method, put in execution such and such an
appendant operation as, for example, the copying of sealed documents on sealed
blocks. There is the method with its different readings. Hereafter are the results.
The method gives us in general:
Not merely, as with current radiography, some negative phototypes on glass or
filin, requiring a subsequent drawing or insolating,
but even immediate
positives on paper, without subsequent drawing or insolating, these copies being
similar to those obtained by the printer's work, and as readable, as numerous, but rid
of typographic composition and press-machinery, and therefore more rapidly pro-
duced.
The method gives us in particular :
Not merely, as with current radiography, (a) drawn silhouettes of opaque bodies or
autographical writings, (b) in white strokes on a black grund, (c) on one side alone,
(d) on small-sized sheets,
but also (a) characters printed with the
writing-machine, (b) in black on a white ground, (c) on both sides, (d) on large-sized
sheets as used for news-papers and so forth.
The method is therefore a combination of various means, some of which are already
known, others, either entirely new, or renewed by partial improvements, but aim all
however at an entirely new result: "The simultaneous and instantaneous printing
of numerous sheets".
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of ny said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
or
1st. A general printing process, as condensed before in my recapitulation, it is a
new combination of various means; (viz. the writing-machine with a new inking
process and with optional change of metallics characters; a ray-proof ink
(optional) powder; a negative or positive type-screen, according to the optional con-
currence of photocollography; the X-rays; sensitized sheets superposed in blocks :)
by combining these means we aim at an entirely new result, to wit: The simultaneous
and instantaneous printing of numerous sheets.
2ly. The use, as in the above specification, of a writing-machine (with the above
said inking process), for realizing the radiographic type-screen, (negative or positive,
and for supplying the place of typographic composition which was indispensable
until now to obtain, (by means of press-machinery) any number of speedily printed
copies.
3ly. The appropriate improvement, applied by me to the writing-machine, in order
to realize a specially negative type-screen, in furnishing this writing machine with
characters in hollow instead of in rilievo ones.
4ly. Another means for realizing differently a negative type-screen with the help of
photocollography, viz., by using, to write on the type-screen, instead of ink, a
bichromated mucilaginous compound, (bichromatic gum, albumen or gelatine) not
previously insolated, in order that the letters be repugnant to the "fatty" ink-rolling,
(fatty radiographic ink), and so remain alone permeable to the X-rays.
5ly. The use of a type screen, as I bave peculiarly described it, (in order to facili-
tate the drawing by means of the X-rays), be it called type-screen or otherwise, be it
of paper, thin wood, tissue drawn over a frame, or any other material, provided it may,

page_text: by means of ray-proof ink or powder, serve as a stand for a printed text, with or
without the help of photocollography.
6ly. The special means I have pointed out of obtaining a simultaneous impression
on both sides, without this causing a confusion, the emulsion alternating on either
side in accordance of the alternate lines and interlines.
7ly. The special means I have pointed out of substituting the impermeable ink, (in
realizing the type-screen), by a powder not previously mixed with the liquid, but
spread over the freshly traced characters, in order to allow the use of any sort of
sufficiently gluey ink.
8ly. The use, for reproducing a page printed by writing-machine, of one or more
sensitized blocks exposed to the X-rays behind the type-screen, whereby all the sheets
in the blocks are at once impressed.
9ly. The special means I have pointed out of making easy the printing on a large-
sized block, avoiding the distorsion of letters, by using simultaneously several
induction tubes separated from each other by sufficiently thick metallic partitions.
10ly. The reproduction on sealed blocks of secret circulars printed by a writing-
machine, the envelopes of these circulars remaining likewise sealed.
Dated this and don of Mach 1900
GEORGES IZAMBARD.