AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PRODUCING DOCUMENTS SUITABLE FOR BANK NOTES AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS OF VALUE, IN ORDER TO PREVENT FORGERY THEREOF
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street, in
the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF PRODUCING DOCUMENTS SUITABLE FOR BANK NOTES AND OTHER
INSTRUMENTS OF VALUE, IN ORDER TO PREVENT FORGERY THEREOF."-A com-
munication from abroad by Leopold Eidlitz, of New York.
Sealed the 21st August 1860, and dated the 23rd February 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 23rd February 1860.
1, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PRODUCING DOCUMENTS SUITABLE FOR BANK NOTES AND
OTHER INSTRUMENTS OF VALUE, IN ORDER TO PREVENT FORGERY THEREOF," (com-
municated to me from abroad by Leopold Eidlitz, of New York), to be as
follows:-
This Invention consists of an improved method of making bank notes,
checks, drafts, and similar instruments for commercial or banking purposes,
whereby the reproducing of a note, check, or other instrument, shall not be
possible without at the same time making upon it an exhibition of the fact
that the reproduced note, check, or other instrument is a copy, and is not an
original. It consists in the employment of paper having an irregular surface,
as ornamental pressed paper, or of paper manufactured with a movable or
variable water-mark, and upon these marked portions of the paper some part
of the design, as the vignettes, words, or denominations is to be produced by
the photographic process, either directly or indirectly.

page_text: The Inventor employs any of the usual modes for the manufacture of paper
of a suitable quality for bank notes, checks, or other instruments, as the case
may be, except when he employs the following:-If hand made paper with
a variable or movable water-mark is to be employed, then, before the pulp
is spread upon the web or dipper, a metal water-mark is dropped upon the
web or dipper at various points at random, but so that when the sheet of
paper comes to be cut into four or six slips for the printing of notes, there
will be in each slip one water-mark, and also so that no two slips can
probably be found among all which may be thus manufactured in which the
water-marks will appear in the same position in relation to the fringed outline
or edges of the paper. On the slips of paper thus water-marked, or if
preferred, upon slips of ornamented pressed paper, the Inventor prints, by
means, either in whole or in part, of the photographic process, the vignettes,
words, and figures composing the bank note, check, draft, or other instrument
intended to be made.
If the photographic process is to be employed in connection with engraving
or printing, the Inventor takes first upon the slip of paper a photographic
impression of some changing object, a living person, for example, to take the
place of a vignette, as usually employed, and then upon the slip bearing this
photographic impression he prints or engraves, by the ordinary process, the
words, letters, or figures required to compose the bank note, check, draft, or
other instrument.
If the photographic process is to be employed alone, and without the aid of
printing or engraving, he prints or paints the words, letters, and figures com-
posing the bank note (or other instrument) upon a screen or other surface and
takes the photographic impression (a negative) of this screen in connection
with the subject selected for the vignette, placing the said subject in an aperture
cut in the screen or in front, or on the side of the same, or otherwise; bank
notes, checks, drafts, or other instruments thus made cannot be counterfeited,
because the photographed parts of the bank note cannot be imitated by
engraving, and because, if attempted to be imitated by the photographic process
the negative taken from the bank note produced as above described differs
from the original negative in showing in bold relief the water or pressed mark
used in the paper.
If the positive taken from such a negative be printed upon plain paper (that
is, paper which has neither the movable water-mark above described, nor the
pressed mark), the absence of a real water-mark or pressed mark will be
detected on the reversed side of the note or instrument, or when the note is
examined by transmitted light. If genuine paper is obtained and employed

page_text: still there will be both a real water-mark or pressed mark, and a photographic.
representation of a. water-mark or pressed mark, and the chances are in-.
numerable that these will not coincide, nor will the total effect, in case they
should in an isolated instance happen to coincide, be at all like that of a
genuine note.
The photographic devices may appear either on the surface of the paper or
below the surface, and within the body of the paper, and either of them may.
be produced by means already known. Upon the surface they may also be
made by printing from stones or plates prepared by the photographic process.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed'
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 23rd August 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent.
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the Twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others.
as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, 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 Inven-
tion for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PRODUCING DOCUMENTS SUITABLE FOR BANK NOTES
AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS OF VALUE, IN ORDER TO PREVENT FORGERY THEREOF,..
(communicated to me from abroad by Leopold Eidlitz, of New York), upon.
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman,.
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my or their
or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, 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 I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention consists of an improved method of making bank notes,
checks, drafts, and similar instruments for commercial or banking purposes,
whereby the reproducing of a note, check, or other instrument shall not be
possible without at the same time making upon it an exhibition of the fact
that the reproduced note, check, or other instrument is a copy and is not an
original. It consists in the employment of paper having an irregular surface
as ornamental pressed paper, or of paper manufactured with a movable or
variable water-mark, and upon these marked portions of the paper, some part
of the design, as the vignettes, words, or denominations, is to be produced by
the photographic process, either directly or indirectly.
The Inventor employs any of the usual modes for the manufacture of paper
of a suitable quality for bank notes, checks, or other instruments, as the case
may be; except the following:-If hand-made paper with a variable or movable
water-mark is to be employed, then, before the pulp is spread upon the web
or dipper, a metal water-mark is dropped upon the web or dipper at various
points at random, but so that when the sheet of paper comes to be cut into
four or six slips for the printing of notes there will be in each slip one water-
mark, and also so that no two slips can probably be found among all which
may be thus manufactured in which the water-marks will appear in the same
position in relation to the fringed outline or edges of the paper. On the slips
of paper thus water-marked, or, if preferred, upon slips of ornamented pressed
paper, the Inventor prints by means either in whole or in part of the photo-
graphic process, the vignettes, words and figures composing the bank note,
check, draft, or other instrument intended to be made.
If the photographic process is to be employed in connection with engraving
or printing, the Inventor takes first upon the slip of paper a photographic
impression of some changing object, a living person for example, to take the
place of a vignette, as usually employed, and then upon the slip bearing this
photographic impression, he prints or engraves by the ordinary process, the
words, letters, or figures required to compose the bank note, check, draft, or
other instrument.
If the photographic process is to be employed alone, and without the aid of
printing or engraving, he prints or paints the words, letters, and figures com-
posing the bank note (or other instrument) upon a screen or other surface, and
takes a photographic impression (a negative) of this screen in connection with

page_text: the subject selected for the vignette, placing the said subject in an aperture cut
in the screen or in front, or on the side of the same, or otherwise. Bank notes,
checks, drafts, or other instruments thus made cannot be counterfeited, because
the photographed parts of the bank note cannot be imitated by engraving, and
because, if attempted to be imitated by the photographic process the negative
taken from the bank note produced as above-described differs from the
original negative in showing in bold relief the water or pressed mark used in
the paper.
If the positive taken from such a negative be printed upon plain paper (that
is, paper which has neither the movable water-mark above-described, nor the
pressed mark) the absence of a real water-mark or pressed mark will be
detected on the reversed side of the note or instrument, or when the note is
examined by transmitted light. If genuine paper is obtained and employed,
still there will be both a real water-mark or pressed mark and a photographic
representation of a water-mark or pressed mark, and the chances are innume-
rable that these will not coincide, nor will the total effect, in case they should
in an isolated instance happen to coincide, be at all like that of a genuine
note.
The photographic devices may appear either on the surface of the paper or
below the surface and within the body of the paper, and either of them may
be produced by means already known. Upon the surface they may also be
made by printing from stones or plates prepared by the photographic process.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, the use or employ-
ment of the photographic process as a substitute, either wholly or in part, for
engraving or printing upon bank notes or other evidences of value, when such
use or employment is made in connection with a paper marked substantially
in the manner and for the purposes herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of August,
One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
R. A. BROOMAN. (L.S.)