Improvements in the Production of Stamps or Printing Surfaces for Marking Piece Goods with Trade Marks and other Marks or Devices.
Year: 1886

page_text: Improvements in the Production of Stamps or Printing Surfaces
for Marking Piece Goods with Trade Marks and other Marks or
Devices.
I JAMES ARTHUR CUNDALL of Gloucester Road, Urmston, near Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Chromolithographic Artist and Designer, do hereby declare
the nature of this invention to be as follows
My said invention has reference to the means employed for marking piece goods
with trade marks or other designs,.marks or devices. The stamps, blocks and printing
surfaces at present in use for this purpose are produced in some instances for example
by metallic wire inserted into a wooden or other foundation and presenting the line of
the design in relief and in other cases such printing surfaces consist of a plate or roller
having the design in sunk lines on its surface. These and the other methods in use
are however laborious and costly. My invention consists in an adaptation for the
said purposes of what is known as the zinc block etching process, at present in use
among engravers chiefly for the purposes of book illustration, and by making use of
an adaptation of this process I am enabled to produce stamps and blocks in relief
which can be made much more quickly and at considerably less cost than those at
present in use while at the same time greater scope for artistic treatment is given than
is the case with the ordinary relief stamps. In carrying my invention into effect
I transfer the design in the ordinary manner from the stone to the face of
the zinc plate and treat the zinc plate in an acid bath until the lights of the
design have been removed by the acid to a suitable or sufficient depth. When the
zinc plate has been thus sufficiently etched and completed I secure it to a suitable
foundation and it is then ready for use. The foundation to which the etched plate is
secured may be flat or it may be curved or of any of the known forms of existing
stamps. If desired the plate might be bent round and secured to a roller, or the zine
might take the form of a roller instead of a plate the design being transferred by
suitable means to the circumference and etched thereon by the means described.
Dated this 10th day of November 1886.
DUTTON & FULTON,
1, St. James Square, Manchester,
Agents.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Production of Stamps or Printing Surfaces
for Marking Piece Goods with Trade Marks and other Marks or
Devices.
I JAMES ARTHUR CUNDALL of Gloucester Road, Urmston, near Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Chromolithographic Artist and Designer do hereby declare the
nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement, that is to
say:―
My said Invention has reference to the means employed for marking piece goods
with trade marks or other designs marks or devices. The stamps blocks and printing
surfaces at present in use for this purpose, are produced in some instances for example
by metallic wire inserted into a wooden or other foundation and presenting the lines
of the design in relief while in other cases such printing surfaces consist of a plate or
roller having the design in sunk lines on its surface. In the case of the wired blocks
the wire is fixed into the foundation so as to present the lines of the design in relief
this insertion of the wire involving a laborious and costly operation. Where printing
surfaces having the design in sunk lines are employed the production of the sunk lines
by the graver is also a protracted operation, and in both of the foregoing cases where
it is desired to have repetitions of the stamps each stamp has to be separately
produced at an equal expense of time and trouble.
My invention is intended to overcome these disadvantages and to produce stamps
of the indicated nature in an expeditious and economical manner. The invention
consists in an adaptation for the said purposes of what is known as the zinc block
etching process at present in use among engravers chiefly for the purposes of book
illustration, and by an adaptation of this process I am enabled to produce stamps and
blocks in relief which can be made much more quickly and at considerably less cost
than those at present in use, while at the same time greater freedom and scope for
artistic treatment is given than is the case with the ordinary relief stamps. Another
advantage obtained by my invention is that any number of repeat stamps may be
produced successively or simultaneously without requiring to redraw the design. In
carrying my invention into effect I draw the design to be reproduced as a stamp upon
a lithographic stone or upon transfer paper and transfer the design in the ordinary
and well known manner from the stone or transfer paper to the prepared face of the
zinc plate or block. The zinc plate is then prepared for the etching bath which
contains the acids to remove the zinc from between the lines. The plate having been
immersed in this bath is treated in the usual manner adopted in the zinc block etching
process until the spaces or "lights" between the lines of the design have been removed
by the acid to a sufficient depth. When the zinc plate or block has been thus
sufficiently etched and completed, I secure it to a suitable foundation and it is then
ready for use.
The foundation to-which-the-etched plate is secured may be flat or it

page_text: may be curved or of any of the known forms of existing stamps. If desired the plate
might be bent round and secured to a roller. Stamps produced in accordance with my
invention may be used alone or in conjunction with varying and removable combination
marks or devices.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I claim is :-
In the manufacture of stamps or printing surfaces for marking piece goods with
trade marks and other marks and devices producing such stamps or printing surfaces
by an adaptation of the zinc block etching process substantially as herein before set
forth.
DUTTON & FULTON,
1, St. James Square, Manchester,
Agents.