IMPROVE. MENTS IN REPRODUCING OR PRODUCING COPIES OP WRITINGS, DRAWINGS, MUSIC, AND OTHER CHARACTERS, AND IN PREPARING ORIGINALS TO BE TRANS- MITTED BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVE.
MENTS IN REPRODUCING OR PRODUCING COPIES OP WRITINGS, DRAWINGS,
MUSIC, AND OTHER CHARACTERS, AND IN PREPARING ORIGINALS TO BE TRANS-
MITTED BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH."-A communication from abroad by
Jacques Paul Lambrigot, of Paris, France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 27th May 1865.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for IMPROVEMENTS IN REPRODUCING OR PRODUCING COPIES OF WRITINGS.
DRAWINGS, MUSIC, AND OTHER CHARACTERS, AND IN PREPARING ORIGINALS TO BE
TRANSMITTED BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of an electro-chemical process for the double re-
production of writings, drawings, music, and other characters, and for pre-
paring originals to be transmitted in fac-simile by electric telegraph. I
proceed to describe the several operations which constitute this process.

page_text: First. Preparation of a Metallic Paper.-Upon a sheet of ordinary paper
I apply by a roller or pressure a thin sheet of tin, coated with paste for affixing
it. When these two sheets have been well affixed to each other, and the paste
is dry, place them to be pressed or glazed on a steel plate, the polished side of
which has been grained by grinding,or by glass or emery paper, or by sand, or
otherwise. The side of tin is applied on the grained surface of the steel plate,
and I pass the sheet and the plate in this position between rolls or otherwise,
so that the tin may be grained identically to the graining on the steel plate.
The tin is thus better fitted to receive the bodies which are to be deposited
thereon. By the aid of this grained tin paper, or by any other metallic
oxidable sheet similarly prepared, I continue the following operations.
Second. Chemical Preparations and First Reproduction on Ordinary
Paper. I spread on the metallic surface of the tin paper a thin layer of
essential oil, such as turpentine or petroleum, capable of resisting the biting
action of acids. I wipe with linen until dry, then I apply thereon a sheet
of white paper, which has remained several hours in a bath composed of
about 100 parts of distilled water, 100 parts of azotate of ammonia, 2
parts of yellow prussiate of potass, and 25 parts of dextrine. I dry this
sheet of paper as much as possible with a linen cloth, so that it may have
great adherence to the metal, and be without folds or tears, and I put the
tin sheet in metallic communication with the negative pole of a voltaic pile,
while the positive electrode terminates in a movable iron needle, by means of
which I obtain by its contact with the chemically prepared white paper, and by
employing it as an ordinary pencil, blue marks of the writing, drawing, or other
character, in consequence of the passage of the electric current and the
formation of double cyanide of iron, which is the prussian blue used in some
electro-chemical telegraphs.
Third. Second Reproduction on Metal.
Treatment of the Oxidised
Metallic Sheet by Electricity.-When writings, drawings, or other characters
have been thus traced either mechanically or by hand on a chemical sheet,
prepared as before explained, I separate this sheet from the sheet of grained
tin paper, which leaves no apparent trace of the characters, and I treat the
metal in the following manner, in order to render visible the double repro-
duction of the characters which exist in the state of oxide, and also to make
ametallic original capable of being transmitted telegraphically by telegraphic
apparatus. I place the electrised tin sheet in a frame to keep it straight, and
throw upon the metal a decoction of nut galls, or other vegetable acid, into
which a few drops of azotic acid have been previously poured. By degrees
there is formed on the metal in relief a very apparent whitish product, which

page_text: forms exactly the same marks as the blue marks on the chemical paper,
which has been separated from it. The tin sheet after being well drained is
placed on a heated semi-cylindrical iron plate which desiccates the nascent
product and fixes it to the metal.
Fourth. Analysis.-The body which has been thus formed is due to the
following electro-chemical phenomena. The voltaic current in traversing the
sheet of paper, impregnated with a saline or alkaline solution, causes the
separation of part of the elements of the water in the solution; the oxygen
alters the tin or other oxidable metallic sheet at all points of contact of the
iron or platinum needle, and the oxidation is the more energetic as it is
produced in the presence of salts, say oxide of tin, treated by azotic acid,
diluted with water. It is rapidly converted into stannic acid or stannate of
binoxide of tin, a product of yellowish white, a bad conductor of electricity,
and the adherence of which to the tin is rendered sufficient by the addition of
gali water, which precipitates it and fixes it to the metal when desiccation takes
place on the heated iron plate.
Fifth. Reproduction in Colors of the Characters Traced on the Metallic
Sheet. To blacken or tint the characters produced as before explained on
the metallic sheet, it is sufficient to throw over the sheet a solution of sulphate
of iron, or fatty varnish, or even ordinary ink, which colors the deposit with-
out leaving any trace on the metallic ground.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Archibald Broomau in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 27th November 1865.
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-seventh day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth 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

page_text: 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN RE-PRODUCING OR PRODUCING COPIES OF WRITINGS,
DRAWINGS, MUSIC, AND OTHER CHARACTERS, AND IN PREPARING ORIGINALS TO BE
TRANSMITTED BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH," (communicated to me from abroad by
Jacques Paul Lambrigot, of Paris, France,) upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors or ad-
ministrators, 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 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.
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 electro-chemical process for the double
reproduction of writings, drawings, music, and other characters, and for
preparing originals to be transinitted in fac-simile by electric telegraph. I
proceed to describe the several operations which constitute this process.
First. Preparation of a Metallic Paper.-Upon a sheet of ordinary paper
I apply by a roller or pressure a thin sheet of tin, coated with paste
for
affixing it. When these two sheets have been well affixed to each other, and the
paste is dry, I place them to be pressed or glazed on a steel plate, the polished
side of which has been grained by grinding, or by glass or emery paper, or by
sand, or otherwise. The side of tin is applied on the grained surface of the
steel plate, and I pass the sheet & the plate in this position between rolls
and otherwise, so that the tin may be grained identically to the graining on
the steel plate. The tin is thus better fitted to receive the bodies which are
to be deposited thereon. By the aid of this grained tin paper or by any
other metallic oxidable sheet similarly prepared I continue the following
operations.
Second. Chemical Preparationsand First Reproduction on Ordinary Paper.
-I spread on the metallic surface of the tin paper a thin layer of essential oil,
such as turpentine or petroleum, capable of resisting the biting action of acids.
I wipe with linen until dry, then I apply thereon a sheet of white paper, which
has remained several hours in a bath composed of about 100 parts of dis-
tilled water, 100 parts of azotate of ammonia, 2 parts of yellow prussiate

page_text: of potass, and 25 parts of dextrine. I dry this sheet of paper as much as
possible with a linen cloth, so that it may have great adherence to the metal
and be without folds or tears, and I put the tin sheet in metallic communica
tion with the negative pole of a voltaic pile, while the positive electrode
terminates in a movable iron needle, by means of which I obtain by its contact
with the chemically prepared white paper, and by employing it as an ordinary
pencil, blue marks of the writing, drawing, or other character, in consequence
of the passage of the electric current, and the formation of double cyanide
of iron, which is the prussian blue used in some electro-chemical telegraphs.
Treatment of the Oxidized
Third. Second Reproduction on Metal.
Metallic Sheet by Electricity.-When writings, drawings, or other characters
have been thus traced, either mechanically or by a hand, on a chemical sheet,
prepared as before explained, I separate this sheet from the sheet of grained
tin paper, which leaves no apparent trace of the characters, and I treat the
metal in the following manner in order to render visible the double reproduction
of the characters which exist in the state of oxide, and also to make a metallic
original capable of being transmitted telegraphically by telegraphic apparatus.
I place the electrized tin sheet in a frame to keep it straight, and throw upon
the metal a decoction of nut galls, or other vegetable acid, into which a few
drops of azotic acid have been previously poured. By degrees there is formed
on the metal in relief a very apparent whitish product, which forms exactly
the same marks as the blue marks on the chemical paper which has been
separated from it. The tin sheet after being well drained is placed on a
heated semi-cylindrical iron plate which desiccates the nascent product and
fixes it to the metal. To give more solidity to this product, and in order that
it may be capable of bearing without being removed from the tin, the action
of a brush or rag, it is necessary to submit it to a bath composed of soda,
or ammonia, or an alkali and water.
Fourth. Analysis.-The body which has been thus formed is due to the
following electro-chemical phenomena. The voltaic current in traversing the
sheet of paper impregnated with a saline or alkaline solution causes the
separation of part of the elements of the water in the solution; the oxygen
alters the tin or other oxidable metallic sheet at all points of contact of
the iron or platinum needle, and the oxidation is the more energetic as it is
produced in the presence of salts, say oxide of tiu, treated by azotic acid
diluted with water. It is rapidly converted into stannic acid or stannate of
binoxide of tin,a product of a yellowish white, a bad conductor of electricity,
and the adherence of which to the tin is rendered sufficient by the addition of

page_text: gall water which precipitates it and fixes it to the metal when desiccation
takes place on the heated iron plate.
Fifth. Reproduction in Colors of the Characters Traced on the Metallic
Sheet. To blacken or tint the characters produced, as before explained, on
the metallic sheet it is sufficient to throw over the sheet a solution of sul-
phate of iron or fatty varnish, or even ordinary ink, which colors the deposit
without leaving any trace on the metallic ground.
I obtain especially a good black on the chemical characters by applying
the tin sheet on a plate of hot iron. Dampness may be kept up during the
contact. By degrees the characters become quite black.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of November, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
R. A. BROOMAN. (L.S.)