CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPARATUS AND MEANS OF FACILITATING DRAWING PROM NATURE OR MODELS
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANTIIONY
LORIMIER, of Clerkenwell Close, in the County of Middlesex, Bookbinder, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Third day of July (One thousand eight hundred and forty-
four), in the eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Anthony Lorimier, my exors,
adñiors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Anthony Lorimier, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns,
and such others as I, the said Anthony Lorimier, my exors, adiñiors, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times thereafter during the continuance of the term of years therein ex-
pressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that
part of Her said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called
England, Her Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in
the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all
Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPARATUS AND MEANS OF FACILITATING DRAWING PROM
NATURE OR MODELS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said Anthony Lorimier, to particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be

page_text: performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and to cause
the same to be enrolled in Ier said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being there-
unto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Anthony Lorimier, do hereby declare that the general nature and intention of
my said Invention consists in, or has reference to, the principles of construc-
tion and action, with the modes of arrangement of the mechanical parts, and
the several combinations and modifications. thereof, as hercin-after described,
applied to the forming and making, in a new and more efficacious manner
than heretofore the same has been done, an apparatus consisting of mechanical
and optical arrangements, by the application and use of which persons possess-
ing a moderate command of hand, as regards an artistic use of the pencil,
shall be enabled to trace or draw from nature or models any naturally fixed
and stationary object, or object which can be kept in a fixed or steady position
for a few minutes or so to obtain upon a tablet or medium the leading and
principal or elementary lines and points of the same, as that the operator may,
by means of such lines and points so obtained, be able to fill up and complete
the pictorial linear representation thereof. I declare that my mode of carrying
the aforesaid intention into practical effect is truly described and set forth in
and by the following Specification, with reference to its accompanying illustra-
tion Drawings, such Drawings being part of and belonging to the said Speci-
fication, that is to say:-
I take a flat sheet or plane of a fine, firm, and substantial paper, or made
of the materials of which paper is composed, or of parchment or vellum, or a
skin plate of rolled and flattened metal, and I pierce such sheet or plane with
numerous fine perforations or punctures, the perforations being in the measure of
their proximity from about two thousand to five thousand punctures in each square
inch more or less. Such punctured plane for this my herein-described purpose
may be of paper, of parchment, or of vellum, or of rolled and flattened metal as
aforesaid, or it may be a sheet of gunimed or stiffened taffeta or silk, a thin
sheet of gum, caoutchouc, or a tissue prepared with the same, or of any
material or substance of texture sufficiently firm to receive and exhibit the
required puncturation as above described with precision and accuracy. As
plane or sheet thus punctured being placed vertically between the object or
scene to be drawn, copied, or traced and the eye of the operator, a distinct
view of such object or scene is obtained, by transmission through the punctura-
tions of the plane or medium, with a distinctness sufficient to enable the

page_text: operator to trace upon its innermost surface a linear representation of such
object or scene, of a dimension governed by the angle subtended by the object
at the cyc
of the operator and the distance of the eye from the plane.
In order to apply the perforated plane above described practically, and in
the inost advantageous manner, to the intention of tracing the linear repre-
sentation of the presented object thereon as required, I provide a wood or
metal frame of construction conveniently suited to the purpose of. holding
such perforated plane firmly and flat, and in a vertical position, or of any
degree of inclination varying from a vertical position which may be deemed
convenient for the effective application thereto of the hand and pencil of the
operator, or that the relative positions of the person and the eye of the
operator, and the object or scene to be drawn, copied or traced, may from
time to time be found to require under the peculiar circumstances of the case.
It is obvious that, of such mechanical arrangements of the frames or
modes of holding the perforated plane in the required position for use, there
may be a great variety of constructions and modifications to suit the taste or
accommodate the size of the apparatus to the personal convenience of the
operator.
The Figure 1 represents in a perspective view a practical organization of
the same; a perforated plane A, which is fixed in a rectangular frame. B, and
jointed to an outer frame D, is occupied by a flat and thin plate of glass
against which a perforated plane of the description above described is closely
applied in order to receive its support and to be retained or held by it in a
flat and even state, and afford it such a degree of firmness that shall enable
it to bear efficiently the pressure and action of the pencil by the operator.
A convenient and effective practical arrangement of the dimensions of this
construction of the apparatus is to make the perforated plane A of about
twelve inches in length by about nine inches in width, but these dimensions
may be varied at pleasure to suit any required circumstances; the optical
effect of the perforated plane A being the same under any dimensions. The
elevation of the lower edge or border of the perforated plane. A above the
plane of the part of the frame on which it is supported I make, in practice,
of such an height as shall set the centre of the plane, when it is of tho
dimensions above described, or of any other dimensions, at a convenient cleva-
tion for the eye of the operator in his observation of the objects he intends to
trace, the apparatus being placed on a table of the usual height. When the
apparatus is fixed and ready for use, it presents the appearance exhibited in
the Figure 1, in addition to the parts already herein referred to, in which D is
an inclined shelf or table on which the operator's hand and arm may rest

page_text: during the operation, in order to obtain the requisite steadiness and firmness
of position. The appearances exhibited by the objects, or are to be copied
drawn or traced through the perforated plane are to be depicted by a crayon
or pencil of black lead, if the plane bo of white or light colour, or by a crayon
or pencil of hard white chalk prepared in the ordinary manner, if the plane be
of black or dark colour. It is generally to be preferred that the plane should
be of white or light colour, when it is required afterwards to copy the
Drawing made on the plane by a transparent tracing paper for the purpose of
preserving it, or of transferring it to drawing paper for a finished completion.
When such transfer is not required, it is advantageous to have the plane of
black or dark colour, for the reason that a more distinct view of the object is
obtained on a dark medium or plane than on one of a light colour. Το
produce the most distinct view of the object towards which the apparatus is
directed, and consequently the best effects for its operation, the eye should be
placed at a distance from the plane of about eighteen inches, and the attention
of the operator's eye must be exclusively directed to the objects themselves,
and not to the surface of the plane on which he traces their appearance. Or,
in other terms, the eye of the operator must be adjusted to the distance of the
objects under observation, and not to the surface of the plane or the working
point of the pencil, the action of the latter being in fact to be felt by the
operator rather than observed. It is obvious that during such operation the
head and eye of the operator should be kept steadily in one position. An
artist well practised in drawing or sketching from models will do this with
facility. Persons unaccustomed to such practice will require some aiding support
or resting-place for the head; and this for the twofold purpose of securing the
position of the eye from any lateral deviation as regards the line of direction
in which the operator views the object, or, in the language of perspective, the
line of sight and also the permanence of position of the head, and the con-
sequent firmness of the operator's arm and hand.
The Figure 2 represents a geometrical view of the frame, or that portion of
the apparatus to which the puncturated plane is applied to view the objects to
be drawn, when it is detached from its supporting frame for the ulterior
purpose of copying or transferring.
The Figure 3 represents a small portion of the perforated material com-
posing the plane separately.
The Figure 4 exhibits the mode in which in practice I apply the apparatus
to use. A represents the punctured plane; B, the object to be operated upon
by copying, drawing, or tracing its actual optical appearance through the
plane A when viewed by the eye of the operator at C, who traces over the

page_text: imaginary lines of contour of the object at B in the places and directions in
which they seem to fall on the tangible plane surface A, to which lines of the
sail object are optically transferred by the visual rays issuing therefrom, of
which the extremes or boundaries in the upward and downward direction
of the object are depicted in the Drawing at a and Y.
I now declare that I claim as of my Invention in the apparatus and modifi-
cations thereof, as I have herein-before described and designated them, the use
and application of a finely punctuated thin plane of any substance or material fit
for the reception of such fine puncturations, as herein-before described, to the
practical optical purpose of tracing on one of the surfaces of such plane the
imaginary outlines of objects, as seen apparently coincident with or through
such puncturated plane.
I claim such practical applications of such planes so treated by punctura-
tion to the optical purpose aforesaid, together with the general practical
mode of making such application, as herein-before described, irrespective
of any particular manner of arranging the same; further declaring that
I do not claim any particular or specific mechanical arrangement for the
formation and production of such puncturations in or through sheets or planes
of the substances herein-before described; but I do claim as of my Invention
the practical optical uses and applications of such puncturated planes when
produced for and as regards the purposes and objects herein-before stated,
specified, and designated, as I have so specified and designated them.
In witness whereof, I, the said Anthony Lorimier, have hereunto set my
band and seal, this Third day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-five