IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS USED IN PRINTING CALICO AND OTHER FABRICS WHEN CYLINDERS ARE EMPLOYED
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Isaac Taylor, of Stanford Rivers, in the County of
Essex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS USED IN
PRINTING CALICO AND OTHER FABRICS WHEN CYLINDERS ARE EMPLOYED."
Sealed the 4th May 1858, and dated the 11th November 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Isaac Taylor at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th November 1857.
ISAAC TAYLOR, of Stanford Rivers, in the County of Essex, do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS USED IN
PRINTING CALICO AND OTHER FABRICS WHEN CYLINDERS ARE EMPLOYED," to be as
follows:-
My Invention requires that in the printing machine the boll, and not the
engraved shell or roller, or the mandril which carries it, should be in gearing
with the driving power. And my Invention consists in employing a spindle so
much smaller than the interior of the shell or roller (which is placed thereon), as
that the spindle may be deflected or bent when under pressure in the printing
machine without communicating such bending to the roller or shell placed
thereon, and this is accomplished by having adjustable bearings with curved
surfaces on the spindle, such bearings being capable of being fixed nearer to

page_text: or farther from each other thereupon. The bearings coincide as to their
diameter with the interior of the roller or shell. Furthermore, the fixed
bearings in which the necks of the spindle turn are also of a curved form,
instead of being parallel or cylindrical, by which means they admit of some
play in the spindle when yielding to the pressure of the machine.
Among the advantages attending the use of these adjustments there is this,
that when very thin shells are employed for the engraving, such shells may
be passed upon a roller which takes the bearing on the spindle, as above
mentioned, without any rigid fixing of the engraved shell to the shell or roller
which carries it, the nip of the machine sufficing to give it the requisite
rotatory motion.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Isaac Taylor in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
11th May 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ISAAC
TAYLOR, of Stanford Rivers, in the County of Essex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Isaac Taylor, Her special licence that I, the said Isaac Taylor, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Isaac
Taylor, 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 Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS USED
IN PRINTING CALICO AND OTHER FABRICS WHEN CYLINDERS ARE EMPLOYED," upon
'the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Isaac Taylor, 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 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 Isaac Taylor, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed

page_text: to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement.
thereof, that is to say:--
My Invention requires that in the printing machine the boll, and not the
engraved shell or roller, or the mandril which carries it, should be in gearing
with the driving power. And my Invention consists in employing a spindle
so much smaller than the interior of the shell or roller (which is placed
thereon), as that the spindle may be deflected or bent when under pressure
in the printing machine without communicating such bending to the roller or
shell placed thereon, and this is accomplished by having adjustable bearings
with curved surfaces on the spindle, such bearings being capable of being fixed
nearer to or further from each other thereupon. The bearings coincide as to
their diameter with the interior of the roller or shell. Furthermore, the
fixed bearings in which the necks of the spindle turn are also of a curved
form, instead of being parallel or cylindrical, by which means they admit of
some play in the spindle when yielding to the pressure of the machine..
Among the advantages attending the use of these adjustments there is this,
that when very thin shells are employed for the engraving, such shells may
be passed upon a roller which takes the bearing on the spindle, as above
mentioned, without any rigid fixing of the engraved shell to the shell or roller
which carries it, the nip of the machine sufficing to give it the requisite
rotatory motion.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
My Invention, although it is primarily intended to facilitate the use of thin
metallic shells in calico printing and in other fabrics, is partly available for
obviating the difficulties that attach to the employment of the ordinary. heavy
rollers fixed in the usual mode upon conical mandrils, with a nib and keyway
or slot.
Moreover, although to, secure the full advantage of my. Invention,. the
printing machine should be driven by connecting the driving power. with-the
boll, and not, as is usual, with the mandril which carries the engraved roller,
yet, if for any reasons it be thought preferable so to adhere to the.customary
mode of driving the machine by the spindle which carries the roller, this may
be done by means of some adjustments that are presently to be mentioned, but
to which I lay no claim.
My Invention, as now to be explained, as it relieves the engraved shell from
all curvature and torsion in the. printing machine, obviates the necessity of a
tight fit or of a permanent. fixing of the shell upon the mandril, and thus it
removes the main difficulties which hitherto have stood in the way of the

page_text: employment of thin metallic shells in calico printing. If the fit of the copper
shell upon the mandril is exceedingly tight, and yet is such as to be removeable,
much time is cccupied, first in fixing it, and then in removing it from the
mandril; but, on the other hand, if the shell be made to adhere immoveably
to its mandril, then the inconveniences of having a permanent iron mandril
attached to each shell, and the cost of so attaching the shell to its mandril,
are found to be such as to render the employment of such shells a very
doubtful advantage, if indeed any residue of advantage can in this mode be
secured.
.
The manner in which these various difficulties are obviated; and in which
the advantages proposed to be secured are realized by my Invention will best
be understood by reference to the Drawing. A, A, is a mandril or spindle,
which is parallel throughout its length from a to a, and which is so much
smaller than the interior of the shell or roller which is placed thereon, as that
this spindle may be deflected or bent when under pressure in the printing
imachine without communicating such bending to the roller or shell placed
thereon, and this is accomplished by means of the two adjustable bearings
B, B. These circular bearings or rings have a curved surface, as is shown in
the Drawing, and they are capable of being fixed upon the spindle A, A,
nearer to or further from each other thereupon, as may be found the most
effective for securing their equable action upon the shell, which takes its
bearings upon them. These ring bearings are of such diameter as to pass into
the shell C, C, at an easy fit, and it is obvious that the spindle A, A, when
under the most extreme pressure in the printing machine may bend in each
revolution to a great extent, or even so far as to approach the shell C, C, in
the middle part, as at d, without in any degree communicating that curvature
from itself to the shell that is exterior to it. For the purpose of facilitating
this free action of the spindle when under pressure the fixed bearings in which
its necks turn, Figure 4, are also slightly curved instead of being parallel- or
cylindrical, and they thus admit of some play when yielding to the pressure
of the machine; C, C, is an iron shell of the proportionate thickness, as
indicated in the Drawing. This shell is parallel within and without, and its
exterior surface is perfectly true. It is of such diameter as that the engraved
shell E, E, may be passed upon it without difficulty, and so as not to require
any considerable force for drawing or driving it on, consequently it may be
removed with the same ease when it is to give place to another shell in the
course of printing. When the ordinary heavy rollers, which are conical on
the interior, are used, then in place of the two bearings B, B, within the
rollers being of like radius they will be made to correspond with the parts of

page_text: the conical interior they are to support. The ring fixings F, F, at the two
ends are attached to the iron shell C, C, and they serve the purpose of re-
taining the engraved shell in its position. longitudinally, but they do not
otherwise confine it.
..In the case of single colour printing, the engraved shell requires no fixed
attachment whatever upon the shell C, C, which carries it, but it is carried
circumferentially by the nip only, which it takes upon and against the boll in
the same way as that in which a copper or steel plate is carried through a
printing press by the nip and nothing else. It is by this means that those
difficulties above alluded to are avoided, which are consequent upon the
attachment of a thin shell to an iron mandril, by means either of a conical fit
or by nib and keyway, or by any mode of effecting a permanent attachment of
the copper shell to the iron shell. When two, three, or more shells or rollers
are to be printed in conjunction upon the same piece some further fittings
and adjustments are required, as thus:For the purpose of effecting a perfect
coincidence of movement among several engraved rollers or shells, whether
they be two, three, or any other number, so as to secure the fit of the pattern
upon the printed piece, it is desirable to connect the several spindles of the
mandrils by a toothed gearing with intermediate pinions or wheels. This
mode of connection does not materially differ from that ordinarily employed in
printing machines for two or more colours. The spindles being in this or any
other usual manner connected, it becomes necessary to establish a connexion,
first, between the spindle A, A, in each case and the iron shell C, C, which is
placed upon it; this is done by means of the studs i, i, as shown in Figures
6 and 7. These studs while they secure the circumferential combination of
the two bodies, namely, the spindle and the shell, are yet of such a form as to
allow a degree of liberty or freedom to have place between the two bodies.
It has already been seen that in the case of printing a single colour shell,
the shell, while retained in its position longitudinally by a ring at each end, is
exempted from fixings of any sort in respect of its circumferential movement;
but it is otherwise if several engraved shells are to be printed from in con-
junction, for in that case each shell must also be retained in its circumferential
relationship to its iron shell and mandril, so far as is now to be stated, that is
to say, it may be secured by any means which shall be found at once the
readiest and the most convenient in use, and which shall avoid the difficulties
that attach either to a permanent fixture of the copper upon the iron or to a
very rigid and forced attachment of the one metallic surface to the other at the
time of printing.
The modes which I recommend are as follows:-To drive the two end rings

page_text: tighter home against the ends of the copper shell, or it may be done by
inserting a key between the end rings and the ends of the shell, or by means
of a helix nib in the interior of the copper shell, which is easily effected in
the manufacture of thin shells; this nib takes into a corresponding groove
upon the iron shell, as described in a Provisional Specification filed by me
since my application for the granting of the present Letters Patent. By this
means any tendency of the engraved shell to travel circumferentially upon the
iron shell is opposed by the rings at the ends, inasmuch as a movement upon
the spiral cannot take place unless liberty is allowed it to advance right hand
or left hand in a longitudinal direction.
If to avoid alterations in actual printing machines it be preferred to connect
the driving power, as is usually done, with the spindles carrying the engraved
rollers instead of driving by the boll, then what will be necessary will be to
.drive the rings F, F, more tightly up, so as to nip the copper shell more
firmly than otherwise would be needed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Isaac Taylor, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Seventh day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
-Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
.
ISAAC TAYLOR. (L.B.)