CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESSES FOR LITHOGRAPHIC PRINTING
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Marc Antoine François Mennons, of the British and
Foreign Patent Offices, 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, in the Empire of France,
for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESSES FOR LITHOGRAPHIC
PRINTING." A communication from Mr. Henri Voirin, residing at
No. 17, Rue Mayet, Paris.
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Sealed the 31st January 1862, and dated the 21st August 1861.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Marc Antoine François
Mennons at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition
and Declaration, on the 21st August 1861, pursuant to the 9th Section
of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MARC
ANTOINE FRANÇOIS MENNONS, of the British and Foreign Patent Offices, 39,
Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, in the Empire of France, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN PRESSES FOR LITHOGRAPHIC PRINTING," communicated to me by Mr. Henri
Voirin, a person resident at No. 17, Rue Mayet, Paris, and have petitioned
Her Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn declaration
that it is a communication.
NOW KNOW YE, that. I, the said Marc Antoine François Mennons, do
hereby declare that the following Complete Specification under my hand and

page_text: seal, fully describes and ascertains the nature of the Invention and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawing, and to the letters marked thereon, that is to say :-
The Invention communicated to me consists in certain modifications in the
construction of ordinary single intermitting cylinder typographic presses,
("presses en blanc), by means of which such presses are rendered advanta-
geously applicable to lithographic printing purposes.
The accompanying Drawing represents in outline the portion of one of these
typographic presses to which the present improvements are applied, the
remainder of the ordinary machinery being suppressed. X is the lithographic
stone, mounted on a cast-iron plate A, to which is imparted during the
working an alternate rectilinear or come-and-go motion. The pressure on the
stone is effected by a cylinder B in turned cast iron covered with any suitable
tissue, and regulated by the counterpoise C and the levers D, D. To this
cylinder is imparted a circular intermittent motion, which gives time for laying
the sheets. Each sheet is placed upon the table E, and upon the cylinder in
such a position that its lower extremity covers the small detaching pincers F
while taken up by the fixing pincers G. The sheet being thus attached to the
cylinder is carried round and printed off. On the arrival of its front edge at
the-point H-the-large-fixing pincers G quit their hold, while the small pincers.
F opening up detach the sheet from the cylinder, and pass it between the
guide tapes stretched on the rollers H, I, I, I, and the rods J, J, J", J.
By this combination of rollers, rods, and tapes the sheet is carried on to the
roller 1, and from thence to the table K, on which it is laid out. The stone,
is inked by the cylinders L, fed by an inking table, invisible in the Drawing,
and is moistened by the dampers N, supplied with water drawn drop by drop
from the reservoir O by the capillary fibres or tissue P. These dampers N
rise and fall during the working of the press, so as to act on the stone after
the impression and before the inking only. The moistening of the stone sur-
faces is rendered uniform by the secondary dampers P¹.
Having now described and ascertained the nature of the said improvements
and the manner of carrying them into effect, I would observe that I do not
confine myself to the precise details of construction and arrangement above
laid down, as these may be varied without departing from the principles or
main features of the Invention; but what I claim and desire to secure by
Letters Patent is, the adaptation to lithographic printing of the ordinary single
intermitting cylinder typographic press modified to that effect as follows:-
1stly, by the application of a damping arrangement, in which the water
taken up from its reservoir by capillary fibres or tissue is delivered drop by

page_text: drop, as above described and represented by the letters O, P, of the accom-
panying Drawing.
2dly, by the substitution of the small pincers, above described and shewn by
the letter F, to the tapes generally employed for detaching the printed sheet
from the pressure cylinder.
3dly, by the improved combination of rollers, rods, and guide tapes above
described and seen in H, I, I, I, J, J, J", J, by which the printed sheet
on being freed from the cylinder is carried to the sorting table K.
In witness whereof, I, the said Marc Antoine François Mennons, have
hereto set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
M. F. MENNONS. (L.S.)