AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR PLATE PRINTING
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Augustus Frederick Sheppard, of 38, Moorgate
Street, in the City of London, Gentleman, for the Invention of "AN
IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR PLATE PRINTING."-A com-
munication from abroad by E. Muggeridge, of New York, United States
of America.
Sealed the 8th March 1861, and dated the 28th September 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Augustus Frederick
Sheppard at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 28th September 1860.
I, AUGUSTUS FREDERICK SHEPPARD, of 38, Moorgate Street, in the City of
London, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR PLATE PRINTING," to be as
follows, that is to say:-
My Invention relates to an improvement in printing from engraved plates
on which the design, figure, pattern, or lettering to be printed is sunk in their
surfaces, and which has hitherto required the paper or other substance to be
printed upon to be pressed into the recesses or sunken portions in order to
receive the impression, the sunken portions being filled with ink, and the
raised portions perfectly clean. Hitherto in effecting this kind of printing, the
whole face of the plate requires to be covered or smeared over with ink, so

page_text: that all the sunken portions may be filled, the surplus ink is then wiped clean
off the surface, and in this state the impression is taken; the same operation of
wiping is required for each separate impression.
The object of my Invention consists in the employment of a method and
means by which I avoid the necessity of wiping or cleaning the plate before
each impression is taken. To this end I employ an ink of a fluid nature, and
inject the same into the recesses or sunken portions of the plate from under-
neath the latter. To effect this I attach to an ordinary printing press two
ink reservoirs. One placed above the level of the plate to be printed from,
and the other below. By means of pipes I establish a circuit of communication
between these. The block upon which the plate is placed lies within this
circuit, and is so formed as to receive and distribute the ink over its surface in
a series of channels diverging from a central mouth in its circuit from the
one reservoir to the other. The apparatus is arranged so that at the instant
the paper is pressed upon the surface of the plate a valve in the circuit pipe is
opened, and the ink falling downward from the upper reservoir is injected (by
the hydrostatic pressure) through the distributing channels of the bearing
block into the prepared under side of the plate, and from thence into the
sunken portions of the upper face, into which the paper is then being pressed,
and the impression taken. The succeeding motion of the press which relieves
the paper shuts the aforesaid valve, and at the same instant actuates a piston
which withdraws the surplus ink from the bottom portion of the plate into the
bottom reservoir, from which it is forced up to the top one again, and the
foregoing operation repeated.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Augustus Frederick Sheppard in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 28th March 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AUGUSTUS
FREDERICK SHEPPARD, of 38, Moorgate Street, in the City of London,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Augustus Frederick Sheppard, Her special licence that I, the said
Augustus Frederick Sheppard, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or

page_text: such others as I, the said Augustus Frederick Sheppard, my executors,
adminstrators, 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 "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR PLATE
PRINTING," a communication to him from abroad by E. Muggeridge, of New
York, United States of America, upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Augustus Frederick Sheppard, 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 Augustus Frederick Sheppard, do hereby
declare the nature of my said 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 Invention consists in certain improvements in copper-plate printing, or
plates which have the design, figure, or pattern to be printed sunk in their
surfaces. Hitherto in this process the paper or other material to be printed
upon has to be forced into the sunken or cut-out portions of the plate, the
sunken portions forming the pattern being first filled with ink. To do this
the entire plate has to be covered with ink, which has to be carefully cleaned
and polished previous to the application of the paper. This mode of printing,
compared with the action of the common typographical press, is very. slow and
tedious, because, in the latter process, it is only needful to pass an ink roller
once or twice over the types, the sheet is laid on and pressed, and the operation
is complete.
My object is, therefore, to effect the operation in even less time than the
typographical press, and to finish the work with as much regularity and neat-
ness as by the common copper-plate method. For this purpose I perforate
the plate in which the design is sunk or engraved with holes or apertures, the
number and size of these depending on the intricacy and complication of the
design or pattern engraved on the plate. The block on which the copper
plate is laid is channelled or grooved all over its surface, which grooves or
channels run into and communicate with an opening in the centre passing
through the plate, and connected with a pipe leading from the ink reservoir
ontaining the ink. The ink I make use of is of a fluid nature, so as to be

page_text: capable of passing freely through the channels and apertures, both in the block
and plate. The paper or other material is placed on the perforated plate, and
the platen being brought down on it in the ordinary way, a stop cock in
the pipe connected with the ink reservoir being opened by the machine itself,
the ink runs down from the reservoir and enters the central aperture of the
block and through the channels, then passing through the holes in the copper-
plate, runs into the sunken or cut-out portions forming the patterns or figures
to be printed. The ink is then withdrawn by the action of a pump connected
with and worked by the machine, which then forces the ink up into the
reservoir again. The platen is then raised up and the sheet removed.
In order more clearly to illustrate and explain the nature of my Invention,
I have appended the accompanying Drawings, which are only intended to
shew the main principles thereof, as modifications of all or any of the parts
may be used to suit particular arrangements.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of a machine constructed, arranged, and acting
according to my Invention; Figure 2 is a back view of the same, shewing the
cam and springs connected with the platen; Figure 3 is a vertical section of
the same taken through the dotted line x, x; Figure 4 is a front view of the
engraved plate with the notes and lines sunk in the surface; Figure 5 is a
back view of same, shewing the grooves or channels, together with the
arrangement of the holes; Figure 6 is a front view of the block or bed on
which the engraved plate rests; Figure 7 is a back view of same.
letters indicate the same or similar parts in the different Figures.
Similar
A is the framing of the press; B, the platen, actuated or moved by a
toggle C, the cam D, and when released from the action of these is raised by
the springs E, E.
surface
These parts are comprised in an ordinary printing machine, and therefore
do not require any particular description, besides other forms of platen presses
might be used in printing according to my Invention. In the framing A, and
directly underneath the platen B, there is a fixed block F, the
upper
of which is grooved, as shewn at a in Figure 7; the said grooves all diverging
from a common centre a¹, and communicating at that point with a tube G,
which passes out through the side of the block, and communicates with a
horizontal pipe H; one end of the pipe H is connected with a pipe I, which
extends upwards, and communicates with an ink reservoir J, the opposite
end of pipe H communicates directly with another ink reservoir K, an ink
reservoir being at each side of the press. The pipe H extends below its con-

page_text: nection with the pipe I, and communicates with a box L on which a cylinder
of a pump M is placed, the box L having a valve opening inwards at its
junction with pipe H; N is a pipe, the lower end of which communicates with
the box L, and the upper end with the ink reservoir J, the lower end of pipe
N has a valve opening upward. At one end of a shaft O, in the framing on
which shaft the cam D is placed, there is a crank a', to which the piston rod b
of the pump M is attached, and on the same shaft O, adjoining the pulley a',
there is placed a wiper P, which actuates a lever Q attached to the frame, and
which lever has a cord c connected to it, the said cord passing round a
pulley d of a valve stem, the valve being in pipe I; at the lower extremity
the lever end of the cord c is attached to a spring e, which spring has a
tendency to keep the valve in the pipe I closed. At the shaft O, the end
opposite to that where the crank pulley a¹ is attached, there is placed a toothed
wheel R, at each side of which there is a projection f, both of which are shewn
in Figure 2. S is a slide, which is fitted in bearings 9, 9, attached to the
frame. This slide has uprights H, H, attached to it, between which the
wheel R and the projections frotate, as shewn in Figure 2. The slide S is
connected in any proper way with the stem I of a valve in the pipe H. T is a
tube, which forms a direct communication between the two reservoirs J, K;
U is a bed on which the plate to be printed from rests. This bed has its
upper surface grooved longitudinally and transversely, the grooves intersecting
each other, and forming sunken passages over nearly the entire surface of the
bed U. The under surface of the bed U is grooved in a zig-zag form, as
shewn at j, and the bed is perforated with holes k, the perforations extending
entirely through the bed, and communicating with the grooves j; the bed U
is placed on the block F, the grooves j¹ communicating with the grooves a¹ in
the upper surface of the latter. V is the plate to be printed from, having the
design engraved, punched, or otherwise sunken in its upper surface; a music
plate is shewn in Figure 4. This plate is perforated with holes b, one hole at
least being in each isolated portion of the plate. The plate V is placed on the
bed U, and there is a direct communication between the sunken portions of
the plate, the grooves in the upper and lower surfaces of the bed U, the
grooves a in the upper surface of the block F, and the tube. The operation is
as follows:-The reservoirs J, K, are filled with perfectly fluid ink, and the
plate V being properly adjusted on its bed U, the shaft O is rotated by any
convenient power, and the platen B is raised and lowered through the medium
of the cam D, the toggle C, and the springs E, E, just previous to the descent
of the plunger b; a sheet of paper or other substance or material to receive
the impression is placed on the plate V; and as the platen B descends, the

page_text: wiper P on the shaft O actuates the lever Q, and the cord c opens the valve
in pipe I, so that when the platen B has descended on the sheet which was
placed on the plate V, and is kept thereon by the action of the cam, the valve
in pipe I will be open, and the ink from the reservoir will pass down pipe I
and through pipes H and G and into the grooves a, j, in the block F and the
bed U, and then pass through the perforations 6 into the sunken portions of the
plate V, and be forced against the sheet on the same with a pressure due to
the height of the reservoir J above the plate; the pressure (hydrostatic) causes
the impression on the sheet, the configuration of course coinciding with that of
the sunken portions of the plate. The valve in the pipe I now closes, and the
piston of the pump M rises, the rod p being drawn up by the crank pulley a¹.
The pump M draws the ink from the recesses in the plate V, and the ink then
passes into the box L, leaving the recesses in plate V perfectly empty by the
time the platen B has reached its culminating point. Another sheet is now
placed on the plate V, the printed one being previously removed, and as the
platen B descends the plunger of the pump M also descends, and forces the
ink, which was drawn into box L from the plate V at the upward movement
of the plunger, up through tube N into the reservoir J. At the commencement
of the downward movement of the platen B the slide S is actuated, and the
valve stem i turned so as to open the valve in pipe H, and allow the ink to
pass into the tube G and grooves a, j, and the recesses of the plate V in
advance of the ink in reservoir J, which only serves to give the requisite
pressure. The employment of the reservoir K. is essential, as it ensures a quick
operation of the press, saving the time which would be otherwise consumed in
the passage of the ink from the reservoir J after the platen B has descended.
The slide S is necessary to close the valve in the pipe H as the platen com-
mences to rise. The ink reservoir K is kept supplied from J by the pipe T.
From the above description it will be seen that the manipulation of wiping off
the plate, and the tedious manner of giving the impression which attends the
ordinary plate-printing process is avoided. The platen B may be perforated
at a", to allow the escape of air from between it and the sheet as the latter
is pressed down upon the plate V, the air also being allowed to escape
from between the sheet and the plate, passing up through the sheet as the
plate is pushed down.
Having now described my Invention, and how it is carried into effect, I
wish it understood that what I claim and wish secured by the before in part
recited Letters Patent is,-
First, printing from engraved plates by having the sunken portions thereof
which have the designs to be printed charged or filled with fluid ink from

page_text: below the plate, the ink being forced up through perforations in the plate
against the paper or substance to receive the impression, while the said paper
or other substance is pressed upon or against the plate.
Second, the arrangement of the ink reservoirs J, K, with the pipes I, H,
tubes F, G, pump M, and grooves a¹, j', in the block F and the bed U, in
connection with the perforated plate V, substantially as and for the purpose
set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Augustus Frederick Sheppard, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of March,
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
AUGUSTUS FREDERICK SHEPPARD. (L.S.)