IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING DESIGNS, PATTERNS, AND DEVICES UPON WOOD BY PRINTING, IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN, AND IN THE PREPARATION OF THE INKS OR COLORS FOR THE PURPOSE
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Whitburn, of Guildford, in the County
of Surrey, Artist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING
DESIGNS, PATTERNS, AND DEVICES UPON WOOD BY PRINTING, IN APPARATUS
EMPLOYED THEREIN, AND IN THE PREPARATION OF THE INKS OR COLORS FOR THE
PURPOSE."
Sealed the 13th August 1875, and dated the 19th February 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Whitburn at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 19th February 1875.
I, THOMAS WHITBURN, of Guildford, in the County of Surrey, Artist,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PRODUCING DESIGNS, PATTERNS, AND DEVICES UPON WOOD BY PRINTING, IN
APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN, AND IN THE PREPARATION OF THE INKS OR COLORS
FOR THE PURPOSE," to be as follows:-
.
The attempts that have previously been made to produce designs,
patterns, and devices upon wood or wood veneers by printing have not
proved commercially valuable or successful, firstly, because the inks or

page_text: colors used have not been mixed in the manner necessary to enable them
to unite properly with the material on which they were impressed; and
secondly, because the modes of printing usually employed have not been
of the kind essential to produce with certainty and with undeviating
precision in all the details printed impressions upon wood. Now after
repeated experiment I have succeeded in manufacturing inks or colors
capable of producing fine results upon wood, and in discovering a mode
of printing, as herein-after described, specially adapted for printing
upon wood.
I prepare the inks or colors and effect the printing upon the wood as
follows: To the substance known in commerce as "burnt oil" is
added one-eighth, more or less, in bulk of a resinous oil varnish, such as
is known by the name of "oak varnish," or a thickened and drying oil,
and the two are then mixed well together on a marble slab by means of
a spatula, or a palette knife, or a small trowel. To this mixture is then
added so much of the color or pigment with which it is desired to print
the design on the wood as will convert the mixture into a thick paste,
and this pigment or color which is such as is used by artists, and by
house painters, and by decorative painters, must when added to the
mixture be, as regards substance, in a condition of fine powder, or must
have previously been reduced by pounding in a mortar, or by grinding
either on a marble or glass slab with a muller, or by machinery
commonly employed for the purpose, to the requisite condition of fine
powder. This thick paste formed by the intimate mixture of burnt oil,
resinous oil, varnish, or thickened and drying oil and pigment in powder
may then be diluted with turpentine until it will "distribute" evenly
on a marble slab through being spread by rolling it with a printer's
roller. The roller becomes coated by this operation with the ink or
color, which is then transferred, also by the process of rolling, to the
engraved block, or electrotype, or other prepared surface from which the
pattern, or device, or design is to be impressed on the wood. Then the
wood having been planed evenly, rubbed down with sand paper, and
sized, or stained, or colored, or painted, or veneered, or cut into a
vencer, or otherwise prepared, is placed with the prepared surface
upwards on the "carriage" of the printing press, and the design from
which it is purposed to take the impression is placed face downwards on
the wood. The prepared wood and the design are then covered by the
tympan and passed under the platten, which is then brought down with

page_text: equable pressure on the "carriage" and its contents beneath. The
carriage is then removed from the platten and returned to its former
position, the tympan is raised, the design is lifted from the wood, and a
perfect impression of the design will then be found imprinted on the
wood in the ink or color transferred from the design and with which it
had been covered.
In certain cases it may be convenient to lay the prepared design face
upwards on the "carriage" and to place the prepared surface of the
wood over it and then to apply pressure in the manner before described.
When this mode of printing is employed it will be found advantageous
to rest the wood on four small wire springs placed on the carriage at the
corners of the design, and of sufficient strength to prevent the wood
from touching, say, by one-eighth of an inch, the surface of the design.
When the platten is pressed down the prepared surface of the wood
will come equally in contact with that of the design, and on the removal
of the pressure the spring will raise the wood from the design and an
accurate impression of the design will then be found on the wood.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Whitburn in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 19th August 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
WHITBURN, of Guildford, in the County of Surrey, Artist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Whitburn, Her
special licence that I, the said Thomas Whitburn, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Whit
burn, 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

page_text: and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING DESIGNS, PATTERNS, AND DEVICES UPON WOOD BY
PRINTING, IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN, AND IN THE PREPARATION OF THE
INKS OR COLORS FOR THE PURPOSE," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Thomas Whitburn, 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 Thomas Whitburn, 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 thereof, that is to say :-
The attempts that have previously been made to produce designs,
patterns, and devices upon wood, or wood veneers by printing have not
proved commercially valuable or successful, firstly, because the inks or
colors used have not been mixed in the manner necessary to enable them
to unite properly with the material on which they were impressed; and,
secondly, because the modes of printing usually employed have not been
of the kind essential to produce with certainty and with undeviating
precision in all the details printed impressions upon wood. Now after
repeated experiment I have succeeded in manufacturing inks or colors
capable of producing fine results upon wood, and in discovering a mode
of printing, as herein-after described, specially adapted for printing
upon wood.
I prepare the inks or colors and effect the printing upon the wood as
follows: To the substance known in commerce as "burnt oil" is
added. one-eighth, more or less, in bulk of resinous oil varnish, such as
is known by the name of "oak varnish," or a thickened and drying oil,
and the two are then mixed well together on a marble slab by means of
a spatula, or a palette knife, or a small trowel. To this mixture is then
added so much of the color or pigment. with which it is desired to paint
the design on wood as will convert the mixture into a thick paste, and
this pigment or color which is such as is used by artists, and by house
painters, and by decorative painters must when added to the mixture be,

page_text: as regards substance, in a condition of fine powder, or must have
previously been reduced by pounding in a mortar, or by grinding either
on a marble or glass slab with a muller, or by machinery commonly
employed for the purpose, to the requisite conditions of fine powder. This
thick paste formed by the intimate mixture of burnt oil, resinous oil,
varnish, or thickened and drying oil and pigment in powder may then
be diluted with turpentine until it will "distribute" evenly on a marble
slab through being spread by rolling it with a printer's roller. The
roller becomes coated by this operation with the ink or color, which is
then transferred, also by the process of rolling, to the engraved block,
or electrotype, or other prepared surface from which the pattern, or
device, or design is to be impressed on the wood. Then the wood
having been planed evenly, rubbed down with sand paper, and sized, or
stained, or colored, or painted, or veneered, or cut into a veneer, or
otherwise prepared, is placed with the prepared surface upwards on the
"carriage" of the printing press, and the design from which it is
purposed to take the impression is placed face downwards on the wood.
The prepared wood and the design are then covered by the tympan and
passed under the platten, which is then brought down with equable
pressure on the "carriage" and its contents beneath. The carriage is
then removed from the platten and returned to its former position, the
tympan is raised, the design is lifted from the wood, and a perfect
impression of the design will then be found imprinted on the wood in
the ink or color transferred from the design and with which it had been
covered.
In certain cases it may be convenient to lay the prepared design face
upwards on the "carriage" and to place the prepared surface of the
wood over it, and then to apply pressure in the manner before described.
When this mode of printing is employed it will be found advantageous
to rest the wood on four small wire springs, placed on the carriage at the
corners of the design, and of sufficient strength to prevent the wood
from touching, say by one-eighth of an inch, the surface of the design.
When the platten is pressed down the prepared surface of the wood will
come equally in contact with that of the design, and on the removal of
the pressure the springs will raise the wood from the design and an
accurate impression of the design will then be found on the wood.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,—

page_text: First. Producing designs, patterns, and devices upon wood by printing,
substantially by the means and in the manner herein-before described.
Second. Preparing inks or colors substantially as and for the purpose
herein-before described.
t
Third. The fitting of springs to the carriage of the printing press as
and for the purpose herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Whitburn, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of August, One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
THOMAS WHITBURN. (L.s.)