IMPROVEMENTS IN COPYING PRESSES
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Maximilian Plessner at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 21st January 1882.
JOHN MAXIMILIAN PLESSNER .late Captain Prussian Army residing at Stuttgart
Wurtenberg in the Empire of Germany. IMPROVEMENTS IN COPYING PRESSES.
The object of this invention is to improve the so called Roller Copying Press and
apparatus by which in lieu of the pressure plate of the usual screw, or lever presses
a hollow cylinder or solid roller is applied for producing copies by being rolled
under pressure either over the closed copying book, or directly over the wetted
leaves.
The few existing apparatus of this description possess however the disadvantage
of not being applicable for producing sufficiently readable copies or several copies
at the same time, especially when used directly on the wetted leaves, since in this
case they do not allow of the inconsiderable pressure required for this purpose, such
pressure causing an inflection of the leaves of the copying book whilst the rolling
motion will often cause a displacing of the manuscript or even a tearing of the
wetted leaves. In order to do away with these drawbacks and to make Roller
Copying Presses as effecient as the most powerful screw or lever presses whilst
retaining their intrinsic advantage of very small weights and dimensions I have
introduced the following various improvements.
1 I have devised and combine with each of my Roller Copying Presses a support
plate of peculiar construction, which I call a "copying plate" for being placed below
the wetted leaves and manuscrips for the purpose of preventing the bending in
of the leaves of the copying book when applying the press under strong pressure.
2 In lieu of using a single roller which in most cases is covered with some soft
material like leather, india rubber cloth or the like, I apply generally two cylindrical
tubes without such soft coverings. These two tubes I place a few centimetres from
and parallel to each other underneath a strong ledge serving as a handle the fixture
of the tubes to the handle being effected by means of two bearings screwed to the
ends of the ledge in which bearings the ends of the axles passing through the centre
of the tubes can freely revolve.

page_text: 3 In order to avoid a direct contact between the rollers of the press and the
wetted leaves I cover the latter before applying the press with a few sheets of
soft blotting paper or similar soft material covering these sheets with an oil cartoon,
the smooth surface of which allowing an easier rolling of the press that when applied
to the surface of the blotting papers.
4 Finally I have arranged a combination of all accessories required for the
production of copies in the form of a small compact and handy contrivance which
I call a Copying Case consisting generally of two boxes fixed to a common bottom
plate in the larger of which I place the roller press with a travelling casing and into
the smaller box I insert a water basin. For each copying case I provide besides a
Copying-port folio generally made of or lined with oil cloth and containing the
already mentioned copying plate a number of oil cartoons some blotting paper and
various other writing and copying implements as also a wetting brush which I
generally insert in a separate pocket sewn to the lower surface of the flap of the
portefolio.