Improvements relating to Composite Printing Plates.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 23rd May, 1899-Accepted, 15th July, 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Communicated from abroad by C. B. COTTRELL & SONS. COMPANY, a Corpora-
tion organized under the laws of the State of New Jersey, and engaged in
business at Stonington, in the State of Connecticut, and at No. 41, Park
Row, in the Borough of Manhattan, in the City of New York and State of
New York, United States of America, Manufacturers.]
Improvements relating to Composite Printing Plates.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
5, Southampton Buildings, London, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention, and in what manner the same is to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to printing plates in which illustrations are combined
"composite" plates
with reading matter and particularly to what are known as
in which etchings for illustration are combined with electrotypes of reading
matter.
It is well known in the printing trade that printing from, duplicates is inferior
to that produced from originals and consequently many publishers of illustrated
books and periodicals insist on having the original etched or engraved plates
(generally of copper) inserted into electrotypes containing reading matter. These
plates or etchings". as they are called, are generally about one sixteenth of an
inch thick while electrotypes vary from three sixteenths to a quarter of an inch
in thickness. Heretofore etchings inserted into electrotypes have been united
"back up" the
therewith by solder and to so unite them it was necessary first to
thin etching with an alloy composed of lead, antimony and tin to the thickness
of the electrotype before soldering. This method is expensive and moreover the
soldering of the joints, which must be done from the back, produces on the face
of the plate a swell or rdge which causes extra expense in printing because of the
overlays" in order to pro-
unevenness of the plate and the necessity for extra
duce an even impression on the printed sheet; and notwithstanding the most
careful "make-ready" such plates are sure to show wear at the soldered joints
and the result of this is defective printing. At best this extensive and reliable
method of obtaining a composite plate is only a makeshift, as the soldered joints
as liable to separate when the plates are on the printing press. Thereby often
causing annoying and expensive delays by "smash-ups."
66
The object of the present improvement is to provide a composite printing plate
which is less costly than and also free from the defects of those heretofore known
and used; and to these ends my invention consist in the process hereinafter
described with reference to the accompanying drawings and in the composite
plate thereby obtained.
Figure 1 of the drawing is a face view of such a composite plate and Figure 2
a section of said plate.
Figures 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are sectional views illustrating the several, stages of
the process.
In Figures 1, and 7 a designates the etching and 6 the electrotype of the
reading matter. In Figures 3, 4 and 5, c designates the type for said electrotype.
5

page_text: In Figure 3 the type and the etching and a base or blank block d, preferably of
metal, placed under the latter to make it type high, are represented as placed
.together in the type in the chase e. The etching and the said based having been
properly trimmed to fit into the type form, the etching is removed and the
base d alone locked up in the form with the type as shown in the section Figure 4.
This removal of the etching is necessary in order that the type may be black-
leaded to cause it to relieve freely from the moulding composition in the opera-
tion of moulding and it being preferable that the face of the etching should not
be blackleaded.
After blackleading the type form, the etching, having had its back thoroughly
cleaned, is replaced face upward, on the base within the form with its face flush
with the types as shown in Figure 3, and then the surface of the moulding com-
position having been coated with plumbago, the form is moulded in the usual
way, as illustrated in Figure 5, in which f designates the metal plate of the
moulding case with the edge guards removed, and g the wax or moulding com-
position on said plate inverted upon the form. When the mould thus obtained
is lifted from the form, the etching will be found embedded in and adhering to
the moulding composition, face inwards, as shown in Figure 6. The mould con-
taining the etching is then blackleaded in the usual way preparatory to being
placed in the electrotyping hath but before being placed in the bath the exposed
back of the etching should be freed from blacklead and scraped to insure the
incorporation of the electro-deposited metal with the back and edges of the etch-
ing while forming the electrotype shell as indicated at ii in the sections
Figures 2 and 7, where it will be seen at ii and that the electro-deposited metal
which forms the shell 6 is continuous and unbroken over the edges of the etch-
ing to the back thereof, thereby forming a perfect union between the electrotype
and the etching so that when the shell is removed from the mould it brings the
etching with it, the two forming practically one plate which after having been
freed from adhering wax or moulding composition may be backed with com-
position metal has shown in Figure and finished in the same manner as
ordinary electrotype plates.
By this simple direct and economical process an absolutely perfect incorpora-
tion of an etched plate with an electrotype of reading matter is obtained.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated
by my foreign correspondents I declare that what I claim is:
1. A composite printing plate in which an etched or engraved plate and an
electrotype shell are united by the same metal as that of which the said shell is
composed, substantially as herein described.
2. A composite printing plate in which an etched or engraved plate and an
electrotype shell are united by an extension around the edges of said plate and
over the back thereof of a portion of the electro-deposited metal of which the
said shell is composed, substantially as herein described.
3. The process of obtaining a composite printing plate including an etched
plate and an electrotype of reading matter, which consist in first, locking up in
a form of type a blank block of the size of the etched plate; second, black-
leading the type form; third, placing said plate loosely in said form with its
face flush with the types therein; fourth, obtaining in plastic material placed in
contact with said form and plate a mould from the type in said form; fifth,
removing said form from the mould with the plate adherent thereto; sixth,
blackleading the face of said mould but leaving the exposed back of the plate
bright or free from black lead; seventh, subjecting the mould containing the
embedded etching to the action of an electric current in a solution of a metallic
salt, which action produces a metallic deposit over the mould and the back of the
etching at the same time, thereby insuring a union between the metallic deposit
and the back of the etching, substantially as set forth.

page_text: 4. In the process of obtaining a composite printing surface including an etched
plate and an electrotype shell, the production in plastic material of a mould from
à type form while the etched plate is embedded in said mould, and the removal
of a deposited metallic shell mould with the said plate adherent to it, sub-
stantially as herein described.
5. In the process of obtaining a composite printing surface the successive
acts of embedding an etched plate, face inward, in a mould taken from a type
form and of depositing in said mould and over the edges and back of said plate,
by electro metallurgy, a metallic shell which unites said plate and metallic
deposit,. substantially as herein set forth.
1000
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicants.