A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT IN THE ART OF BLOCK PRINTING, AS APPLIED TO CALICO AND SOME OTHER FABRICS
Year: 1833

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
JOSEPH HULLMANDEL, of Great Marlborough Street, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, Printer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the
Fourth, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain,
bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of October, in the fourth
year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Charles Joseph Hullmandel, His especial licence, that I,
the said Charles Joseph Hullmandel, my exors, admors, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Charles Joseph Hullmandel, my exors, admors,
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time,
and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and law-
fully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT IN
THE ART OF BLOCK PRINTING, AS APPLIED TO CALICO AND SOME OTHER FABRICS;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said
Charles Joseph Hullmandel, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to
be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Joseph Hullmandel, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention
to consist in doing away with many of the difficulties and inaccuracies of that
part of the process of blocking printing called putting-on, and lessening the
time usually occupied therein, by applying a certain mode engraving and
printing thereto. And, in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said Charles Joseph Hullmandel, do hereby describe the manner in which my
said Invention is to be performed by the following statement thereof (that is
to say) -
it
Having procured an original pattern as drawn by the artist, I place upon
a sheet of that transparent substance made from isinglass or gelatine known
by artists and sold in Paris by the name of papier glace, and in London by
the name of glass paper; I then take a fine sharp tracing point, and make a
tracing of the pattern in such manner as to form, in fact, an etching or incised
outline on the paper glace; this done, it will be found that the tracing point
has raised a slight burr on each side of every line, this must be removed by a
sharp scraper lightly passed over the surface of the papier glace; when this is
done, the papier glace is to be treated as an engraved copper-plate, and having
been inked with printers' ink, and cleaned of in the usual way, an impression
must be thrown off from it upon thin oiled silk means of an ordinary roller
press, care being taken that the papier glace should be uppermost or next to
the roller, and the oiled silk undermost, or on the bed of the press; the
impression thus obtained on the oiled silk is to be turned down on the block,
and transferred it by slightly rubbing it on the back; the same piece of
papier glace will give off a great number of impressions; and thus, by having
numerous pieces of oiled silk, with one person to attend the press and one to
transfer to the block, an often repeated pattern may be put on, as it is called,
in a very few minutes, and the hand of the artist now required to redraw and
complete the present blurred impression on the block, by making a perfect
outline with a brush and carmine, entirely superseded. It should here be
stated, that the papier glace will not bear any application of water to its
surface, and that all the inks used for impressions to be taken from it must
therefore be what are termed fatty inks; and as it is necessary in the process
of putting on sometimes to use different colours for different parts of the
outline, as also on certain occasions to use colour which will withstand the
wetting which the block has sometimes to undergo, I shall now proceed to
name several inks suited to that purpose, which, though they form no par
of my said Invention, will nevertheless enable the manufacturer to make use o
my said Invention to greater advantage and in a more extensive way.
"

page_text: Take some varnish (burnt linseed oil), mix with it a little tallow and some
sweet oil; lay this by for use.
.
For red ink Mix some of the above with as much carmine as it will
fake; the stiffer the ink is made, by adding coloring matter, the sharper the
impression will be. Previously to throwing of or transferring the impression
to the block, the latter must be well washed with a solution of caustic potash
or soda, and allowed to dry: And be it recollected, that with this ink, as well
as. with all the following, immediately or some time after the impression is
taken, a sheet of clean paper must be put over or laid on the block, and a,hot
iron run over it to fix the ink; while the wood is still hot, pour over it
a solution of allum, and if the yellow tinge produced by the caustic potash
or soda still remains, and it is wished to be removed, a weak solution of.
muriatic acid will effect tlie purpose. You may, in grinding this ink,, add
a small portion of dry soap.
For black ink. Take about equal parts of nitrate of silver, commonly
called luna caustic, and varnish, add. a little lamp-black, merely to color the
ink, and grind the whole well on a glass or marble slab. For this ink, the
block may or may not be washed with a solution of caustic potash or soda.
When the block, is washed with a solution of wax in turpentine, varnish and
lamp-black only may be used for throwing off impressions; when this solution
is adopted, do not; use a hot iron after the transfer is, finished, but merely hold
the block near to the fire, this will fix the pattern.
For blue ink. Grind equal parts of green sulphate of iron; dried over the
fire, and common red ochre, or any colour, containing iron, (add a little indigo
to give colour to the ink,) with varnish; wash the block with prussiate of
potash and caustic soda or potash. After the impression has been fixed wit
a hot iron, pour some muriatic acid (diluted) on the whole, (do not use a
brush with this operation, or, the lines will smear,) to bring out the colour.
For blue ink with indigo. Grind very fine some indigo with varnish, and
if though proper some yellow orpiment. Wash the block, with a solution of
caustic potash.
Now, it is evident that my said Invention is applicable to all those stiles of
block printing where the process called putting-on is used, and various modes
of availing himself of it, in the whole or in part, will occur to the manufacturer
which it would be unnecessary here to enumerate; thus, for instance, when
part of the pattern is made from engraved rollers, the remainder may be traced

page_text: on papier glace; or where the brassed blocks, as they are called, (the putting-on
of which has been performed as aforesaid,) are used, an impression may be taken
from them on fine oiled silk, and then such parts of the pattern as are to be
'transferred to blocks may be outlined by hand on the silk with the aforesaid
inks, and the silk then turned over on the block, and an impression given of the
*pattern on the block without the ordinary hammering or blows on the back of
the block. Another great advantage of this mode of proceeding, as regards
brassed blocks is, that though the whole brassed pattern will be given on the
oiled silk, only so much as is necessary to guide the cutter will be transferred to
the other block, which will cause much less confusion to the cutter. It is only
necessary further to add, that the papier glace (if that be the transparent
substance used) should be kept in a dry place; and when engraved, if laid by,
will serve to renew the pattern at a very short notice at any time when
required, and when no longer wanted may be melted up and formed into new
sheets of papier glace.
Now, whereas I claim as my Invention etching or scratching a copy of
the pattern to be used in block printing on a transparent substance, such as
the said papier glace, while placed over the original pattern drawn by the
artist, and then by means of colored inks suited to the transparent substance
used for the etching, as also to the wetting of the blocks when cutting, throwing
off a print from the etching in an ordinary copper-plate printing press, in man-
ner aforesaid, upon a thin oiled silk, and transferring the same on to the block
while the ink is wet, by turning that side of the silk containing the impression
over on the block, and applying slight friction and pressure to the back of the
silk, as aforesaid. And such my Invention being to the best of my knowledge
and belief entirely new, and never before used within that part of His said
Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His
said Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby
declare this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe
this my said Specification doth comply fully and without reserve or disguise
with the said proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent
contained, whereof I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and priviledge
to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the Charles Joseph Hullmandel, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of March, One thousand
aight hundred and thinter Cam
C. J. (L.s.) HULLMANDEL.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Nineteenth day of March, in
the year of our Lord 1834, the aforesaid Charles Joseph Hullmandel came
before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Speci-
fication aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in
form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-four.
Inrolled the Twenty-eighth day of April, in. the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-four.