CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ART OF PRINTING CALICOES AND OTHER SURFACES
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
SHEPHERD, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Calico Printer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Nineteenth day of April, in the eighth year of Her reign,
and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-five,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Shepherd, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and autho-
rity, that I, the said William Shepherd, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said William Shepherd, my executors, admi-
nistrators, 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 lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England
and Wales and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ART OF PRINTING CALICOES AND OTHER SURFACES;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said William
Shepherd, should cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be enrolled
in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next

page_text: 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Shepherd, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereto annexed, and the following
explanation thereof (that is to say):-
My Improvements in the Art of Printing Calicoes and other Surfaces apply
chiefly to printing piece goods or fabrics manufactured from cotton, wool, or
other fibrous substances, or mixtures thereof, and consist in the first place in
the application to such purposes of a peculiar preparation of caoutchouc or
india rubber, now commonly termed "vulcanized" india rubber, either
employed as a covering for rollers or bowls, or used as an endless printing
blanket or web in lieu of the ordinary woollen or other blanket at present
employed. The manufacture of this said "vulcanized" india rubber is fully
described in the Specifications of two several Letters Patent, one granted to
Thomas Hancock, of Goswell Road, London, and dated Twenty-first day of
November, One thousand eight hundred and forty-three, and the other for a
similar Invention communicated from abroad, and granted to William
Edward Newton, of Chancery Lane, London, the Thirtieth day of January,
One thousand eight hundred and forty-four. Now I have discovered, that if
the rollers or bowls usually employed in calico and other printing be covered
with this substance, or if the said substance be formed into an endless blacket
or sheet, and used for printing in the same way as blankets of other materials
(as woollen, &c.) are now employed in printing, the result will be a conside-
rable improvement in the art of printing fabrics. The elasticity or compres-
sibility of such a surface or blanket is much more uniform, the tendency to
barden or soften with variations of temperature being almost entirely obviated.
The improvement in printing herein described as resulting from the use of the
said "vulcanized" india rubber will be principally experienced in the printing
of woollen, cotton, and similar fabrics; but it will also be experienced in a
great degree in the letterpress, lithographic, copperplate, and other printing
processes where a woollen or other blanket or elastic bed is commonly used.
The second part of my improvements consist in the application of an appa-
ratus to the ordinary printing machine for cleaning the said vulcanized india
rubber web or blanket or bowl, by which I dispense with the use of grey or
unfinished pieces of calico, &c. commonly employed for keeping the ordinary

page_text: printing blanket clean, and effect a great saving of steam in drying and power.
in turning, besides obtaining a much finer impression or print, the machine
taking up less space in consequence of the ordinary drying and blanket rollers
being removed. When this improved web or blanket is employed for calico
or similar printing by the common machines, the improved web or blanket to
be formed of "vulcanized" india rubber should be about seven eighths of a
yard or nine eighths wide (or of any other convenient width as required), and
from four to six yards long, evenly joined at the ends; and as the joining the
ends of the web has to be effected before the process of vulcanizing, one side
of the machine, will be required to be moved to admit the blanket on to the
printing bowl. It is then to be passed over a frame, of, which a sketch is
exhibited in the Drawing annexed, and which may be applied above the
printing machine in place of the ordinary blanket rollers... A is the first
drawing roller, made of copper, turned quite true. The web or blanket B, in
passing over this, comes in contact with a doctor C, formed of a stiff bar of
brass, with a flat edge towards the blanket, and a sloping edge on the other
side; and having a small trough to receive the color scraped from the blanket.
It then passes downwards in front of a friction roller D, over which a short
endless blanket or web E, also of "vulcanized" india rubber or other suitable
material, works, and in an opposite direction to the printing blanket B,. the
roller D being fluted, and the web E drawn tight over it, and set against the
printing blanket by means of the screw E. The roller then acts as a circular
doctor, scraping and drying any color that may have passed the first doctor,
which color is conveyed along the web E over the roller G, when it comes in
contact with another common doctor F, by which the color is. ultimately
removed. The printing blanket then passes over a steam-drying cylinder H
to remove any damp that may remain over the tension roller I, and is returned
to the printing bowl J..
The third part of my improvements consist in the novel and peculiar construc-
tion of what is termed in printing a "seive roller," and the important feature
of novelty in which is, the elasticity imparted to such roller by the medium of
air confined between the outer covering and inner body of such "seive roller."
These rollers are employed. for transferring color to surface. rollers or copper
printing rollers in printing woollens or cottons by machines. My improved
"seive roller" is formed of an iron centre, about one and a half inch in
diameter and about thirty-two inches long (according to the machine it may
be required for), with two flanges about five inches diameter grooved on the
edge to the depth of half an inch, the flanges to be fitted on to the width
required for the goods intended to be printed. I find twenty-eight inches

page_text: ample width for seven eighths cloth. Care must be taken that the flanges are
fitted on accurately, so as to be air-tight; and a tap for admitting air must be
screwed into one of the flanges. It is as well to paint the inside of the flanges
with white paint to render them perfectly air-proof. The grooves are then to be
fitted with strips of sheet india rubber, moistened with turpentine, to be wound.
on until level with the edge of the flanges. I then fill the inside between the
flanges with soft flannel evenly wound on to the level of the flanges. I then take
a sheet or sheets of india rubber rubber, and join them into the form of a pipe
or cylinder to fit the flanges. It is then to be drawn over, so as to form a
covering for the roller (having been previously dusted in the inside with
powdered French chalk to cause it to slip easily). The ends are joined to the
rubber in the grooves by moistening with turpentine. The roller must be
covered with a sheet of gauze or cotton cloth coated with caoutchouc, which is
intended to prevent the india rubber from distending when inflated, and for fixing
on the rings for keeping the colors separate when used for printing more than
one color. The rings are cut from a sheet of rubber about a quarter of an
inch thick, and to the length required to go round the roller, one edge to be
the thickness of one eighth inch, and the other tapering to a point. They
may be made to adhere by wetting the edge with turpentine, and applying it
to the gauze. The woollen seive or strips are then sewed on for printing.
The elasticity of this improved seive roller may be varied by regulating the
quantity of air confined under the outer surface of the roller.
A fourth part of my Invention consists in the application of a covering of
spongy or porous "vulcanized" rubber (also described in the Specification
above alluded to), placed on a centre or axis of iron or wood to be used as a
roller for "furnishing" surface or copper printing rollers with color, and also
the applying of india rubber rings or divisions made by strips of rubber being
attached to the surface of ordinary woollen or other seives for surface printing,
by which means various colors may be printed at the same time both in
"pegging" and "rainbowing.". In forming the rollers from the spongy
vulcanized rubber I take a cylinder or tube made of the material, at least one
inch thick, of the size required, and insert a wooden or iron centre to fit the
diameter of the roller the same as the elastic or air roller described before.
.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Shepherd, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-five.
WILLIAM (L.S.). SHEPHERD.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Seventeenth day of
October, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid William Shepherd
came before our Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Eighteenth day of October, in the year above written.