IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PRINTING AND FOR CUTTING PRINTED PAPER INTO SHEETS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Augustus Applegath, of Dartford, in the County of
Kent, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
PRINTING AND FOR CUTTING PRINTED PAPER INTO SHEETS."
Sealed the 2nd March, 1860, and dated the 14th September 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Augustus Applegath at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th
'September 1859.
comi:
I, AUGUSTUS APPLEGATH, of Dartford; in the County of Kent, Engineer, >
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR PRINTING AND FOR CUTTING PRINTED PAPER INTO SHEETS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for, printing
and for cutting printed paper into sheets, and is peculiarly applicable, for
printing webs or long lengths of paper which require to be cut or divided into
sheets immediately before or after the printing, although the portion of the
Invention which relates to cutting printed paper may be used separate from
the printing machine in machines where long sheets or, webs of paperiare.fed.
into the,same. In combining a machine for these purposes, two surface printing
rollers are, used, between two pairs, of cylinders, each covered withi blanketting.
or, suitable soft material, and in order to prevent as much as may be, the effect!
of set off on such cylinders they, are each made of two or more times the cir
cumference of the printing surface rollers, and further to prevent the effects:
of set off, each cylinder may be.. provided with moveable blanketting, or. other'

page_text: suitable material on the inside capable of being moved a short distance over
the exterior surface of the cylinders from time to time, in order to bring up
fresh quantities of the blanketting or material. The combination of the sur-
face printing rollers, and the cylinders is so arranged as to admit of two webs
or lengths of paper being simultaneously printed on both sides; the paper after
receiving an impression on one side passes over or against rollers with endless
or other blanketting or absorbing material so as to have any superfluous ink
or colour removed from the impression before the paper is printed on the other
side, and after such second impression it is also subjected to the action of like
absorbing apparatus before passing to the cutting apparatus, which consists, in
each case, of a cylinder coated or covered with a material into which puncturing
or cutting points, or blades may penetrate, and such puncturing cutters are
set on rollers in such manner that the puncturing of one roller shall be inter-
mediate of the other or others, so that when the paper has passed the rollers,
the paper shall be divided across. The printed paper thus divided is delivered
at several different places by means of carrying tapes or aprons on rollers, in
such manner that one pair of delivering tapes or aprons may (by one pair of the
rollers by which the tapes or aprons are carried, being arranged so as to be
moved from and to two or more sets of endless tapes or aprons) deliver to two
or more sets of carrying tapes or aprons. Apparatus for damping the paper is
also applied. The apparatus for dividing the printed paper into sheets, and
the printing machinery may be separate, the cutting machinery being used to
divide the paper after it comes from the printing machine, or the cutting
apparatus above described may be arranged to cut the paper before it comes
to the printing rollers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Augustus Applegath in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
14th March 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AUGUSTUS
APPLEGATH, of Dartford, in the County of Kent, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing. date the Fourteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Augustus Applegath, Her special licence that I, the said Augustus
Applegath, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the

page_text: said Augustus Applegath, 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 and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PRINTING AND FOR CUTTING PRINTED PAPER
INTO SHEETS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Augustus
Applegath, 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 Augustus Applegath do hereby declare
the nature of the. said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for printing
and for cutting printed paper into sheets, and is peculiarly applicable for
printing webs or long lengths of paper which require to be cut or divided into
sheets immediately before or after the printing, although the portion of the
Invention which relates to cutting printed paper may be used separate from
the printing machine in machines where long sheets or webs of paper are fed
into the same. In combining a machine for these purposes, two surface printing
rollers are used between two pairs of cylinders each covered with blanketting
or suitable soft material, and in order to prevent as much as may be, thereffect
of set off on such cylinders' where the already printed paper comes in con-
tact with the cylinders, they are each made.. of two or more times, the cir-
cumference of the printing surface rollers, and further to prevent. the effects
of 'set off each cylinder may be provided with: moveable blanketting or. other
suitable material on the inside capable of being moved a short distance over
the exterior surface of the cylinders from time to time in order to bring up
fresh quantities of the blanketting or material. The combination of the sur
face printing rollers and the cylinders is so arranged as to admit of two webs.
or lengths of paper being simultaneously printed on both sides; the paperi after
receiving an impression on one side passes over or, against rollers with endless
or other blanketting. or. absorbing material so as to have any: superfluous ink
or color removed from the impression before the paper is printed on the other
side, and after such second impression, it is also subjected to the action of like
1.

page_text: absorbing apparatus before passing to the cutting apparatus, which consists in
each case of a cylinder coated or covered with a material into which puncturing
or cutting points or blades may penetrate, and such puncturing cutters are
set on rollers in such manner that the puncturing of one roller shall be inter-
mediate of the other or others, so that when the paper has passed the rollers,
the paper shall be divided across. The printed paper thus divided is delivered
at several different places by means of carrying tapes or aprons on rollers in
such manner that one pair of delivering tapes or aprons may (by one pair of the
rollers by which the tapes or aprons are carried being arranged so as to be
moved from and to two or more sets of endless tapes or aprons) deliver to two
or more sets of carrying tapes or aprons. Apparatus for damping the paper is
also applied. The apparatus for dividing the printed paper into sheets, and
the printing machinery may be separate, the cutting machinery being used to
divide the paper after it comes from the printing machine or the cutting
apparatus above described may be arranged to cut the paper before it comes
to. the printing rollers.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawings hereunto
annexed.
:
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1, Sheet A, is a side elevation of a machine to perfect or print both
on the face and the reverse two webs or lengths of paper passing simul-
taneously through the machine; Figure 2, Sheet A, is an end view of the
same machine. The letters of reference apply to both Figures. Two methods
of feeding the machine with paper are shown, one or other of which may be
employed, according as the machine is desired to work with long webs of paper
or with detached sheets. The left hand side of Figure 1 represents the
machine as supplied with long sheets in rolls, and the right hand side of the
Drawing shews a set of the usual feeding apparatus from which a series of
detached sheets follow each other in the manner of a roll composed of one long
sheet. A, A, is the framing of the machine; B and B are the cylinders for
impressing the first side of the paper; C and C* are cylinders or rollers which
support the forms, which may be composed either of curved type or stereotype
plates cast or made to the proper curve as is well understood; D and D* are
cylinders which impress the reverse side of the paper; they may be made of
large size in order to carry several impressing cloths, whereby the "setting off"
or fouling of the impression cloth is diminished, and their circumference either
four times that of the form roller or other multiple thereof, or they may be

page_text: furnished with endless printing cloths, and then they need not be aliquot parts
of the form rollers; setting off may also be diminished by the distance or tinie
allowed between the first and the reverse printing. The form and impressing
cylinders are connected by toothed wheels as usual. For the more sym-
metrical arrangement of the machine the first impressing cylinders B and B*
are placed above the form rollers, and the paper is guided.in such a manner
that the first impression which one web or series of sheets-receives, at B*. will be
perfected, that is, printed on its reverse at the left hand lower cylinder D, and in
like manner paper printed first at B will be perfected at the right hand lower
cylinder D*, but this arrangement, and the size of the cylinders may be varied
according to the use intended. The ink is supplied by composition rollers
E, E, which are better shewn together with the method of distributing the ink
by Figure 5, Sheet B. Thus far the description applies to the printing and
impressing part of the machine, whether the paper is in rolls or in previously
detached sheets, and the various moving parts are supposed to be connected
by toothed wheels in the usual manner of printing machines.
When the paper to be printed is in long sheets or rolls, the method of
supplying them is seen, as already mentioned, on the left hand side of Figure 1,
Sheet A, and also by a diagram, Figure 8, Sheet B. Convenient stages or floors
must be made over the machines to support the feeding apparatus, which is as
follows:-K and K* are the rolls of paper, supposed to be previously damped';
L and L, are tight drums, furnished with toothed wheels, and are connected
by the wheels a, a, with the rollers b, b, which are driven at the same rate as
the form and impressing cylinders; the roll of paper K* is supposed to be bearing
upon the drum L, which causes the roll to unwind, and to deliver its paper
to the central rollers b, b, between which it passes in a downward direction
(as shewn by the arrows) towards the impressing cylinder B. Meantime the
roll of paper K is supposed to be held up by any suitable means in the long
slit bearings so as to be clear of the drum L, but just before the first roll K*
is expended, the other roll K is set in motion by letting it down upon the
drum L, in such manner that its front edge may fall upon a portion of the
end of the first roll which it follows, parts of each roll being wasted in order
that the printing cloths upon the impression cylinders may not be inked by
the form. After receiving its impression at B, the paper rises (as shown by
the arrows) and passes to the left, 7 or 8 feet above the stage, and then down-
wards to the machine room floor, where it is turned to the right, towards the
lower impression cylinder D* of the right hand printing machine, and after
receiving the reverse impression, it then passes under the roller M, which
carries an endless absorbing cloth, and up to the roller N, where it goes over

page_text: ...
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another endless cloth, and down to the drum O, which winds it up into a 'roll
again, whence it is taken away" to be cut into sheets. If the printed impres-
"sion does not require absorbing,' the drum O'may be nearer the machine;
P, P, are rollers which convey endless blankets or clothis, to act as absorbents
"of any superfluous ink, if required they should have bearings with fine tighten->
ing screws and angling rollers or bars in the usual manner of the "lapping
used in calico printing.
'The Diagram, Figure 9, Sheet B, shews another kind of feeding apparatus,
which may be substituted for that just described; by means of this apparatus
rolls of paper may be damped as they advance towards the printing cylinders.
The rolls K and K are moved by drums L, and L, similar to those before
described, and the paper passes from them to and between the metal rollers
a; a, which are covered with cloth, and are furnished with suitable bearings
having set screws, by which they may slightly compress the paper as it passes.
The metal rollers by b; work in the water troughs c, c, and the degree of pres-
sure of the rollers bb, against the rollers a, a, will regulate the degree of
dampness communicated to the paper. The 'metal rollers are connected with
each other, and also with the drums L and L*, by toothed wheels, and are
driven at the rate of the form and impressing cylinders. When the machines
are to be supplied with-ready detached sheets, they should be furnished with
another set of feed boards and drums on the left hand similar to those shewn
on the right hand of Figure 1, and the rollers which start the paper must be
set so as to cause the sheets to follow in a stream; with only a short interval
between them; the length of the paper and the interval should correspond
with the circumference of the form rollers C and C*, which should be..
a few inches more than the measure of the form.
and other parts of the feeders, are not shewn in the
of the ordinary construction, and well known to the trade.
of the stream of paper, from the feed boards to the first impressing cylinder B*
on the right hand side is indicated by the arrows, and is further explained by
Figure 3, 'Sheet B. Figure 3, Sheet B, is a diagram, shewing how the sheets of
paper coming from the various feed boards may be collected between two lines
of tapes at x, x; the passage of the sheets of paper and the direction of the
tapes, and their return to the feed drums is indicated by the arrows; the course
of the paper after leaving B*, is upwards and downwards towards the cylinder:
'D, which is on the left hand side, where it receives the reverse or perfecting
'impression; it then passes under the roller F to the double set of tapes G,
'which are shown as set to carry it to the middle set of delivery tapes H, which
T deliver it upon the heap H; just as the end of the sheet is coming to the last
The starting rollers
Drawing, they being
The passage

page_text: rollers of the vibrating tapes G, they rise to the upper delivery tapes I which
convey their sheet to the heap I*; the vibrating tapes then fall to the lower
delivery tapes Z which lead to the heap Z*. The tapes G then rise to the
middle position, and so on, thus dividing the printed work into several heaps.
The paper is assisted on to the heaps by hand in the usual way. The vibrating
tapes are carried by hinged arms to which motion may be given by a spindle
with three cams which should be driven by suitable means to make a change in
the position of the vibrating tapes for each impression given. Paper coming
from the left hand side feeders, which are not shewn in the Drawing, will
follow the same course as the roll of paper, as already described, and when
perfected will pass under the roller to sets of delivery tapes on the right hand
side of the machine, similar to those described as G, I, H, and Z; the method
of dividing the printed sheets into two or more heaps is an important
feature of this arrangement, as without it the speed of the machine would
be limited by the speed at which the sheets can be taken off from it at one
point of delivery. The stream of sheets of paper or of rolls are to be guided
in their journey in the usual manner by tapes and rollers in a slightly serpen-
tine course, and some of the tape rollers require to be driven at the rate of
the form and impressing cylinders, which is easily effected by horizontal shafts
bearing small bevil wheels which work into bevil wheels affixed on the tape'
rollers; such bending tapes and their rollers are not shown in the Drawing,
they being similar in effect to tapes used in the well known four-feeder
machines. The tapes being thus driven at the proper rate, and the sheets
having a continuous motion, they will arrive at the respective impressing
cylinders at the proper points of time notwithstanding any distance between
the first and second impressions, but if any discrepancy should arise, it can be
corrected by giving the rollers z, 2, or any other of the tape rollers, a motion
upwards or downwards, so as to lengthen or shorten the journey as the case
may require. The upper impression rollers have their bearings in the hanging
carriages Q, Q, by which they can be moved away so as to permit free access
to the forms, as shewn by dotted lines, and the end view, Figure 2, shews
stages s, s, for the "layers on," some of whom are to be in front and some at
the opposite side of the framing.
Figure 5, Sheet B, represents the inking apparatus on a larger scale. C is
the central roller, bearing the form of type; E, E, are composition rollers, in
contact with the type, and also with the metal roller; D, E, are rollers,
which communicate the ink to the metal roller from the drum F, which has
around it several smaller rollers z, z, in order to distribute the ink; V is the
usual vibrating roller, which conveys ink to the drum from the usual ductor

page_text: roller, Y; B is part of the upper, impression cylinder; and D. is part of the
lower; impression cylinder,,, The, metal, roller should be driven, and to prevent:
the heating of the composition rollers, the metal rollers D; D; may have
currents of cold water passed through them, by means of perforated spindles,
and by suitable bearings, as .commonly: made: for the passage of steam through:
a cylinder, and the composition rollers should be furnished with coiled or other "
springs, to keep them in moderate contact with the form of plates, or with the
distributing drum. The distributing rollers x, x, have an end motion on the
drum F by their carriages being hinged and furnished with friction pullies,
which act against indented edges on the drum.
Figure 6, Sheet B, is a diagram of one of the paper or impressing cylinders
D,D,Figures 1 and 2; made four times the circumference of the form
roller; the printing cloth a; a; passes through slits cast in the cylinder into the
interior, and isrrolled upon the spindles b, b, which have toothed wheels c, c;"
upon them, and which are in gear with the toothed wheel d; by' moving which
the printing cloths are simultaneously rolled and unrolled upon the spindles: b; b
so as to present new surfaces on the circumference of the cylinder: The
wheels c, c; should turn free upon the spindles, and be connected by ratchets,
so that the printing cloths may, in case of need, be tightened separately.
Figure 4, Sheet B, shows a method of damping a long sheet, made into a
roll, and is used for preparing a roll of paper for the machine when damping
mechanism is not combined with the feeding apparatus of the machine. K'is
the roll of paper, which rests upon the drum L. The sheet is led over the
metal roller C to the roller E, which also bears upon the drum G. The water
roller D; and the damping roller C are connected with toothed 'wheels, and"
have suitable bearings, so as to increase or diminish their mutual pressure,"
which regulates the degree of dampness. The drums are connected with 'D' by
toothed wheels on their spindles in geer with a wheel on D; motion being
given, the friction of the drums B and G cause the rolls upon them to revolve
in the manner of the "conroy," well known 'in calico printing, by which the
paper unwinds from one drum, rolls up upon the other, being damped in""
its. passage by contact with the roller C; the roller D works in the water
trough W.
amm
"
Figure 7. Sheet B; represents an apparatus for dividing printed rolls into
separate sheets. The roll K rests upon the drum L in the manner of a
conroy," as before described, and the paper passes under a guide roller to the
drum C, which is covered with one or more layers of vulcanized india-rubber
or other suitable material. D, D, are drums or strong spindles, bearing metal
jaws, in which a series of puncturing needles or pins are fixed, in a line along

page_text: the drum or parallel with the spindle; and they must be adjusted so that the
holes made by the second line of pins may fall upon the interstices of the first
line, but leaving a few intervals in the line of perforations, in order to preserve
just enough paper to lead from the drum C to the roller R, where it is held by
the tapes t, t; it then passes on to the tapes of the last roller W, upon which
it is firmly held by the tapes x, x: the drums and rollers and puncturing
spindles are all connected by toothed wheels, so that they all travel at the
same surface speed; the speed, however, of the roller W is accelerated each
time that a line of perforations in the paper comes to the point y, and then
the drag caused by the tapes around this roller travelling faster than the roll
of paper unwinds causes the paper to break at the line of perforations, and in
this manner, as it passes through this apparatus, it is separated into sheets.
This arrangement of apparatus may, if desired, be combined with the printing
machine, so as to divide the long web of paper either before or after it is
printed; I prefer, however, to employ it as a separate machine to divide the
long web of paper after it has been printed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Augustus Applegath, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
AUG. APPLEGATH. (L.S.)