or Blocks for General Printing Purposes.
Year: 1885

page_text: or Blocks for General Printing Purposes.
ĭ
I, PHILIP MIDDLETON JUSTICE, of 55 and 56, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex Fellow of the Institute of Patent Agents, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in the substitution of cross-cut plates or blocks of wood
for the plaster of Paris, paper and other plastic or compressible materials hitherto
used in the formation of stereotype matrices and other moulds or blocks for
typographic and general printing purposes.
In the execution of the Invention, I employ, by preference, soft woods, possessing
continuous longitudinal fibres (such as Bass, Lynn wood, fir or poplar) cut trans-
versely into plates or blocks of any required thickness and size.
In order to obtain the best results, the wood to be employed should be treated
by any appropriate process capable of eliminating its fatty or mucilaginous
elements, the surface to be operated on being finally brought to a true plane, and
polished, or smoothed off, by any suitable means.
The plates or blocks thus cross-cut, can now be used for the reception of any
typographic or other impression, either intaglio or relief, produced by percussion
or pressure from counterparts of any more resistant material, and the blocks or
plates thus impressed can be used either directly for printing purposes on paper,
textile fabrics, leather or other materials, or as matrices for the reproduction of
stereotype or other counterparts.
In connection with stereotypes, it will be found in practice that the fusing
temperature of such alloys as those generally used in their production will exercise
no injurious effect on the wooden block, from which, (with due care) a practically
indefinite number of casts may be successively taken, without appreciable loss of
sharpness or warping of the matrix or of characters or other impressions on its
Burface.
I am aware that attempts have already been made to emboas on wood, by
percussion or pressure, impressions of type, and other dies for subsequent use
in stereotype or other printing moulds or blocks, but such attempts have given

page_text: imperfect or negative results for the reason that they have hitherto been applied
to plates or blocks cut lengthwise: as a result, the fibres of the wood thus presented
at right angles to the impact of the die, were simply indented or temporarily
depressed from their normal position, throwing up splinters at both ends, thus
causing the successive impressions to run into each other and to produce blurred or
broken edges, which constantly tended to spread horizontally, or otherwise recover
the original direction of the fibre.
In the present invention, I take advantage of the property possessed by wood
of receiving without blur or splinter, and permanently retaining impressions
produced by percussion or dead pressure on its cross cut surface, the result in this
case being that the fibres, presented "end on " to the impact of the die are "driven
in" or "telescoped" to the required depth, without displacement of the lateral
substance of the wood, thus allowing any number of characters or designs to be
sharply embossed in close proximity to, and without interference with each other.
This result could not, by any possibility, be obtained on wood used as hitherto
with its fibres at right angles to the impressing type or other die
.
It will be understood that wooden matrices obtained as above can, when so
desired; be used for the production of counterparts in plastic or other moulding or
reproductive media of almost any description, the blocks being prepared according
to their intended application.
Thus for instance, when intended for the reproduction of plaster casts or electro-
types or other counterparts involving their exposure to the action of liquids, they
may be coated or saturated with paraffine, wax or other substances capable of
checking absorption of the liquids used, and so on for all the rest, as necessity
may arise.
11

page_text: or Blocks for General Printing Purposes.
I PHILIP MIDDLETON JUSTICE, of 55 and 56 Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, Fellow of the Institute of Patent Agents do hereby declare the nature
of this invention (a communication from abroad by William Humphrey Knowles
temporarily of 24 Boulevard des Capucines Paris) and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
This Invention relates to the substitution of cross-cut plates or blocks of wood
for the plaster of Paris, paper and other plastic or compressible materials hitherto
used in the formation of stereotype matrices and other moulds or blocks for typo-
graphic and general printing purposes.
In the execution of the Invention, I employ, by preference, soft woods possessing
continuous longitudinal fibres (such as Bass, Lynn wood, fir or poplar) cut trans-
versely into plates or blocks of any required thickness and size.
In order to obtain the best results, the wood to be employed should be treated
by any appropriate process capable of eliminating its fatty or mucilaginous elements,
the surface to be operated on being finally brought to a true plane, and polished or
smoothed off, by any suitable means.
The plates or blocks thus cross cut can now be used for the reception of any
typographic or other impression, either intaglio or relief, produced by percussion or
pressure from counterparts of any more resistant material, and the blocks or plates
thus impressed can be used either directly for printing purposes on paper, textile
fabrics, leather or other materials, or as matrices for the reproduction of stereotype
or other counterparts.
In connection with stereotypes, it will be found in practice that the fusing
temperature of such alloys as those generally used in their production will exercise
no injurious effects on the wooden block, from which (with due care) a practically
indefinite number of casts may be successively taken, without appreciable loss of
sharpness or warping of the matrix or of characters or other impressions on its
surface.
I am aware that attempts have already been made to emboss on wood, by per-
cussion or pressure, impressions of type, and other dies for subsequent use in
stereotype or other printing moulds or blocks, but such attempts have given
imperfect or negative results for the reason that they have hitherto been applied to
plates or blocks cut lengthwise; as a result, the fibres of the wood thus presented
at right angles to the impact of the die, were simply indented or temporarily
depressed from their normal position, throwing up splinters at both ends, thus
causing the successive impressions to run into each other and to produce blurred
or broken edges which constantly tended to spread horizontally, or otherwise
recover the original direction of the fibre.
In the present invention I take advantage of the property possessed by
wood of receiving without blur or splinter, and permanently retaining impressions

page_text: "
"
produced by percussion or dead pressure on its cross cut surface, the result in this
case being that the fibres presented " end on to the impact of the die are driven
in" or " telescoped" to the required depth, without displacement of the lateral
substance of the wood, thus allowing any number of characters or designs to be
sharply embossed in close proximity to and without interference with each other.
This result could not, by any possibility, be obtained on wood used as hitherto with
its fibres at right angles to the impressing type or other die.
It will be understood that wooden matrices obtained as above can, when so
desired, be used for the production of counterparts in plastic or other moulding or
reproductive media of almost any description the blocks being prepared according
to their intended application.
Thus for instance, when intended for the reproduction of plaster casts or electro-
types or other counterparts involving their exposure to the action of liquids, they
may be coated or saturated with paraffine, wax or other substances capable of
checking absorption of the liquid used, and so on for all the rest, as necessity may
arise.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondent I declare that what I claim is:
An improved material for stereotype matrices and other moulds or blocks for
printing purposes, the said material consisting in cross-cut wood of suitable
description to be substituded for the plaster, paper, and other plastic or compres-
sible substances hitherto used for these purposes, the whole substantially as herein
set forth.
Dated this 15th den of Ta 1000