CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON- STRUCTION OF PRINTING PRESSES
Year: 1820

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DANIEL
TREADWELL, Citizen of the United States of America, but now of Newman's
Court, Cornhill, in the City of London, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-fifth day' of
January, in the sixtieth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Daniel Treadwell, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence,' full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Daniel Treadwell, my
exors, admors, and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned; should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend within England and Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies.
and Plantations abroad, my Invention of" CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON-
STRUCTION OF PRINTING PRESSES; in which said Letters Patent there is contained.
a proviso that if I, the said Daniel Treadwell, shall not particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, by instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause
the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages
whatsoever thereby granted shall utterly cease, determine, and become void,
as in and by the same, relation 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
Daniel Treadwell, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,.
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof:-
But before describing particularly all the parts of a press built after the
Plan and Drawings hereto annexed, I will give a general description of some
of its important parts, and of its advantages over the common press.
First, then, by a peculiar combination and arrangement of levers, toggle
joint, &c., together with a peculiar mode of using a treadle, the pressman is
enabled to take an impression by the weight of his body in descending from
a certain plane of elevation, aud in recovering the plane from which his
descent commenced, he is assisted by the reaction of all those elastic bodies
which his descent had depressed, bent, or caused to yield from their natural
situation.
Again, in common presses the form is moved backwards and forwards under
and from the plattin; or if the plattin has been united to the tympin, and
turned backwards or forwards with it to renew the sheet (the form being
stationary), its gravity has been counterballanced by a simple weight revol-
ving on the same axis on which the plattin itself revolves. But in this press
the plattin, &c. are counterballanced by springs and weights, or either, acting
on a lever of the third order, the end of which communicates with the plattin
or frame in which the plattin is hung, and the impulse which it receives from
the springs and weights forms a counterbalance of a much more constant and
perfect kind, as .it neither oscillates nor has any considerable vis inertia to
oppose a quick motion.
i
And, thirdly, this press has certain machinery by which the pressman is
enabled to turn the sheet in an easy and expeditious manner whenever he
wishes to print both sides of his sheet from the same form. All the parts
of this press, and the manner of combining them, will be understood by a
reference to the accompanying Drawing in which the same letters and
figures of reference refer to the same parts in all the Figures.
"
Fig. 1 is a side view of a press constructed in my improved manner;
Fig. 2, a front view of the same; Fig. 3, a back view of the same; Fig. 4,
a plan of the press; Fig. 5, the upper side of the plattin, &c.; Fig. 6, a
back view of the plattin and the frisketts, when in the act of turning;
Fig. 7, a side view of the same; Figs. 8, 9, 10, and 11, parts of the
friskets and of the frame in which they revolve; Figs. 12 and 13, parts
of the toggle joint; Fig. 14, the cylinder of the toggle joint; Fig. 15,

page_text: necessary to impress
parts for adjusting the plattin. A, A, &c., the cast-iron frames of the
press, consisting of two nearly similar sides united by cross pieces and
screwed bolts at B, B, B, &c.; C, C, the great beam or lever of the press,
moving upon a cylindrical bolt or axis at D; E, a straight bar of cast iron,
united by toggle joints F and G with the longer end of the great beam C and
the frame or lever H, HI, &c. turning upon a cylindrical bolt or axis at I.
Underneath the frame or lever H, H, is the treadle J, connected with that
frame by the clasps K, L, and having its end projecting in front of the press,
on which the foot of the pressman is to be applied. M, M, is the table of
the press, resting upon and secured to the horizontal bars of the frame A, A,
and upon the wooden support N, N. To the table M, M, is hung the frame
of the plattin 0, 0, and its appendages by the fixed hinges P, P, and in the
frame O, O, is suspended the plattin Q, Q, by the bolts R, R. The plattin is
prevented from revolving upon the bolts more than
both ends of the sheet of paper equally by means of the hook S, the hook end
of which enters into an oval hole T made through the front rib of the plattin,
and its shank or stem can be fixed and retained at the required heighth in the
vertical hole in the stud U by the wedge W. The hook S may be moved up
and down in the stud U, so as to bring the face of the plattin parallel with
the face of the form, whilst the oval hole in the rib of the plattin allows the
plattin such play on its bolts R, R, as is necessary to preserve this parallel
direction on the descent of the plattin when the impression is given. The
plattin in Q, Q, is made of cast iron, and for the purpose of making it as
light and strong as may be, the upper side of it is surrounded with ribs, and
crossed by others cast with it in one piece; and in order to diffuse the
pressure as uniformly as possible over the various parts of the plattin, bars of.
cast iron or steel X, X, &c. are arranged in a pyramidal shape, their lower
ends resting in concavities made in the tops of the ribs of the plattin, and
their upper ends were united and surrounded by a rim under the cap Y.
These bars X, X, &c. are prevented from separating from the plattin by a rod
of iron Z, which has a head at its upper part fitted into a countersunk hole
in the cap Y, and which is screwed at its lower end into a female screw, made
in the centre rib of the plattiu to receive it. The pressure is given upon the
cap Y from the shorter end of the great beam C, C, by the mediation of the
moving arm a, which is united with the beam C, C, by a toggle joint b, and
is prevented from falling away from the beam by the hinged straps c, c, on
each side of it. The arm a is drawn out of the way when the plattin requires
to be turned back by means of the mechanism now to be described, which.
also brings it on to the cap Y when the impression is to be given; to the.

page_text: lower bar of the frame or lever H, H, is connected, by means of a bolt d, the
forked. lower end of an iron rod e, e, the upper end of which is also forked,
and each side of it is bent in. the direction's 'shewn. in the Drawings by the
letters and g; these bent parts pass. through two guide holes h, h, made in
the plates i, i, which are affixed to the upright standards of the frame A, A;
to each side of the upper fork of the rod e, e; is affixed..by moveable rivets or
bolts a connecting rod j, j, which are also connected with the arm'a by a
moveable bolt, so as to partake of the motions of the rod e, e, backwards 'and
'forwards; for when the pressman depresses the treadle J,'the rod e, e, also
descends, and while the upper forked end of it passes from f to'g in the guide
holes h, h, the upper part of the rod moves forward on towards the pressman,
which imotion, is communicated to the arm a by the connecting rods, and
the lower end of the arm is thereby brought over the cap Y, and retained in
that situation during the farther descent of the treadle by the form given to
the upper part of the forked rod e, e. The pressure is effected by the weight
of 'the pressman acting upon the treadle J, by the descent of which that part
of the frame. or lever H, H, from I to. G'is brought. forward, and 'made to
approach nearer to a right line with the bar E, by which the longer' end of
the beam C, C, is raised, and the shorter end depressed and. made to act on
the plattin through the arm a and the bars X, X; &c. When the impression
is effected the 'pressman recovers his original place on the platform V; V, by
'slight exertion of the muscles of that leg, which did not sustain his weight
in giving the impression, aiding. the reaction of all the elastic bodies which
his descent had compressed; then the weight of the longer end of the
beam c,ic, and which is aided by the action of the cleft spring kaffixed to
the beam for that purpose,- brings the different parts of the press to their
former situations; the arm a being withdrawn by the ascent of "the forked
rod e'e, so as to perinit the plattin to be thrown back in order to ink the
types, &c. That the plattin may be the more easily turned backwards and
forwards, its weight is counterballanced by means of the weight and springs
m'acting upon the frame or lever n, n, which holds the weight, and turns
upon an axis or fulcrum 0, 0, 'resting in holes made in the support pand in
the frame A, A, for that purpose. The frame'is elongated, so as to form
an arm or lever, having a hole in its end into which is hooked the lower end
of the rod.q, the upper end of which is hooked upon the stud v, which
connects the bent arms or excentricities of the frame 0, 0, of the plattin. · It
will be seen that the weight and springs m; when in proper quantity, and
properly adjusted, constantly acting upon the frame n, have a tendancy to
depress the bent arms of the frame 0, 0, through the hooked rod qiwith a

page_text: power equal to the weight of the plattin, either when in the situation's shewn
in Figs. 1 and 2, or when the plattin is elevated, as cat Fig. 3, or in any
situation between those positions... The weight is. supported in the frame n
upon the bars s, and the springs m act upon another barit, which hangs upon
pivots in the sides of the frame on. The tympanu, u,ista frame of wood
surrounding the plattin O, O, over the face of which is stretched a sheet of
silk or parchment in the usual way, and between which and the plattin the
blanket is interposed. The tympan is kept in its proper situation by the
studs v, v, &c. and the buttons w, w. To the tympan u is fixed by screws
the plates x, x, with studs y, y,-rivetted firmly into them; these studs have
pivots upon their outer ends, on which turns the frame z, z, &c. In the
middle of the ends of this frame are fixed two studs 1, 1, which are shewn
on a larger scale at Figs. 8 and 9.. These studs 1, -1, have semicircular
plates 2, 2, concentric with them, and affixed to the ends of the frame.z z.
The spaces between the studs.1, 1, and the semicircular plates 2, 2,. are
occupied by cleft sockets or cylinders on which the friskets 3, 3, revolve, and
which will be described hereafter.
The friskets 3, 3, consist of two iron frames, each of which is similar to the
'frisket of the common priiiting press. These friskets are hinged together at one
end, as represented at 4, 4, besides which they have in the middle of each end
-the parts 5, 5, &c., forming the cleft sockets or cylinders upon which they
revolve, as aforesaid, and which are shewn upon an enlarged scale at Figs. 10
and 11. Each frisket is to be furnished with papers and strings stretched
across them in the usual manner; 'the use of these revolving friskets is to turn
the sheet to be printed on the second side, in printing half-sheet wise. In
order to do this, the sheet having been placed between the two friskets, and
printed on the first side, and the plattin elevated, as at Fig. 4, the pressman
elevates the frames Z, Z, as shewn in Figs. 6 and 7, and turns the friskets
half way round on their sockets 5, 5, when the frame Z, Z, and friskets are
again lowered or brought into their former situation, as represented in Fig. 4,
and the second impression may be made. In case of printing each side of
the sheet from a different form, one of the friskets only is to be opened upon
its hinges, as seen at Fig. 3.
In Figure 1 the Drawing shews the press in the act of giving the impres-
sion, and the dotted lines shew the situations of the various parts when the
press is at rest. The various parts of this press may be made of any material
fit and proper for such purposes.
I do not claim as my Invention any of the individual parts of which this
press is composed, which may or may not have been in use before; but I do

page_text: claim the application of those parts so as to produce an impression by the
weight of the pressman being thrown upon a treadle, which I believe has not
hitherto been done by any one else. I likewise claim the manner of counter-
ballancing the plattin and its appendages in its various situations, and of
diffusing the pressure over various parts of the back of the plattin, and also
the contrivance for turning the sheet of paper.
In witness whereof, I, the said Daniel Treadwell, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty.
CAMPBELL.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-first day of July, in the
year of our Lord 1820, the aforesaid Daniel Treadwell came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, 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 Statutes made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty.