IMPROVEMENTS IN TAKING IMPRESSIONS AND PRODUCING PRINTING SURFACES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Bradbury and Frederick Mullett
Evans, of Whitefriars, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
TAKING IMPRESSIONS AND PRODUCING PRINTING SURFACES."-A com-
munication.
Sealed the 28th June 1853, and dated the 11th May 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Bradbury
and Frederick Mullett Evans at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with their Petition, on the 11th May 1853.
We, WILLIAM BRADBURY and FREDERICK MULLETT EVANS, of
Whitefriars, do hereby declare that the nature of our said Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TAKING IMPRESSIONS AND PRODUCING PRINTING
SURFACES" to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of placing plants and other vegetable matters,
insects, and other substances between a surface of steel and a surface
of polished lead, and by pressure obtaining an impression on the lead,
and from such impression obtaining an electrotype surface suitable for
printing.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent.
filed by the said William Bradbury and Frederick Mullett Evans
in the Great Seal Patent Office, on the 11th November 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc,
WILLIAM BRADBURY and FREDERICK MULLETT EVANS, of Whitefriars,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and succes-
sors, give and grant unto us, the said William Bradbury and Frederick
Mullett Evans, Her special licence that we, the said William Bradbury
and Frederick Mullett Evans, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said William Bradbury and Frederick Mullett
Evans, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 TAKING IMPRESSIONS AND PRODUCING
PRINTING SURFACES," (communicated to us from abroad,) upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that we, the said William Bradbury and
Frederick Mullett Evans, by an instrument in writing under our
hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, 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 we, the said William Bradbury and Frederick
Mullett Evans, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to he perforined, to be particularly de-

page_text: scribed and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that
is to say:
This Invention consists of placing plants and other vegetable matters,
insects, and other substances between a surface of steel and a surface
of polished lead, and by pressure obtaining an impression on the
lead, and from such impression obtaining an electrotype surface suitable
for printing.
Having thus stated the nature of our said. Invention, we will proceed
to describe the means of performing the same.
We employ sheet lead, and for this purpose the surface thereof on
which an impression is to be taken is to be made smooth by scraping
and polishing. This prepared surface is then to be placed in contact
with a polished surface of sheet steel, and passed between a pair of
pressing rollers, by which the surface of the lead will be rendered very
even, and suitable for receiving an impression from the surface of a
plant or a leaf or other vegetable matter, or from a feather, or from an
insect or other surface, and this is accomplished by placing the plant
or other matter in a flat and dry state between the lead and the steel
plate. The two plates are then to be subjected to prossure by passing
them between pressing rollers or otherwise. The impression on lead
thus obtained is to be used for the purpose of obtaining therefrom an
electrotype plate of copper, as is well understood, by depositing copper
thercon, and we prefer for this purpose to use a solution of sulphate of
copper. Having obtained a plate of copper by such means, we cause
the face thereof to be burnished at those parts where the impression
does not come, and we then use this first clectrotype plate, in order to
obtain a second electrotype plate, by depositing copper thereon, and, by
preference, from a solution of sulphate of copper. This second copper
plate is the one used as a printing surface, and impressions are taken
or printed therefrom in the ordinary manner of printing from engraved
plates.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, we would have it understood that what we
claim are the combined means herein described of taking impressions,

page_text: and producing printing surfaces; and we claim the employment of
lead for obtaining impressions and for receiving electro depositions of
copper.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Bradbury and Frederick
Mullett Evans, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this
Eleventh day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
Witness,
B. GOBEY,
4, Old Square,
(L.S.)
WILLIAM BRADBURY.
FREDERICK M. EVANS. (L.S.)
Lincoln's Inn.