Improvements in or appertaining to Printing Plates or Blocks Formed by Photographic Means.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 14th Mar., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 14th Dec., 1892-Accepted, 14th Jan., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or appertaining to Printing Plates or Blocks
Formed by Photographic Means.
I, JOSEPH HINES of 20 Riding Street, Southport in the County of Lancaster,
Journalist, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows :-
:―
This process is designed to supersede known methods of photo-mechanical
printing by the substitution of a quicker, simpler, better and less costly mode of
reproducing photographs in the printing press for pictorial illustration in news-
papers, books, magazines and other periodicals and in job printing generally, than
any which has yet been placed before the public.
It is intended to fulfil the function of supplying, to the printing profession,
metallic plates to be screwed upon type-high blocks of wood, bearing upon their
surfaces photographs in a hard durable substance capable of resisting the pressure
of the printing press so that they can be used equally by the newspaper and book
press, and printed along with the type simultaneously with the descriptive matter
accompanying it, in newspapers, periodicals, magazines, books or any literary or
artistic production of that class on any printing machine.
In carrying out my invention, I coat a metallic plate, preferably a stereotype
plate, with gelatine, so attached that it will not ultimately strip off, then sensitise
it chemically, so as to become sensitive to light and allow it to dry. When dry, it
is ready for exposure under a negative. After being sufficiently exposed to light,
it is developed in a bath of hot sulphate of iron, which has the property of
shrinking those portions of the gelatine not acted upon by the light, hence its name
of intagliotype, and leaving the rest of the picture a raised surface without swelling
the gelatine or softening it, thereby enabling it to be printed as soon as the plate
is dry, which only takes a few minutes. The plate is then screwed on to a wooden
base, the whole making a type-high block ready for the printer.
One of the features of the invention is the preparation of the negative so as to
break it up in such manner as to produce the effect of an engraving, and to enable
it to print properly. This is effected by the use of thin sheets of transparent
celluloid previously printed with the lines, dots, cross-hatch or stipple as may be
required, and which are placed before the negative in order to impart their
characteristics to the ultimate plate. The best effects are produced by taking
reverse negatives with different screens, the last one with all the desired effects
upon it being the one used with the final sensitised plate. (For rough and ready
work, the screens may be dispensed with altogether by the use of a plate
previously embossed with fine dots, but the results are not nearly so effective
as with the screens by which any effect of a line engraving can be readily
reproduced.) The invention applies to either method employed, the treatment of
the plates being the same, though the resultant picture is entirely different.
The great value of the invention lies in the fact that it is simple, rapid and
effective, there being no delay arising from the drying of the gelatine, inasmuch
as it does not require it, the action of the sulphate of iron not only shrinking
it but tanning it like leather, and enabling it to bear a prodigious pressure and
print an incredible number of impressions without sensible deterioration.
In its simplest form, it consists of the photographic representation of any
picture in lines or stipple in imitation of a line drawing or engraving where there
are half tones.*
The manipulation, when taking the negative, is the same as that of any ordinary
photograph, and the finished negative requires simply to be placed upon the
sensitised film of the metallic plate and exposed for a short time to light to effect

page_text: and what is necessary, the resultant picture not requiring to be touched by etching
tool, graver or acid, but simply screwed down to a wood block ready for the
printing press.
•
When the first negative is obtained, all that is necessary is to have at hand a few
dry plates and transparent printed screens, developing solutions, dishes, etcetera,
and a photographic printing frame. In order that the resultant picture may be
right-handed like the original, reverse negatives must be procured, and advantage
is taken of this fact to introduce the transparent screens at these intermediate
stages, two of the screens being of parallel lines ruled opposite ways, and one being
of the dot and stipple order. They are so employed as to produce a hatch over the
denser portions of the photograph, plain ruling in the half-tones and a stipple
throughout the lighter parts breaking the whole up into variegated grains of
distinct characterestics corresponding, in appearance, to an ordinary engraving.
A metal plate bearing on its surface a sensitised gelatine film is placed under the
negative last obtained and both together exposed to light, natural or artificial, for
the requisite time, which will depend on the strength of the light and the nature
of the sensitised salts employed. After sufficient exposure, the plate is immersed
in a hot solution of sulphate of iron, which shrinks those parts not acted on by the
light, leaving the rest in relief, in addition to so hardening the whole that, when it
is dry, which only takes a few minutes, it is quite ready for printing. The whole
process is complete from start to finish in about an hour. The resulting block is
remarkably durable, being far superior to other gelatine plates, owing to the
developer causing shrinkage instead of, as in other processes, causing a swelling of
the gelatine. The parts which are to receive the pressure of the printing press, so
far from being softened, as would be the case if swelled, are converted into a tough,
leathery substance by the double action of the sulphate of iron which, not only
shrinks, but tans it at the same time. Its capacity to resist pressure without
wearing or abrading is apparently due to the slight elasticity it still retains, but,
at the same time, its hardness is so great that it can be taken direct out of the bath
and printed at once.
The metallic plate employed as a basis for the gelatine film may be of any suitable
metal, but stereotype metal is preferred as not only cheap, easily cast and worked,
but it readily forms a chemical combination with the acetic acid and gelatine.
The stereotype plates are cast varying from one-sixteenth to an eighth of an inch
in thickness, according to size, the sizes chosen being those adopted by the photo-
graphic profession and known as quarter-plate, half-plate, cabinet, full-plate, etcetera,
as the idea all through the invention is to keep it within the scope of ordinary
photographic manipulation for the sake of simplicity. It is easier to fall into these
professional sizes already in the market, than arbitrarily to fix others which might
suit the printing trade better, for they will both have to work hand-in-hand
together, and, as both the metal plate and the negative have to go into the same
printing frame, they should both be the same size. There is nothing, however, to
prevent the printer cutting the plate smaller after it is finished, as the metal is
almost as soft as lead. The plates may be cast on either a smooth or grained
surface. If the former, they must be scraped, smoothed and polished, or otherwise
brought to a fine, even surface. These plates are reserved for the best work, and
very varied and beautifully artistic effects may be obtained from them, depending
entirely on the manipulation of the negative. The grained or embossed plates are
for establishments where rough and ready cheap production is of more moment
than artistic refinement. The newspaper overseer, in a hurry to get to press, will
find them invaluable when time is precious, and they are grained or embossed
beforehand.
The original negative is all that is required for these plates, nor is it necessary
to use screens of any kind, because the pattern on the plate is partially reproduced
by the gelative film in contact with it. The operator, having procured any
ordinary negative, places it at once on his sensitised plate, exposes it, dips it into
a warm bath of sulphate of iron, and, as soon as the effects appear, withdraws it,

page_text: screws it down on a wood block, and it is ready without any manipulation beyond
mere handling, all the pronounced lines of the photograph come out distinct
and clear, the half tones exhibit the pattern on the plate, and the whites, if not
clear enough, can be readily cut away with a penknife. In the case of the polished
plate, which is better adapted for book and pictorial illustration of the higher
class, the assumption is that the operator desires the best artistic effect he can get,
and, therefore, he takes pains to select his screens with discretion and judgment.
With his first negative, he uses a screen with fine parallel lines in a perpendicular
or diagonal direction as he may think fit. This results in a reverse negative,
having all the characteristics of a positive, except that a thin white line appears
throughout all the denser portions of it. He now introduces a dot or stipple, the
purpose of which is to prevent the paper, when it comes to be printed, sinking
down into the hollows, picking up the ink which may be lodged therein and thus
creating_a_smudge. These little pin points, as they ultimately become, bear the
paper off the hollows. With the last negative, he inserts a screen of parallel lines
in a horizontal direction, or diagonal lines at right angles to those of his first
negative, and the effects he requires are produced on the final plate in a mixed
cross-hatch and stipple.
If he has any artistic feeling and but a slight knowledge of re-touching he can
obliterate lines or dots where he does not want them.
As to the method of attaching the gelatine film to the metal plate, a perfectly
clean stereotype plate is made warm, and a warm solution of gelatine in glacial
acetic acid is brushed over it in a thin layer. The acetic acid, having a strong
affinity for the lead in the alloy of the stereotype metal, forms a close union with
it, and, inasmuch as the solution of itself is a well known adhesive cement, the union
is perfect between them. Care must be taken not to mix too much acetic acid with
the first coating of the gelatine, as the excess over what is taken up by the metal
is liable to incorporate itself with the next film flowed over it to render it so soluble
that, when it undergoes final development, it has a tendeney to crinkle in those
portions not exposed to the light. The plate, being floated with a solution of good
gelatine well strained, is put away to dry in a place free from dust, yet where a
current of dry air can get access to it. The film need only be thin, but it should
be level and even over all the plate.
The mode of preparing its surface to receive a photograph depends on the kind
of light to which it is to be exposed. If for use with daylight or the electric light,
it is simply sensitised in a bath of bichromate of potass containing a trace of
bromide of ammoniumn. This soaks through the film and chromes the acetate of
lead previously formed below it. It is then allowed to dry and kept from the light
till required. The bichromate must not be so strong as to crystallise on the
surface. To prevent this, it is a good plan to lay the plates down on a level place
and sensitise them by pouring a little of the solution upon the surface, rubbing it
with the finger until the bichromate is absorbed by the gelatine, and finish off
with a momentary wash in water.
If neither daylight nor the electric light is available, a plate prepared as
described, but with the addition of chrome alum and well washed, is coated (in
place of the bichromate) with a sensitive silver salt emulsion similar in character
and composition to those employed in ordinary dry plate photography. As this
is a much more tender and delicate film than the bichromate, great care must
be taken with it at the early stages of the process. It is necessary to employ
chrome alum in the first coating of the plate to render it insoluble. The acetic
acid and gelatine have, therefore, a small quantity of chrome alum added to them
with this object. The ingredients are all mixed together, made hot and brushed
over the stereotype plate which has previously received a wash of glacial acetic
acid dried on. It is highly important, in the case of the silver emulsion, that
not a trace of acetic acid be left on the plate in a free state, as it would
seriously interfere with the future development of the picture. At the same
time, too much chrome alum must not be used, as it destroys the adhesive nature

page_text: .
of the compound and causes the film to strip off when dry. The proportions can
only be ascertained by experience, as they vary with the kind of gelatine employed,
strength of acid, etcetera. Of course, with the silver emulsion process, the same
care must be taken to exclude all but non-actinic light as with a dry plate, the
coating, drying, exposing and developing being on all fours with other rapid
photographic processes in vogue, the only difference being that, when the picture
is taken and developed, it is not fixed in the usual way, but at once plunged into
warm sulphate of iron, and as soon as the gelatine has shrunk sufficiently, it is wiped
with a cloth, mounted on a wood block and sent to the printer..
Just as the electric light serves the purpose of workers in the bichromatic
process on dull days when day light is not available, so the silver process can be
utilized where the electric light is not available, and thus it becomes possible to
carry on the work by any light, gas light or candle light, in fact, the light of a
match for a few seconds is ample for some requirements, everything in this
particular depending on the sensitiveness of the salt employed. The invention
is universal in its scope in this respect and has the advantage that it can be carried
on in the night contemporaneously with other journalistic work, without the
establishment where it is conducted requiring an expensive installation of the
electric light, as has been necessitated hitherto. In the matter of time also it is
an immense advance on all other processes for the same purpose, it being possible,
by using embossed plates and a silver film, to obtain a picture capable of being
printed in the press within a quarter of an hour of its being taken from the
negative, there being no occasion to use screens or manipulate the negative in
any way, the process being purely and entirely automatic. Where the best and
most varied effects are desired, screens of transparent sheet celluloid, printed from
engraved plates, must be used. They are cut the size of the plates, and may have
any design upon them that fancy may dictate, but simple lines, hatches, dots or
stipples are all that is necessary.
Dated this 12th dew of March 1900
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, Patent Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or appertaining to Printing Plates or Blocks
Formed by Photographic Means.
1, JOSEPH HINES of 20 Riding Street, Southport in the County of Lancaster,
Journalist, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :-
This process is designed to supersede known methods of photo-mechanical
printing by the substitution of a quicker, simpler, better and less costly mode
of reproducing photographs in the printing press for pictorial illustration in
newspapers, books, magazines and other periodicals and in job printing generally,
than any which has yet been placed before the public.
It is intended to fulfil the function of supplying, to the printing profession,
metallic plates to be screwed upon type-high blocks of wood, bearing upon their
surfaces photographs in a hard durable substance capable of resisting the pressure
of the printing press so that they can be used equally by the newspaper and
book press, and printed along with the type simultaneously with the descriptive
matter accompanying it, in newspapers, periodicals, magazines, books or any
literary or artistic production of that class on any printing machine.
In carrying out my invention, I coat a hard, tough plate, preferably a stereo-
type metal plate, with gelatine, so attached, as hereafter described, that it will
'not strip off, and then sensitise it chemically (also in manner well understood)

page_text: and allow it to dry out of contact with actinic light. When dry, it is ready
for exposure under a negative. After being sufficiently exposed to light, it is
developed in a bath of hot sulphate of iron, which has the property of shrinking
those portions of the gelatine not acted upon by light and leaving the rest of
the picture a raised surface without swelling the gelatine or softening it, thereby
enabling it to be printed as soon as the plate is dry, which only takes a few
minutes. The plate is then screwed on to a wooden base, the whole making a
type-high block ready for the printer.
As the above process would give a good result in the case of photographs of
line drawings or photographs where there are no half tones and the principal
use for which my invention is designed is the manufacture of printing blocks
capable of showing half tones effectively as in an engraving, I make thin sheets
of transparent celluloid or equivalent thin, tough, transparent material, printed
with lines, dots, cross hatch or stipple, as may be required, and which are
placed between the negative and the sensitive plate, or the sensitive plate is
first exposed under the negative and then under the thin transparent plate,
having transparent lines or dots on a black or opaque ground, or the order in time
of these two exposures can be reversed. The best effects are produced by taking
reverse negatives with different screens, the last one with all the desired effects
upon it being the one used with the final sensitised plate. (For rough and ready
work, the screens may be dispensed with altogether by the use of a plate previously
embossed with fine dots, but the results are not nearly so effective as with the
screens, by which any effect of a line engraving can be readily reproduced.) The
invention applies to either method being employed, the treatment of the plates being
the same, though the resultant picture is entirely different. The great value of the
invention lies in the fact that it is simple, rapid and effective, there being no delay
arising from the drying of the gelatine, inasmuch as it does not require it, the action
of the sulphate of iron not only shrinking it but tanning it like leather, and enabling
it to bear a prodigious pressure and print an incredible number of impressions
without sensible deterioration.
In its simplest form, it consists of the photographic representation of any picture
in lines or stipple in imitation of a line drawing or engraving where there are half
tones.
The manipulation, when taking the negative, is the same as that of any ordinary
photograph, and the finished negative requires simply to be placed upon the sensi-
tised film of the metallic plate and exposed for a short time to light to effect all
that is necessary, the resultant picture not requiring to be touched by etching tool,
graver or acid, but simply screwed down to a wood block ready for the printing
press.
When the first negative is obtained, all that is necessary is to have at hand a few
dry plates and transparent printed screens, developing solutions, dishes, etcetera, and
a photographic printing frame.
The drawings set forth three screens, Figures 1, 2 and 3, and Figure 4 their
combined result if the stipple exactly coincides with the lines-this is, however,
not necessary. If desirable, a single screen, Figure 4, can be used.
I do not, however, claim these screens.
In order that the resultant picture may be right-handed like the original, reverse
negatives must be procured, and advantage is taken of this fact to introduce the
transparent screens at these intermediate stages, two of the screens being of parallel
lines ruled opposite ways, and one being of the dot and stipple order. They are
so employed as to produce a hatch over the denser portions of the photograph,
plain ruling in the half-tones and a stipple throughout the lighter parts, breaking
the whole up into variegated grains of distinct characteristics corresponding, in
appearance, to an ordinary engraving.
A metal plate bearing on its surface a sensitised gelatine film is placed under the
negative last obtained, and both together exposed to light, natural or artificial, for
the requisite time, which will depend on the strength of the light and the nature of

page_text: the sensitised salts employed. After sufficient exposure, the plate is immersed in a
hot solution of sulphate of iron, which shrink those parts not acted on by the light,
leaving the rest in relief, in addition to so hardening the whole that, when it is dry,
which only takes a few minutes, it is quite ready for printing. The whole process.
is complete from start to finish in about an hour. The resulting block is remark-
ably durable, being far superior to other gelatine plates, owing to the developer
causing shrinkage, instead of, as in other processes, causing a swelling of the
gelatine. The parts which are to receive the pressure of the printing press, so far
from being softened, as would be the case if swelled, are converted into a tough,
fleathery substance, by the double action of the sulphate of iron, which not only
shrinks. but tans it at the same time. Its capacity to resist pressure "without
wearing or abraiding is apparently due to the slight elasticity it still retains, but,
at the same time, its hardness is so great that it can be taken direct out of the bath
and printed at once.
.
The metallic plate employed as a basis for the gelatine film may be of any
suitable metal, but stereotype metal is preferred as not only cheap, easily, cast
and worked, but it readily forms a chemical combination with the acetic acid and
gelatine. The stereotype plates are cast varying from one sixteenth to an eighth
of an inch in thickness, according to size, the sizes chosen being those adopted by
the photographic profession and known as quarter-plate, half-plate, cabinet, full-
plate, etcetera, as the idea all through the invention is to keep it within the scope
of ordinary photographic manipulation for the sake of simplicity. It is easier to
fall into these professional sizes already in the market than arbitrarily to fix others
which might suit the printing trade better, for they will both have to work hand-in-
hand together, and, as both the metal plate and the negative have to go into the
same printing frame, they should both be the same size. There is nothing,
however, to prevent the printer cutting the plate analler after it is finished, as the
metal is almost as soft as lead. The plates may be cast on either a smooth or
grained surface. If the former, they must be scraped, smoothed and polished, or
otherwise brought to a fine, even surface. These plates are reserved for the best
_work, and very varied and beautifully artistic effects may be obtained from them,
*depending entirely on the manipulation of the negative. The grained or embossed
plates are for establishments where rough and ready cheap production is of more
moment than artistic refinement. The newspaper overseer, in a hurry to get to
press. will find them invaluable when time "is precious, and they are grained or
embossed beforehand.
нас
.
The original negative is all that is required for these plates, nor is it necessary to
-use screens of any kind, because the pattern on the plate is partially reproduced
by the gelatine film in contact with it. The operator, having procured any ordinary
negative, places it at once on his sensitised plate, exposes it, dips it into a warm
bath of sulphate of iron, and, as soon as the effects appear, withdraws it, screws it
down on a wood block, and it is ready without any manipulation beyond mere
handling, all the pronounced lines of the photograph come out distinct and clear,
the half tones exhibit the pattern on the plate, and the whites, if not clear enough,
can be readily cut away with a penknife. In the case of the polished plate, which
is better adapted for book and pictorial illustration of the higher class, the
assumption is that the operator desires the best artistic effect he can get, and,
therefore, he takes pains to select his screens with discretion and judgment. With
his first negative, he uses a screen with fine parallel lines in a perpendicular or
diagonal direction as he may think fit. This results in a reverse negative, having
all the characteristic of a positive, except that a thin white line appears throughout
all the denser portions of it. He now introduces a dot or stipple, the purpose of
which is to prevent the paper, when it comes to be printed, sinking down into the
hollows, picking up the ink which may be lodged therein and thus creating a
smudge... These little pin points, as they ultimately become, bear the paper off the
hollows. With the last negative, he inserts a screen of parallel lines in a
horizontal direction, or diagonal lines at right angles to those of his first negative,

page_text: and the effects he requires are produced on the final plate in a mixed cross-hatch
and stipple.
If he has any artistic feeling and but a slight knowledge of re-touching, he can
obliterate lines or dots where he does not, want them.
As to the method of attaching the gelatine film to the metal plate, a perfectly
clean stereotype plate is made warm, and a warm solution of gelatine in glacial
acetic acid is brushed over it in a thin layer. The acetic acid having a strong
affinity for the lead in the alloy of the stereotype metal, forms a close union with
it, and, inasmuch as the solution of itself is a well known adhesive cement, the
union is perfect between them. Care must be taken not to mix too much acetic
acid with the first coating of the gelatine, as the excess over what is taken up by
the metal is liable to incorporate itself with the next film flowed over it and render
it so soluble that, when it undergoes final development, it has a tendency to crinkle
in those portions not exposed to the light. The plate, being floated with a solution
of good gelatine well strained, is put away to dry in a place free from dust, yet
where a current of dry air can get access to it. The film need only be thin, but it
should be level and even all over the plate.
The mode of preparing its surface to receive a photograph depends on the kind
of light to which it is to be exposed. If for use with daylight or the electric light,
it is simply sensitised in a bath of bichromate of potass containing a trace of
bromide of ammonium. This soaks through the film and chromes the acetate of
lead previously formed below it. It is then allowed to dry and kept from the
light till required. The bichromate must not be so strong as to crystallise on the
surface.
If neither daylight nor the electric light be available, a plate prepared as
described, but with the addition of chrome alum and well washed, is coated (in
place of the bichromate) with a sensitive silver salt emulsion similar in character
and composition to those employed in ordinary dry plate photography. As
this is a much more tender and delicate film than the bichromate, great care
must be taken with it at the early stages of the process. It is necessary to employ
chrome alum in the first coating of the plate to render it insoluble. The acetic
acid and gelatine have, therefore, a small quantity of chrome added to them with
this object. The ingredients are all mixed together, made hot and brushed over
the stereotype plate which has previously received a wash of glacial acetic acid
dried on.
It is highly important, in the case of the silver emulsion, that not a trace
of acetic acid be left on the plate in a free state, as it would seriously interfere
with the future development of the picture. At the same time, too much chrome
alum must not be used, as it destroys the adhesive nature of the compound and
causes the film to strip off when dry. The proportions can only be ascertained by
experience, as they vary with the kind of gelatine employed, strength of acid,
etcetera. Of course, with the silver emulsion process, the same care must be taken
to exclude all but non-actinic light as with a dry plate, the coating, drying, exposing
and developing being on all fours with other rapid photographic processes in vogue,
the only difference being that, when the picture is taken and developed, it is not fixed
in the usual way, but at once plunged into warm sulphate of iron, and, as soon as the
gelatine has shrunk sufficiently, it is wiped with a cloth, mounted on a wood block,
and sent to the printer.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The process of forming printing blocks which consists in forming a gelatine
photograph on the material of the block itself and exposing it to the action of
sulphate of iron solution whereby the unacted upon parts are shrunk and the acted
upon parts hardened, substantially as described.
2. A printing block formed of a metallic surface almost type high and a hardened
gelatine photograph taken on the surface itself substantially as described.

page_text: 3. The improvement in making photographic printing blocks which consists in
forming a fine stipple photographically all over by means of a finely stippled plate
substantially as and for the purposes described.
Dated this 13th day of December 1892.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, and London, Patent Agents.