IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING MACHINES
Year: 1822

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AUGUSTUS
APPLEGATH, of Duke Street, Lett's Town, Lambeth, in the County of Surry,
Printer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fourteenth day of January, in the second year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Augustus Applegath, His especial licence, that I, the said Augustus Apple-
gath, my exors, aduiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Augustus
Applegath, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England and Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my in-
vented or found out certain "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING MACHINES;" and in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said
Augustus Applegath, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within four calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by
the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully aud at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Augustus Applegath, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention

page_text: and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say) :-
:-
My first improvement consists in applying the ink to the form of types,
plates, or blocks, partly on one side of the impressing or printing cylinder, and
partly on the other side, by means of an inking roller or rollers placed on each
side of the printing cylinder, in the manner shewn in Figure 1, by which it is
apparent that part of the form is inked by passing under the rollers A, A, and
that the other part of the form is inked by the rollers B, B, while the form is
returning back to x, so that the whole of the form is inked without moving
farther than is there shewn; whereas, in printing machines in which the form
is entirely inked on one side of the printing cylinder, the form must move
farther in order to pass under the inking roller or rollers, as is shewn by
Figure 2.
By this improvement, the motion of the form is lessened, and the quantity
of impressions taken in any given period may be increased in the ratio of the
diminution of motion, the reducing of the motion being in fact a saving of the
time occupied in the printing.
:
I have not shewn any method of distributing the ink upon the inking
rollers, the distribution of the ink not forming any part of my Invention,
inasmuch as my Invention may be used in conjunction with any of the methods
of distributing: the ink already employed in printing machines. And it is to
be observed, that the Invention to which. I lay claim is, the improvement of
inking the form partly on one side and partly on the other side of the printing
cylinder. And I claim it not only in those cases in which the form is caused
to pass under the printing. cylinder and inking rollers, but also in those cases
in which the printing cylinder and inking rollers are caused to pass over
the form.
.My second improvement consists in the combination of two paper. feeders
with a printing cylinder, which prints in one direction only. This combination
I effect in the nianner 'shewn in the Drawing marked Figure 3, hereunto
annexed, but I do not intend to limit my Invention or improvement to 'the
specific mode of applying the same, shewn in the aforesaid 'Figure, inasmuch-as
the mode of applying it may, be varied to suit tlie previous construction of
those printing. machines to which my improvement may be applied.
References to Figure 3A, B, two drums or light cylinders, which are
only half the diameter of the printing cylinder. The drum 'B is connected
with the printing cylinder by toothed wheels, which are not shewn in 'the
Drawing to avoid confusion. The drum A has also a toothed wheel upon its

page_text: axis or spindle, which connects it with. B; C is a pinion fixed on the spindle
of the drum B, and is one-fourth of the diameter of B; D is a toothed wheel
(loose on its axis) which is driven by the pinion C, and therefore makes one
revolution, while the printing cylinder makes two; E is a small projecting stud
or pin fixed upon the wheel D; as D revolves, the stud E acts alternately
upon the arms F and G of the brass pullies or band wheels H, H, and moves
them partly round their axis. The pullies II, H, are connected by catgut
bands, or by straps with the web rollers I, I, to which the endless feeding tapes
or narrow webs K, K, K, K, are fastened at a, a, and thus, as the pullies H, H,
are alternately moved by the action of the pin E upon their arms F & G, they
also move the web rollers I, I, and the feeding tapes affixed to them, towards
the drums A and B, and the sheets of paper laid upon the feeding tapes are
thereby caused to enter between the endless tapes at Z, by which, and the
drums, they are conveyed upon the printing cylinder to receive the impression.
When the stud E leaves the arms F or G, the web rollers I, I, and the
pullies H, H, are drawn back by the weights W, W, (which are affixed to
lines winding upon the web rollers I, I,) to their former situations, and are
retained therein by the check straps S, S, which also wind upon the web
rollers. L, L, are the two small web rollers over which the feeding tapes
K, K, K, K, move; at Z, Z, are several small thin bars of steel or other meta!
fixed to the web boards between the intervals of the feeding tapes, and extend-
ing to the drums. These bars support the sheet of paper in its passage
between the feeders and the drums. M is an angular guide bar of metal or
wood, placed so as to guide the paper down between the drums when the
upper or short sets of endless tapes N, N, leave it. The small rollers s, r,
which guides the tapes N, N, upwards, are grooved in the intervals between
those tapes to allow room for thin slips of metal p, p, p, to be fixed to the
angular bar M, in the manner shewn on a larger scale in Figures 4 and 5;
these strips of metal prevent the sheet of paper from catching against the
edges of the angular bar M. The same letters of reference apply to the same
parts in Figures 4 & 5 as in Figure 3.
By this second Invention or improvement, the printing cylinder can be
supplied with more sheets of paper in any given period than when one feeder
only is used, and thus advantage may be taken of the increased rate of printing
which is obtained by means of my first improvement. To avoid confusion in
the above Figures, I have not shewn the whole of a printing machine, but
only such parts thereof as are necessary to elucidate and describe my aforesaid
Inventions or improvements.
And I do not mean or intend hereby to claim as my Invention, any of the

page_text: various parts of these machines, which are already known, or are in use; but
I do hereby claim as my Inventions, the inking the form of type, plates, or
blocks, partly on one side and partly on the other side of the impressing or
printing cylinder; and the combination of two paper feeders with a printing
cylinder which prints in one direction only.