A NEW METHOD OF COPYING LETTERS AND OTHER WRITINGS EXPEDITIOUSLY
Year: 1780

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
WATT, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fourteenth day of February, in the twentieth year of His
reign, did give and grant unto me, the said James Watt, my exors, admors,
and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole priviledge and authority,
that I, the said James Watt, my exors, admors, and assigns, should and
lawfully might, during the term of years therein expressed, make, use,
exercise, and vend, within that part of Great Britain called England, His
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of A
NEW METHOD OF COPYING LETTERS AND OTHER WRITINGS EXPEDITIOUSLY;" in
which said recited Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said
James Watt, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within four calendar months next and immediately after the date of

page_text: the said Letters ratent, as in and by the salu Letters ratent, relation being
thereunto had, may more at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Watt, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in manner and form following, that is to say:-
Lett the letter, or other writing that is intended to be copied, be written
with the ink herein-after described, or with any other writing ink fit for the
purpose; take a piece or pieces of thin paper which contain no size or glue or
gummy or mucilaginous matter, or which at least does not contain so much size
or other matter as would make it fit for being written upon; cut this paper or
papers to the size and shape of the writing of which a copy is wanted;
moisten or wet the said thin paper with water or other liquod by means of a
spunge or brush, or by dipping or otherwise; having moistened or wett the thin
paper, lay it between two thick unsized spongy papers, or between two cloths
or other substances capable of absorbing the superfluous moisture from the
thin paper; when it has been slightly pressed between such thick spongy papers
or other substances by the hand or otherwise, lay the said thin paper so
moistened and pressed upon or under the side of the writing which is to be
copied, and in such manner that the one side of the said moistened paper
shall be in contact all over the side of the said writing so intended to be
copied, and that to the other side of the said moistened thin paper there shall
be applied a piece of clean writing paper or cloth, or other smooth uniform
substance; lay the said writing intended to be copied, with the thin moistened
paper intended to receive the copy placed respectively as above directed, upon
the board of a common rolling press, or of that of which a description and
Drawing are hereunder written and drawn, and press them once or oftner
through the rollers of the said press, in the same manner as is used in printing
by copper plates; or, instead, of using the said or any rolling press, squeaze the
said papers placed respectively in the manner above described in a screw press,
or subject them to any other presure sufficient for the purpose, by means
of which presure, in whatever manner applied, part of the ink of the writing
intended to be copied shall press from the said writing into, upon, and through
the said thin moistened paper, so that a copy of the said writing, more or less
faint, according to the quality of the ink and paper employed, shall appear
impressed on both sides of the said moistened paper, viz, upon one of the
sides in the natural or proper order, and direction of the lines, as they are in
the original writing, and on the other side in the reverse order and direction;
but in order to make the impression or copy of the writing more strong,

page_text: legible, and durable, it is proper and useful to moisten the said thin paper
which is to receive the copy or impression with the following. liquor, instead
of water or other liquod, and to proceed in all other respects as is above
directed; or to moisten the said thin paper with the following liquor, and to dry
the said paper, and when a copy of a writing is required to be taken, the said
paper thus previously prepared and dryed ought to be moistened with water or
other liquid, and to be proceeded with in all other respects as has been directed.
. The said liquar to be used for moistening the said thin paper, or for
preparing the said paper previously to its being used, is made in the
following manner: Take of distilled vinegar two pounds weight; disolve in it
one ounce of the sedative salt of borax; then take four ounces of oyster shells
calcined to whiteness, and carefully freed from their brown crust; put them
into the vinegar; shake the mixture frequently for four and twenty-hours; then
let it stand until it deposites its sediment; filtre the clear part through unsized
paper into a glass vessel; then add to the said mixture or solution two ounces
of the best blue Aleppo galls, bruised, and place the liquor in a warm place,
shaking it frequently for twtnty-four hours; then filtre the liquor again through
unsized paper, and add to it, after filtration, one quart, ale measure, of distilled
or other pure water; it must then stand twenty-four hours and be filtred again,
if it shews a disposition to deposite any sediment, which it generally does. The
liquor thus compounded and prepared is to be used as hath been directed.
N.B. In place of the vinegar any other liguor impregnated with a vege-
lable acid may be used; and in place of the galls, oak bark, or any other vegi-
table astringent substance, which is capable of becoming black or deep coloured
with solutions of iron, and in place of the oyster shells any other pure calca-
rious earth may be used; but if the impressions are not wanted to be very
black, and the writing ink is good, water itself may be used to moisten the thin
paper, as herein first directed. It may be found necessary to add more or less
water in the preparation of the above liquor to be used for moistening the thin
paper, or to vary the proportions of the other ingredients, according as they
are more or less perfect or strong, or as the impression is required to be more
or less deep coloured.
The writing ink which I use for letters or writings intended to be copied
is prepared as follows:-Take four quarts, ale measure, of spring water,
one pound and a half avordupois weight of Aleppo galls, half a pound of
green copperas or green vitroil, half a pound of gum arabic, four ounces
of roach allum; pound the solid ingredients, and infuse them in the water
six weeks or two months, during which time the liquor should be frequently

page_text: shaken; strain the liquor through a linnen cloth, and keep it in bottles closely
corkt for use.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, the Twenty-
second day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred
hundred and eighty.
year of our Lord 1780, the aforesaid James Watt came before our said Lord
the King in His Chancery and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and
all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the tenor of the
Statutes made in the sixth year of the reign of the late King and Queen W
and Mary of England, and so forth, and in the seventeenth year of the reign
of His Maty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Thirty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord One thous-

page_text: |
a
1.
which the press
3rd
I in them E. E is a double ended Lever by means of which the roller on whose cale it is applied may be forcibly turned round P.P. represents the Braid of the rolling thess
which the writings to be copied une to be luid N. N. is a price of Cloth or other elastic provable substance placed next. the roller and above the writings to the copied and the Bea
strong plank of wood or plate of Metal serving to connect the two and prices of the frame at bottom II. I represents the edge of a commion table to which the press may
fastened by the Iron sau cramps J.J. B. is a slitt of which there is one in wich and piece of the frame these slitts are filled with elastic steel or other metal
line Springs
or with some other elastic substances which serve to press the two rolls porcibly together. Is is a Brass bolster supported upon the Springs and serving to
sport the md of the void of the undur Rolle The Drawing Fig 2 represents a side view of the rolling press in which A.B.S.B. are the two and prices of the frame
The are the two rollers B. is the double ended Lover G. is the strong plank or plate of meat which forms the bottom of the frame H.H. is the Table on
of the Iron Cramps which fasion the press to the Table and M. is a Buier of Iron which munsets the ripper part of the Grame. Fry $t represents
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Jouw press
be out mistead instead of the rolling press in taking off inpressions from writings A.A is a double ended over B. B. the low C. a
tech of word or metal which the Sorew acts upon und which is uttriched to it D. P. the frame of the press made of Iron or Word E. E. a moveable braid in
which the writing to be copied is to be land with a Cloth over it F. N. "the lottem.
these presses are made of different sizes according to the sizes
·Sarginesses of the existings intended to be copied. Those drawn abou are dinion from one sufficiens
lurge to take an impression from a Golis page of writing
thar natural suv.
which
may
or sole of the press made of wood or metal
Be it remembered that
or post paper and are drawn to a scale of one mich and a half for each foot or one eighth of