IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO BLOCK PRINTING
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AUGUSTE
COULON, of Tokenhouse Yard, in the City of London, Merchant, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by IIer
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-sixth day of March, in the first year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Auguste
Coulon, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said Auguste Coulon, my exors, adiñňors, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Auguste Coulon, my exors, adñiors, 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, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO BLOCK PRINTING," being partly of
my own Invention, and partly communicated to me by a certain foreigner
residing abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I,
the said Auguste Coulon, shall cause a particular description of the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediatdly after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Auguste Coulon, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and the

page_text: manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say :-
According to the ordinary mode of placing the color on the sieve for block
printing (from whence the color is taken by the block, as is well understood),
it is done by a workman with a brush. Now my Invention consists in the
application of an apparatus so constructed that the supplying and placing of
the color evonly on a sieve is performed by the printer at the time he is using
the block. And also the Invention relates to a method of regulating the
supply of color to the sieve by means of a mechanical arrangement hereafter
described. This machine is worked by means of the foot of the workman (or
printer), or it may be set in motion by any power being applied to a pulley,
upon which is a cord, which communicates the motion to the other parts of the
machine. This cord turns on an axis parallel to the brush, and carrying two
other pulleys, which meet other cords which give motion to the brush. A
weight is placed at the end of a line attached to the brush, for the purpose of
bringing it back to its starting place after the power which set it in motion is
withdrawn. An apparatus for supplying the color is placed behind the brush,
and joining to it, gives the color to the seive; this may be opened more or less,
according to the quantity of color required. The excess of color may be carried
away by means of scrapers, which are placed between the brush and the color
apparatus, before the brush and behind, the supplying apparatus serving to
equalize the quantity of color upon the sieve, and not to leave more there than
is necessary. These rakes or scrapers are not absolutely necessary in all cases.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 represents a side view of an ordinary printing machine, with my
improvements applied thereto; Figure 2 is a transverse section; and Figure 3
is an end view; Figure 4 is a side view of the brush. The same letters indi-
cate the same parts wherever they occur. a, printing table; b, supports of the
table; c, fixed pulley at the foot of the table, upon which passes the cord &c.,
which gives motion to the machine; d, the ring, to which is fixed the cord; e,
the foot board, upon which the printer presses to give motion to the pulley ;
f, weight, to bring back the foot board to its proper position after the pressure
of the workman is removed; i, i, k, k, are pieces of wood fixed to the framing
of the machine to support the pulleys 7, m; l, l, pulleys, upon which the cords
run, which set the brush in motion; m, a pulley, upon which the cord h runs;
n, n, n,n, are four pulleys, placed at the four corners of the machine, and upon

page_text: which the cords 1, 1, and m², m³, run; o, the carriage, upon which are fixed
the brush and the apparatus for supplying color; o' are wheels, fixed at the ends
of the carriage o, and running in the grooves; p, a piece of wood fixed to the
brush, and supporting the upright piece t, t, which penetrates into the middle of
the frame containing the brush and apparatus, and are fixed there by means
screws of t¹, t, for the support of the brush; q is the brush; r is the frame on
which the sieve rests; 8, s, are weights attached to the cord m', to bring back the
brush q to its original position after the power which sets it in motion is with-
drawn; t is the upright piece fixed across the carriage containing the apparatus
by the screw ', t; v, v, a piece of wood, upon which are the grooves, upon
which are also fixed the pulleys n; a, a, are the grooves in which the carriage
containing the apparatus runs.
DESCRIPTION OF THE APPARATUS FOR SUPPLYING THE COLOR.
This apparatus I construct of a cylindrical form of tin, or in some cases of
wood, into which the color is put, and from thence runs on to the sieve under-
neath by means of an opening. This opening is regulated by means of screws
fixed to the sides of it. Figure 5, A is a plan of the top of the apparatus, and
Figure 6 is a side view, and Figure 7 a section of the apparatus; a, a, are
screws, to fix it to the brush; b are the screws attached to the side of the
apparatus, to which is attached the slide / sliding in grooves on the outside, in
order to shut the opening made at the bottom of the box; c, c, are springs,
which enter the regular openings made at the hoad of the screw b; f.f, are
pieces of wood placed across the box in which the screw 6 moves; e, e, &
scraper, covered with cloth, which is fixed against the box by adjusting screws
c', to bring back the color, and to equalize it upon the sieve.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect; I would have it understood, that I do not claim
the use of a brush generally for rubbing the color on the sieve; nor do I confine
myself to the precise arrangement here shewn, nor to the shape of the sup-
plying apparatus. But what I claim as my Invention is, the mode of applying
the brush, and combining therewith a mode of supplying color to the sieve, as
above described; and also the mode of regulating the supply of color to the
sieve, as above described.
In witness whereof I, the said Auguste Coulon, have hereunto set my
band and seal, this Thirtieth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.
AUGUSTE (L.B.) COULON.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirtieth day of July, in the
year of our Lord 1838, the aforesaid Auguste Coulon came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her 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 Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-sixth day of Septomber, in the year of our Lord One
thousand night hundred and thirty-eight