A METHOD OF MAKING PUNCHES FOR STAMPING AND PUNCHING THE MATRICES OF PRINTING TYPES FOR LETTERS AND DEVICES, AND FOR IMPRESSING ON COPPER, CUTS OR OTHER PRINTING PLATES, AND ON DIES, AND ON VARIOUS METALS, AND ON ANY OTHER SUBSTANCES CERTAIN MARKS, WHICH LETTERS, DEVICES, AND MARKS CANNOT BE COUNTERFEITED
Year: 1790

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
BARCLAY, of the Borough of Southwark, in the County of Surry, Brewer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, did, by
Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-six day of July last
past, in the thirtieth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Robert Barclay, His special license, full power, sole privilege and authority,
during the term of years therein expressed, to make, use, exercise, and vend,
within that part of Great Britain called England, the Dominion of Wales, and
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, a discovery or Invention communicated to me
by Francis Bailey, of Philadelphia, in North America, of "A METHOD OF
MAKING PUNCHES FOR STAMPING AND PUNCHING THE MATRICES OF PRINTING
TYPES FOR LETTERS AND DEVICES, AND FOR IMPRESSING ON COPPER, CUTS OR OTHER
PRINTING PLATES, AND ON DIES, AND ON VARIOUS METALS, AND ON ANY OTHER
SUBSTANCES CERTAIN MARKS, WHICH LETTERS, DEVICES, AND MARKS CANNOT BE
COUNTERFEITED;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
or condition for obliging me, the said Robert Barclay, by an instrument of
writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the
nature of the said discovery or Invention (so communicated to me), and in
what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be
enrolled in His Majestie's High Court of Chancery within one month after
the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation thereto
being had, may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in pursuance of and compliance with the said
proviso and condition, I, the said Robert Barclay, do hereby declare that
the nature of the said discovery or Invention (communicated to me as afore-
said), and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are herein-after
particularly described and ascertained (that is to say):-
The method of making punches for stamping and punching the matrices of
printing types for letters and devices, and for impressing on copper, cuts, or
other printing plates, and on dies, and on various metals, and on any other
substances, certain marks, which letters, devices, and marks cannot be counter-
feited, consist of the following principles:
First, that there is an infinite variety in all the works of nature, whence it
will follow that any hard brittle substance broken into two parts will exhibit
certain irregular figures, which, in infinite repetitions of the experiment, will
never be exactly imitated, and this principle I call the accidental part of my
Invention. Small bars of steel drawn to the proper size of the punch required,
and then braken off, will without more form a punch to punch or stamp
matrices for types, for devices, and no ingenuity will ever be able to imitate
them with a tool so as to deceive, upon a careful inspection; and a punch so
formed will serve for marking copper, or any other printing plate or cut, or a
die for milling of coin or medals, or for stamping paper or parchment, or for
stamps for an assay office, or for any other private mark on any substance
capable of an impression.
My second principle is to combine art with nature, to render the natural or
accidental marks above-mentioned more obvious to a slight inspection. Thus,
when the grain of the steel is very fine, and the light and shade to be produced
will not be sufficiently distinct, it may be rendered more so by enlarging the
hollow parts with counter-punches of a smaller size, regular or irregular,
cutting or grinding down the prominent parts by drilling or punching small
holes, and varying them with regular or irregular cuts of a graver, punch,
chissel, or other tool, untill a device is formed or produced that pleases the eye
and satisfies the artist that it is inimitable, and this may be infinitely varied.
My third principle is that regular, accidental, and irregular cuts with a
graver or chissel, or other tool, regular and irregular counter-punches, struck
or cut on a plain surface of either wood, metal, or other substance, may also
produce an inimitable device; drilling holes and bending the periphery of one
into another by punches, &c. will increase the difficulty of imitation. This
combination of art and accident may be extended to any given length, as
punches for letter-press types may be form'd of steel, broken as above, by
cutting, drilling, punching, bending (and all their varieties, upon the same

page_text: principle) parts of the letters, and leaving the grain of the steel, &c. to form the
lines or strokes with all its accidental irregularities; and in this way, title
letters, and two line letters, facs, and compleat founts of types might be cast,
every letter of which would vary in its lines from every other, and in larger
letters a little art might be combin'd with accident, so as to make the distinc-
tions from all others obvious to a common observer.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Barclay, do hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of August, in the thirtieth year
of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the grace of God of Great
Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, &c. &c. and
in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety.
ROBERT BARCLAY. (L.S.)
igned, sealed, and delivered, being first
duly stamped in the presence of
ROBT PLUME,
BENJ³ KETT,
Clerks to H. Thrale & Co.
on
day
August,
in the year of our Lord 1790, the aforesaid Robert Barclay 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 Statute made for that purpose.