or their Equivalent.
Year: 1885

page_text: Matrices or their Equivalent.
I, EBENEZER WRIGHT of 103 Ivanhoe Road in the County of Surrey Journalist
do hereby declare the nature of the said invention for " IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF STEREO MATRICES OR THEIR EQUIVALENT
to be as follows:-
"
The present invention relates to additions to or improvements upon the invention
for which I have obtained Letters Patent N° 7417 of 1884. In my former
specification I described and illustrated a type writer in which the type were set
by the falling of the type bars which carried the letters a whole line being set first
and then impressed.
The object of my present invention is to adapt this form of machine to the
production of stereo matrices and stereotype plates.
To adapt the machine to its purpose means must be provided to bring the letters
as close together as in ordinary letter press printing, so that the thinner letters
occupy their own proper width, and no more; To accomplish this I attach or joint
to the type-bar described in the above named specification an arm projecting at
right angles from it (if the bar was vertical the arm would be horizontal) the arm
is hollow and contains a helical spring with which is connected a piece of ribbon
steel or equivalent which carries the type. Each type bar would have as many
arms as there are symbols to be made by the machine, the arm carrying the letter
instead of its being upon the bar as in my former invention. The type is thus free
to be drawn from the hollow arm, when it can be moved in almost any direction
on account of the pliability of the connection; the helical spring draws back the
type when released.
In practice the type bars, or the arms upon the bars or rods, are dropped to their
proper position as described in my former specification thus forming the line of
type, which may then be drawn forward in any convenient manner as by passing
a rod through holes in the whole of them, and clamped firmly together and to the
machine or other firm support. The matrix or matrix material may then be pressed
in any suitable manner against the type and the impression having been obtained
it is removed the type released and returned to their original position previous to
setting another line.

page_text: Where it is desired to operate upon a zinc or similar plate the faces of the type
are.inked with an ink capable of resisting acids an impression taken upon paper or
equivalent (which corresponds to the matrix) and transferred to the plate which is
then etched with acid in the usual manner.
"
To facilitate the operation of "justifying" the "spaces or "quads" may be
provided with springs which can be compressed to close up the line and open out to
lengthen it.
By using a gutta percha or wax matrix, or one of similar properties, a stereotype
could be readily produced by the electro-typing process. In this specification I use
the word "stereotypo" in its proper sense of "solid block printing," and not
always in its restricted technical sense, meaning a block produced by molten metal.
The word matrix has also the wider signification of an impression (whether in
relief or not) from which other impressions are to be directly or indirectly
obtained.

page_text: поп
BY CO
I EBENEZER WRIGHT of 103 Ivanhoe Road in the County of Surrey 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
The present invention relates to additions to or improvements upon the invention
for which I have obtained Letters Patent N° 7417 of 1884.-In my former
Specification I described and illustrated a type writer in which the type were set
by the falling of the type bars which carried the letters, a whole line being set first
and then impressed.
The object of my present invention is to adapt this form of machine to the
production of Stereo-matrices and Stereo-type plates.
To adapt the machine to its purpose means must be provided to bring the letters
as close together as in ordinary letter press printing so that the thinner letters
occupy their own proper width and no more.
To accomplish this I attach or joint to the type bar described in the above named
Specification an arm projecting at right angles from it (if the bar was vertical the
arm would be horizontal) the arm is hollow and contains a helical spring with
which is connected a piece of ribbon steel or equivalent which carries the type.
Each type bar would have as many arms as there are symbols to be made by the
machine, the arm carrying the letter instead of its being upon the bar as in my
former invention.
The type is thus free to be drawn from the hollow arm when it can be moved in
almost any direction on account of the pliability of the connection; the helical
spring draws back the type when released.
In practice the type bars or the arms upon the bars or rods are dropped to their
proper position, as described in my former Specification, thus forming the line of
type which may then be drawn forward in any convenient manner as by passing
a rod through holes in the whole of them, and clamped firmly together and to the
machine or other firm support. The matrix or matrix material may then be pressed
in any suitable manner against the type and the impression having been obtained
it is removed the type released and returned to their original positions previous to
setting another line.
When it is desired to operate upon a zinc or similar plate the faces of the type
are inked with an ink capable of resisting acids, an impression taken upon paper or
equivalent (which corresponds to the matrix) and transferred to the plate which is
then etched with acid in the usual manner.
>>
To facilitate the operation of "Justifying" the "spaces or "quads" may be
provided with springs which can be compressed to close up the line and open out
to lengthen it.
By using a gutta percha or wax matrix or one of similar properties a stereo-type
would be readily produced by the electrotyping process. In this Specification I use
the word "stereotype" in its proper sense of "solid block printing," and not
">

page_text: always in its restricted technical sense meaning a block produced by molten metal.
The word matrix has also the wider signification of an impression (whether in
relief or not) from which other impressions are to be directly or indirectly
obtained.
The mechanism for the formation of the stereo-matrices is very simple and is
shown in the accompanying drawing in which Figure 1 is a plan and Figure 2
a side elevation partly in section.
It is obvious for this purpose some means are required (1) whereby the line of
type forming the printing line can be projected beyond the level of the rest so
that the matrix can be impressed against it. (2) whereby the difficulty caused by
the differing width of letters can be obviated and the letters themselves whether
thin or thick brought into as close juxtaposition as if set up in the ordinary way.
I effect both these purposes in the following manner:-
The letters or symbols are removed from the type bars G (see specification
N° 7417 above referred to) and placed upon the ends of the arms which are
jointed to the type bars G in any suitable manner as at g¹-In a horizontal line
there is thus one arm g to each type bar G, and in a vertical line there are as many
arms as there are letters or symbols arranged one above the other three of them
being thus shown in Figure 2.
These arms g are hollow, and each contains a helical spring a (which is always
in a state of tension) one end of which is secured in the hollow arm g and the other
to the flat spring b which carries the type c upon which is the type face d. The
types care thus connected with the type-bars G by an exceedingly flexible
connection so that they can be drawn out and compressed together as in Figure 1,
while still keeping their sides parallel and the type even across the face, notwith-
standing that some of the arms g have to be turned radially upon their pivots g¹
and the type of the outer arms are drawn out somewhat further to bring them up
to the face level.
A further spring (not shown) will be necessary to bring each type arm back to
its original position after turning on its pivot, but a common spring for the whole
of each vertical line of type arms will suffice for this.
Each type c is pierced with a hole c¹ so that a screwed rod h may be run through
the whole of the types. When this has to be done the whole of the types on the
rod h are first drawn forward so as to be clear of those above and below.―They
are then pressed together at the sides, as by screwing up the nuts, until the vacant
spaces caused by some letters being thinner than the rest (while the type-bars are
necessarily of the maximum width) no longer exist but the whole line of type
presents as perfect an appearance as if set up in the usual way.
Now comes the important operation of justifying, a term universally used by
printers to signify the adjusting of each line of type so that it may finish with
a complete word or with a syllable followed by a hyphen. This can be easily
accomplished in my machine in the following way.
In the first place the number of type-bars used will be somewhat in excess of the
maximum number of letters likely to be required in any line, in printers language,
the line when compressed will be somewhat wider than the measure in use. It may
happen that the full width of the measure comes exactly at the end of a word, no
justifying will then be required. Or it may come in the middle of a word. In
that case the operator must have a means of expanding or contracting the line set.
For the first purpose he would only have to insert temporary wedges between
the words so as in effect to space more widely than usual. To effect the second
purpose, I propose to make the quads K of india rubber or with springs so that
they will yield to extra pressure on the sides.
This will enable a few of the surplus letters to be got in the line, in other words
the line will be closely spaced. The same of course applies to the division of long
words at a convenient syllable only that a hyphen must then be inserted temporarily
at the end of the line, which can be easily done. The operation will therefore in
principle be precisely the same as that of Justifying ordinary type only that there

page_text: can be no "overrunning "- each line must be justified by itself. The surplus
letters rejected from use can be separated from the rest by a quad temporarily
inserted like the hyphen then idly impressed on the matrix and cut off afterwards
or the matrix might be of the exact width of the column.
The line of type having been justified it is held firmly together at the sides, as
by the nuts in Figure 1, or by other equivalent means more readily applied.—It is
then clamped firmly from above and below, and the material of which tho matrix
is to be made is pressed up against the line of type and the required impression
obtained. Up to the present I have used the ordinary papier maché matrix with
good results, the impression being taken line by line (i.e. not letter by letter), there
is little fear of any distortion of one line by another.
By using wax, gutta percha or other suitable material for the matrix, a mould, for
electrotyping could be formed. And by inking the types and taking an impression
on paper the impression could be transferred to stone or zinc, and printed from in
the usual way.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and what manner the same is to be performed I declare that I claim is
1. In a stereo-matrix machine the combination with the type bar G of an arm g
pivotted thereto and carrying the type d at its outer end substantially as specified.
2. In a Stereo-matrix machine the method of flexibly and extensibly connecting
the types c with the type bars G whereby the type line can be contracted and the
type brought into as close juxtaposition as in ordinary printing and in accordance
with the varying width of the letters, substantially as specified.
3. In a stereo-matrix machine the combination with the arms g of types c
flexibly and extensibly connected therewith, whereby the types may all be brought
to the same face line and be arranged parallel to each other while the arms g are
radially disposed substantially as specified.
4. In a stereo-matrix machine the method of producing an even typo line by
drawing out the types c securing them firmly together as by the screw bold h and
clamping the whole to a firm support while the impression is taken substantially
as specified.
;
5. In a stereo-matrix machine and as a means of flexibly and extensibly
connecting the types c with the arm g, the combination therewith of the flat
spring b and helical spring a, substantially as specified.
6. In a stereo matrix machine the method of setting more type to the line than
are required whereby the process of justifying may be accomplished by compressing
or expanding the line and withdrawing or separating the extra letters substantially
as specified.
7. The application of the herein described mechanism to the production of
electrotype or (by transfer) zinco-graphic plates substantially as and for the
purpose specified.
8. The method of justifying by means of compressible or expansible quads
substantially as specified.