IMPROVEMENTS IN BLOCK PRINTING BY HAND ON TISSUES, PAPER, OR OTHER SUITABLE FABRICS."
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Gustave Larsonnier, of Paris (France), Manu-
facturer, and Auguste Blanche, of Paris, (France,) Civil Engineer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN BLOCK PRINTING BY HAND ON TISSUES,
PAPER, OR OTHER SUITABLE FABRICS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Gustave Larsonnier and
Auguste Blanche at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 7th September 1858.
We, GUSTAVE LARSONNIER, of Paris (France), Manufacturer, and AUGUSTE
BLANCHE, of Paris (France), Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BLOCK PRINTING BY HAND ON TISSUES,
PAPER, OR OTHER SUITABLE FABRICS," to be as follows:-
The Invention consists in a mechanical arrangement for guiding the printer
in placing the printing block on the surface of the tissue, paper or other fabric
on which the impression is to be effected. For this purpose the bench or
printing table is furnished along its two longitudinal sides with a rail or with
proper sockets, tappits, and regulating screws, for allowing a moveable rule to
be fixed crosswise on the table, and when required to be moved forward at
equal distances apart over this latter, this rule serving as a guide for the
printing block, which latter is provided on one of its sides with two projecting
pin points, one of which may be inserted in an angular notch or serration of a
plate fitted to the side of the rule, whereas the other point is caused to rest on

page_text: a projecting fillet of this plate, which latter being provided with a row of the
said notches placed at equal distances apart, thereby allows the printer placing
at once his block in the required position on the fabric stretched out over the
table, and on which the impression further takes place in the usual manner.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Gustave Larsonnier and Auguste Blanche in the Great
Scal Patent Office on the 7th March 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, GUSTAVE
LARSONNIER, of Paris (France), Manufacturer, and AUGUSTE BLANCHE, of
Paris (France), Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Gustave Larsonnier and Auguste Blanche, Her special licence that we,
the said Gustave Larsonnier & Auguste Blanche, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Gustave Larsonnier
and Auguste Blanche, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN BLOCK PRINTING BY HAND ON TISSUES, PAPER, OR OTHER
SUITABLE FABRICS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
Gustave Larsonnier and Auguste Blanche, our executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause
the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
44
NOW KNOW YE, that. we, the said Gustave Larsonnier and Auguste
Blanche, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement:-
The Invention relates to apparatuses applicable to the benches or printing
tables made use of for block printing by hand on tissues, paper, or other

page_text: suitable fabrics, and has for its object to offer to the printer a ready means for
the application of the printing block on the required spots of the surface of the
tissue, paper, or other fabric on which the impression is to take place, thereby
allowing of operating with greater speed and accuracy than by the ordinary
modes of block printing by hand. By the method hitherto made use of, the
blocks are provided with pins or guide points for indicating after each
impression the spot on which the block is to be applied again for continuing
the pattern on the fabric, whether in one or in several colours. By this
method the work depends entirely on the skill of the workman, whereas by
making use of the apparatus of which we will give herewith a full description,
each block is always obliged to apply itself exactly in the required position on
the fabric, thus enabling any ordinary workman of performing the same
operations as would by the old methods be entrusted only to the care of a
good block printer.
In the annexed Drawings views are given of the apparatuses and of some
details thereof. In the various Figures corresponding parts are indicated by
the same letters of reference.
Fig. 1 shows a plan view, and Fig. 2 a longitudinal elevation of a printing
table A provided with part of our apparatus, which latter consist of a moveable
rule M, of which Fig. 3 gives a longitudinal clevation; Fig. 4 a plan, and
Fig. 5 an end view, which rule M is provided against its inner side with
suitable plates E and F placed in pairs (E and F) at equal distances apart,
according to the size of the pattern to be imprinted; the surface of the plates
Fis smooth, whereas in the surface of E is made an angular notch or
incision a, in which latter rest one K of two pins or guide points K, K¹,
with which one of the sides of the printing block H is provided, whereas the
other pin point K is applied with its point against the smooth surface of the
plate F, the lower end of which plate may be turned up at right angles, so as
to form a rest for the said point K¹; and as each pair of plates E, F, has been
fixed on the rule M at such a distance apart from the next pair as corresponds
exactly with the size of the pattern, it will be evident that in order to get the
series of impressions as correspond with the number of pairs of plates E, F, with
which the rule M is provided, it will be required only for the workman to
apply his block for each successive impression, with its pin points K and K', in
the manner as has been just described. Along one of the longitudinal sides of
the table A are fixed a series of sockets or steps D at the required distance
apart from each other, whereas along the opposite side are fixed a series of
small angle tappits C, the vertical arm d of which is provided with a set
screw i; Fig. (6) shows a vertical sectional, and Fig. 7 a plan view, of ono of

page_text: the sockets D, provided with small holes m for fixing the same in the required
position on the table A by proper screws or other suitable means; the sockets
are further provided with one or two small holes n, to which we prefer to give
a conical shape, in order to correspond exactly with the conical form given to
the lower end of one or two set screws G, passing through one of the ends of
the rule M. The sockets D and the angle tappits C having thus been fixed
in pairs along the two longitudinal sides of the printing table in the manner
as may be readily observed from the Drawing, the workman lays the rule M,
with the lower or conical end of the set screws G, in the hole n of the first
socket D, and with the other extremity of the rule on the first angle tappit C
situated just opposite the first socket D; this end of the rule resting against
the end of the set screw i of the said tappit, it will be evident that by means
of the said set screw's G and i, the rule may be placed in such position that
when afterwards the printing block H is applied, with its guide points K, K³,
against the plates E and F of the rule M in the manner as has been described,
the impression of the block will take place on the fabric stretched and suitably
fixed on the printing table; and in order to perform the consecutive application
of the block on the fabric, it will be required only for the workman to put the
rule M in the proper position on the sockets and angle tappits, whereby the
said rule will be situated tranversely over the fabric, and may be kept in
position with the utmost facility, and then to apply the block as many times to
the rule as the width of the fabric will require; after which the workman
removes the rule M to the next pair of sockets and angle tappits, and then
performs again the number of impressions with the block as will correspond
with the width of the fabric. In the same manner he removes consecutively
the rule from one pair of sockets and angle tappits to the next pair till he
arrives at the end of the printing table, each time making the number of
applications of the block required for the width of the fabric, and having thus
reached the end of the printing table, the printed part of the fabric is to be
removed; and the next part of the same requiring to receive the impression is
stretched in the same manner, and fixed in proper position on the table, when
the same series of operations are performed, and so on to the end of the
fabric.
In Fig. 8 and 8 is shown a plan view, and in Fig. 9 and 9 a vertical
longitudinal sectional view, of a modification of the apparatus, viz., a mode of
applying the sockets and angle tappits in such manner to the printing table,
that the distance between the sockets and that at which the tappits are situated
apart may be readily altered when required; in this arrangement the sockets D
and the tappits C are applied on two rails R and R', one of which is fixed

page_text: against each longitudinal side of the table A, and over which rails the said
sockets and tappits may glide, if required, the said rails being inserted in
suitable corresponding grooves, with which the under side of the said sockets
and tappits is provided, whereas these sockets and tappits may be fixed in any
suitable position on the rails R and R' by means of set screws p, q, "; the
manner of applying the rule M to the sockets D and tappits C, and the block
E to the rule is exactly the same as has been described above. We further
have to add that in order to keep the fabric in the required position on the
printing table, we either fix the same momentarily on the table by means of
starch or other suitable sticking material, either over the entire surface or
along the sides only; or we may fix the fabric momentarily to the table either
by means of studs or proper tightening screws, or by rules provided with
fixing points and screws, or any other suitable means, it being required that
during the act of printing, the fabric be prevented from shifting position in
any way.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into practical effect, we would observe in conclusion that we
do not confine or restrict ourselves to the precise details of the arrangements
here above described, as many variations may by made therefrom without
deviating from the principles or main features of the Invention; but what we
consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as our Invention in
block printing by hand on any suitable fabric, is, the mode of guiding the
printing block over the fabric by means of a rule, which latter may be caused
to travel in parallel directions, and at the required distances apart over the
length of the fabric, and which rule may at each succeeding position be
sufficiently steadied in order to serve as a guide for the printing block, in the
manner as set forth in the above description.
In witness whereof, I, the said Gustave Larsonnier, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Third day of March, One thousand eight
hundred and
ning
Witness,
J. SOUTH.
GE. LARSONNIER. (L.S.)