IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING BLOCKS FOR PRINTING FIBROUS AND TEXTILE FABRICS
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Midddlesex, Civil Engineer, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING BLOCKS FOR PRINTING FIBROUS
AND TEXTILE FABRICS."-A communication from abroad by Thomas Crossley,
Sealed the 23rd October 1860, and dated the 19th May 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 19th May 1860.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING BLOCKS FOR
PRINTING FIBROUS AND TEXTILE FABRICS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in the production of an electrotype printing block,
having a plain face with margins of metal and the body of felt or its equi-
valent, and highly raised above its base, and having perpendicular sides.
The design that is to be printed upon the fabric having been previously
prepared, the Inventor takes plain faced rectangular, type of three or more
different heights, the longest, however, forming what is termed the face, or
that which carries the coloring matter. With these types a mould cor-
responding with the design is set up. The type may be of wood, but metal is
preferable; from this a wax matrix is to be made. The wax is heated to a
temperature of from 90° to 100° Fahr., which slightly softens it, & the mould
is then pressed or driven into the wax. The mould is of less temperature
than the wax, and should be previously dusted with plumbago. The mould
should be allowed to remain in the wax until both have acquired the same

page_text: temperature, which will be less than that of the wax before the mould is
inserted into it. The cooling of the wax causes it to contract and slightly
leave the mould, which is then carefully withdrawn. A perfect matrix with
very deep cells in it is thus produced, then with a delicate brush the bottoms,
tops, and sides of the cells or depressions are dusted over with plumbago, and
the matrix is placed in the battery, and the metal precipitated upon it in the
usual way of electrotyping, and a thin fac simile in reverse of the matrix is
produced in copper or other metal, into the back of which is run type or other
suitable strengthening metal, and this is then fastened to a wooden block or
back, and is ready to be used for printing with.
The blocks are made in sections, and they are arranged on a platen so as
to present a form of about 60 by 30 inches, but they may be extended to two,
three, or more yards in length, whilst with wooden blocks such a thing would
be impracticable, owing to their unequal swelling, shrinking, and warping.
A cylindrical form may be thus made up of sections prepared in the same
manner as the flat blocks, and advantageously used in printing certain fabrics
which are now printed by engraved or embossed cylinders.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 19th November 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of 1er reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Edward Newton, Her special license that I, the said William
Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said William Edward Newton, my 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 PRINTING BLOCKS FOR PRINTING FIBROUS AND
TEXTILE FABRICS," being a communication from abroad, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Edward Newton, by an instrument

page_text: in writing under my hand and seal, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Edward Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
:-
After much experience and expense in printing textile fabrics with wooden
and other soft material blocks, the Inventor of the present improvements has
ascertained their insufficiency, and has turned his attention towards dis-
covering something that would obviate the objection to which such blocks are
liable. The cost of wooden blocks, their liability to be broken and damaged,
their tendency to swell and shrink unevenly, and, above all, the fact of the
lines printed by them invariably being wider than the face lines of the block
make them highly objectionable, and attempts have been made to substitute
gutta percha blocks for the wooden ones, but these latter also fail, as they
have not the proper consistency to withstand the printing operation; they
resist moisture, and do not swell, shrink, or warp unevenly, but they do not
answer the purpose.
Metal blocks of course possess all the elements that would be required,
inasmuch as they are strong, durable, do not swell, shrink, or warp, and will
print sharp lines; they must, however, possess other elements than mere
hardness of material. The face must have great height above the back, so
that the portion of the textile fabric that is not to be printed upon may not
be touched or soiled, whilst the face that carries the coloring matter might be
pressed well down into the fabric. There must also be room and space in these
blocks for the confined air to pass into, and, moreover, with the great height
that they should possess, they must still be light enough to be operated easily.
Blocks possessing these desiderata could not be engraved, owing to the great
cost of this operation, nor could they be cast. The sides of the raised face or
portion of the block must be perpendicular, otherwise the impression given by
them would be of greater surface than the figure block, as the face of the
block must go far down into the fabric, and if it had inclined sides (which
cast plates would of necessity have, as they could not otherwise be drawn
from the moulding sand) they would widen the figure the deeper they go, and
would blurr the margin of the figures to be printed on the fabric instead of

page_text: leaving them sharp and clean; besides, if the sides of the raised figure were
inclined, the coloring matter, which is only to be held on the blocks by
capillary attraction would run down upon these inclined sides in some places, or
with some colors more than others, and there would be no certainty of getting
proper shados.
Instead of engraving or casting the blocks, the Inventor of the present
improvements proposes to obtain an electrotype copy or kind of stereotype
block of a pattern block or mould composed of a series of blocks of different
heights assembled together in any desired arrangement to form the pattern
required.
The making of a mould by setting up into a form a series of plain faced
rectangular and perpendicular-sided type of several heights, is no part of the
present improvements, though the Inventor uses the type for this purpose.
Making an electrotype printing block for printing textile fabrics with high
raised printing faces or surfaces and perpendicular sides is new; engraved
blocks or cylinders, letter-press types, of letters of wood or metal, or embossing,
are quite different things from what the present Inventor uses in printing
carpets, velvets, or other piled cloths. The engraved blocks have neither the
height nor the perpendicular sides that the improved blocks possess; they
inay be used to print or stamp upon paper, leather, or other hard firm sub-
stance, but they do not carry heavy colors and stamp them into the fabric as
is required in printing textile fabrics. All type have inclined sides; all
engravings have inclined sides; all type and engravings have irregular sur-
faces made of curved and straight lines or points. The improved blocks,
and the type from which the matrix is made, are plain faced, and are all
rectangular in design and perpendicular sided. By raised faces is meant that
the part or parts of the block which receives the coloring matter must be high
enough above the base to allow the face to press the colours into the fabric,
whilst the part of the fabric that is not to be printed upon shall not be touched
or soiled, and this, too, with the various colors used in printing, as, for
instance, with a red color the block is dipped into it twice the depth that it is
into a green, and hence the blocks should have depth enough for such colors
as are carried in the greatest quantity; some allowance, too, must be made
for the escape or dispersion of the air in the cells of the block. By perpen-
dicular sides is meant such sides as will hold the coloring matter by capillary
attraction when inverted, and prevent it from flowing down to or on the face
of the mould, which it will do when there is an inclination of the sides such
as all type have.
The present Invention consists in the production of an electrotype printing

page_text: block, having a plain face with margins of metal and the body of felt or its
equivalent, and highly raised above its base, and having perpendicular sides,
as herein stated.
In the accompanying Drawings, Fig. 1 represents a view of the face of
part of one of the improved electrotyped blocks, and Fig. 2 represents a
section through it at the red line x, x, of Fig. 1.
The design that is to be printed upon the fabric having been previously
prepared, the Inventor takes plain-faced rectangular type of three or more
different beights. the longest, however, forming what is termed the face or
that which carries the coloring matter. With these types a mould cor-
responding with the design is set up; the type may be of wood, but metal is
preferable. The wax from which the matrix is to be made is then prepared,
and is heated to a temperature of from ninety degrees to one hundred degrees
Fahrenheit, which slightly softens it, and the mould is then pressed or driven
into the wax; the mould, of course, is of less temperature than the wax, and
should be previously dusted over with plumbago. The mould must then be
allowed to remain in the wax until both have acquired the same temperature,
which will be less than that of the wax before the mould is inserted into it.
The cooling of the wax causes it to contract and slightly leave the mould,
which is then carefully withdrawn; to insert and withdraw the mould, a screw
set in a frame is used so that it cannot move laterally, but in a true plane,
and thus not injure the walls or sharp edges of the matrix. A perfect matrix,
with very deep cells in it, is thus produced, and with a delicate brush the
bottoms, tops, and sides of the cells or depressions are dusted over with
plumbago, and the matrix is then placed in the battery solution, and the metal
is precipitated upon it in the usual way of electrotyping, and a thin fac simile
in reverse of the matrix is produced in copper or other metal, into the back of
which is run type or other suitable strengthening metal, and this is then
fastened to a wooden block or back, and is ready to be used for printing with.
The printing block so produced is plain faced; the face is highly raised
above the base, and the sides of the printing surfaces are perpendicular to the
faces of them. As a proof of the value of this block, I would observe, that
whereas a wooden block will not print more than five thousand yards of fabric
before being worn out, the improved electro-plate or electro-type blocks have
printed over fifty thousand yards of fabric without wearing out, or, indeed,
showing any injurious wear at all.
The blocks are made in sections, and they are arranged on a platen so as to
present a form of about sixty by thirty inches, but they may be extended to
two, three, or more yards in length, whereas with wooden blocks such a thing

page_text: would be impracticable owing to their unequal swelling, shrinking, and
warping. A cylindrical form may be thus made up of sections prepared in
the same manner as the flat blocks, and advantageously used in printing certain
fabric which are now printed from engraved or embossed cylinders; and other
fabrics which are required to be printed with blocks by hand may, by using the
above-mentioned cylinders, be printed by machinery.
In the accompanying Figures, A represents the face of the printing block,
the marginal red line in Fig. 2 showing the electrotyped surface; b represents
the type or strengthening metal run on to the back of the electrotype to give
it the requisite firmness to withstand the work to which it is to be applied;
B is a wooden block or back to which the printing plate or block is to
be attached. There are three different heights of type used in forming
this block, as herein represented, viz., those marked c, d, e; those marked c
are of the greatest height, and their faces form the figure to be stamped or
printed on the fabric. Those marked d are of less length than those marked c,
and form, as it were, a depression in the face of the block, which depression
is afterwards filled with felt cloth C, or other suitable material that will carry
color. The third blocks e, e, are still shorter, and form the base of the block.
The types are all rectangular, and square or oblong, and any figure or
pattern drawn upon right lined paper may be set up with such type; but the
present Invention is not limited to the shape of the type, except as to height
and perpendicular sides for the objects heretofore mentioned.
Having now described the Invention that has been communicated to mo
by my foreign correspondent, as aforesaid, and having explained the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I claim, as the Invention secured to me by
Letters Patent as aforesaid, the mode herein set forth of forming printing
blocks for printing fibrous and textile fabrics.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, tho Nineteenth day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.S.)