IMPROVED TYPOGRAPHICAL COMPOSITING MACHINERY OR APPARATUS
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Gedge, of the Firm of John Gedge
and Son, of Number 11, Wellington Street. Strand, in the County of
Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVED TYPOGRAPHICAL
COMPOSITING MACHINERY OR APPARATUS." A communication from abroad
by Pierre Flamm, of 15, Passage des Petites Ecuries, Paris, France,
Manufacturer.
Sealed the 19th July 1864, and dated the 6th June 1864.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said William Edward Gedge at
the Office of the Commissioners of Palents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 6th June 1864. pursuant to the 9th Section of
the Patent Law Amendment Act. 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME: I, WILLIAM
EDWARD GEDGE, of the Firm of John Gedge and Son, of Number II, Wellington
Street. Strand, in the County of Middlesex. Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVED TYPO.
GRAPHICAL COMPOSITING MACHINERY OR APPARATUS," the said Invention being a
communication to me from abroad by Pierre Flamm, of 15. Passage des
Petites Ecuries. Paris, France. Manufacturer. and have petitioned Her Majesty
to grant unto me, my executors. administrators. and assigns, Her Royal
Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn Declaration that the said
Invention is communicated to as above written.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Edward Gedge, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification under my hand and seal
fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, that is to say:---
This Invention consists in composing typographical moulds or forms with a
single alphabet of ordinary printing or other type for each sort of character it
is intended to print, and producing, while composing, the strict justification or
measure of the lines, and the making up into pages; the whole by an improved
process differing essentially from the ordinary method generally used in
printing offices. It dispenses with the acquisition of policies or bills of fount
composed of a relative quantity of letters to the presumed use of each of them,
and the characters or type may be spaced amongst each other without changing
alphabet, that is to say. to cause an indeterminate number of n's to enter a
given space. By the use of this apparatus not only is a great stock of type
economized, but the costly distribution of the type of a mould or form after
the working off is also suppressed.
The type are ranged vertically in a rectilineal space of a long box sliding in
grooves, or in a circular space on the periphery of a round box. whether they
join together or whether they are isolated and move in slits or notches.
In the second case they are suspended by their nick to the periphery of a fixed
disc, whilst the box turns round a pivot in the centre; on turning the box all
the type are carried in a circle. A notch on the periphery of the fixed disc
filled by a spring coming even with the upper face is beneath a vertical punch
or hammer on bringing the printing type on the spring and lowering the punch
on to it it sinks, and its eye or thin face comes out a certain length on the
lower surface of the box, which I term "type reservoir." The mould or form
is produced in different ways; the type are either sunk the one after the other
in a soft mass, capable of receiving and of retaining impressions received, or it.
is printed with fat ink, metallic or chemical, on white paper. The inking
may be done as well directly as indirectly by the interposition between the
white paper and the type of a sheet of inked paper.
to
The stereotypes of the hollow mould are obtained either by moulding, by
running, or by galvano-plastic. Those by paper proof are produced either by
transfer on to stone or on to metal, which is submitted to a suitable
obtain the proof in hollow or in relief by known chemical or electrical processes.
In order that a mould or form or a sheet of paper may receive successively
the impressions of the type it is necessary that the one or the other travel
transversely, and as much as required for each type and its spacing, so that the
impressions range themselves one by the side of the other, after the manner

page_text: exacted by the typographical art. To form a line independently of the trans-
versal journey, a journey in the longitudinal direction becomes necessary to
produce several lines regularly spaced from each other and constituting the
page.
In the compositor, the subject of this Invention, the plane and the cylindrical
mould are used. In the first case the mould rests on a small carriage which
travels transversely on the rails of a large carriage, which itself slides in a
longitudinal direction on two parallel rails fixed at the bottom of a case
serving to enclose the apparatus, and these several movements are obtained at
will by endless screw rack and pinion, or otherwise. In the second case, a
cylinder coated with the impressionable matter or enveloped by a sheet of
white paper covered with an inked sheet, if the inking is to be effected by
communication, moves around its axis; to obtain syllables and words in one line
it travels with its shaft in the direction of the axis to space the lines, and thus
form pages. If direct inking is to be applied, a series of conical rollers are
arranged at each side of the cylinder, of which one transmits the ink from the
ink block to the eye or thin face of the type when they pass above the upper
roller, and of which the other series retakes the ink from the thin face of
those type which have not worked.
By differently combining these elements the Inventor constructs two distinct
apparatus, one of which is worked by hand, as well for bringing the type
beneath the punch or hammer as for the impression of the type, and for the
successive journeys which the mould carriage or cylindrical mould or form is
to accomplish; this apparatus is specially suited to amateures in typography,
lithographers, and engravers: the other has keys or stops, and a continuous
or broken movement, and is intended by reason of the rapidity with which it
will compose for the use of printers and the electric telegraph.
For the more thorough comprehension of this Invention will now,
(reference being had to the Sheet of Drawing hereunto annexed, and forming
part of this Specification, and to the figures and letters of reference marked
thereon) give a description of two typographical compositors. the one with
carriages, and the other with keys or stops with cylindrical mould or form, and
direct inking of the type. (combinations which may be infinitely multiplied
without, however, departing from this Invention).
I will firstly describe the simple typographical compositor.
Figure represents the circular type reservoir drawn full size, of which r is
the pivot; F, a pulley; m, a collar; s, the type; p. the fixed disc to which the
type are suspended by their nick; H, fixed support; L, lever with the punch t

page_text: W, Figure 4, spring closing the cut
other stopped cut, by which the
type are introduced into the reservoir (see Figure 4).
The Figures 2. 3. and 5. represent the general arrangement of the
simple compositor; similar letters denote similar parts in each of these Figures
respectively.
A, bottom of the case; a. a. two rails; B, large carriage, with its two
rails b, b, on which slides the mould or form-bearing carriage c: g, rack let
into a notch under the bottom of the carriage worked by the pinion . running
on the shaft c, c', which is itself worked by the ratchet e, and its catch or
lever ;,, are two rules serving to regulate the journey of the carriage c;
k, another rule fixed to the carriage e, and registering on the indicator D, a
sheet of traced paper, the journeys accomplished. The Figure 7 shews
another application for controlling these journeys; here the needle y comes
against the catch of the ratchet e by the action of the spring 4; the move-
ment of its point indicates on the scale W the value of each journey to be
made by the carriage B, which is inscribed on the edge of the reservoir before
each type, the carriage is embraced by the extremities at right angles of the
rack,, which tooths into a spur wheel, the pivot of which carries a second
needle, which indicates on the graduated dial in typographical demi-point
this same journey accomplished. A third needle r', with its rack e', cm-
bracing the lower carriage B. indicates the journeys of this latter or the
number of lines.
I will now return to Figures 2, 3, 5. d is an endless screw with crank, the
nut of which is fixed to the large carriage B, and which is moved to settle or
fix the lines.
To operate with this apparatus the edge of the reservoir is seized between
the thumb and middle finger of the right hand, the fore finger stretched over
the hammer punch, and the left hand grasps the lever catch f. After having
brought back the carriage C from left to right, and placed the beginning of
the margin beneath the punch, the catch or lever is drawn as far as required
to produce the white of the break. Bring the first letter beneath the punch,
cause it to make half the prescribed journey, press the punch or hammer, and
the same journey is repeated, including half the journey required by the second
letter brought under the punch, which is again sunk, and so on for all the
other letters which are to form the words and the line; before, however, com-
posing the last words, calculation must be made according to the space which
remains to be filled of the size of the blanks to be inserted, which is obtained
by adding up the value of the letters to be printed in the line, and deducting

page_text: the sum found from the length of the space to be filled. the remainder gives
the value of the blanks to be distributed between the missing words. in order
to arrive at an exact justification of the line. As soon as the line is finished.
the carriage is pushed back by disengaging the lever or catch from the raichet.
the large carriage is made to come one line forward by means of the crank
and the new line is composed after the manner already explained. Instead of
causing the carriage C to advance by two successive impulsions, this may be
done by one impulse only, but then the line must be commenced by the journey
for the first letter before printing it.
I will now describe the typographical compositor with keys or stops, and
cylindrical mould or form (see Figures 8, 9, and 10. F, reservoir: s. the
type; p, the fixed disc: r. the pivot turning in the fixed support II carrying
the bevil wheel P. which tooths into that O mounted on the shaft a; this shaft
carries a helix A, represented by a cylinder with pins or studs set in it. This
helix turns incessanily. moved by a screw-jack action or otherwise; it makes
iwo evolutions per second, and carries with it the type reservoir: Q. Q. Q", the
inking rollers: B, series of balance levers, the extremities of which are under
the helix, and the opposite ends under the keys or stops t..', ", and these
vary in length, so that the spring counter stops u, u, a", may pass behind
these lever ends and reach the top of a vertical and rigid frame D suspended
in parallelogram D. E. E', which is intended to move the cylindrical mould
or form C. On lowering one of the stops f. P. ", the corresponding lever
arrests in its passage the helix A by coming against its pin, and the respective
letter finds itself at the same time arrested beneath the punch N sliding in the
support M, and on which acts the hammer I. To accomplish the journeys of
the mould which are required for each type, there is for each stop or key a
counter stop u, u', u", with double nut, by means of which the descent is
strictly regulated for each of them. In lowering it to the bottom it acts on
the frame D, which lowers the forked lever or catch of the ratchet e, moving
in a jointed cross piece of the frame, and which causes the mould C to make
part of its evolution; this journey must take place at the moment the type is
pressed beneath the punch, so that its plane eye touclies the convex mould
during its partial journey round its axle. O, needle or hand moved by the
pulleys s, s, and r, r, of equal diameter. indicating on the dial the journey
accomplished and the production of the line; it is this band which guides the
calculation of the justification. The endless screw R, R, pushes by its
moveable nut S, S, the shaft b with the mould C, and by the notches of the
dise T, T, representing demi-points, the number of lines of the page is
regulated. The spaces between the words are produced by means of the keys

page_text: or stops V, V, VI, which may be multiplied, and the descent of the frame D,
or the number of n's to be made to enter a given space is determined by the
screw W. The middle of the page is made known by the position of the
needley, which slides like the pulley r. r. .in a longitudinal groove in the
shaft b. It is by means of the needle y that the mould C is made to give a
complete furn after having finished a line: when from any cause whatever a
stoppage takes place in the composition, the movement of the helix must also
be stopped.
The correction of proofs upon paper is effected by cutting out the wrong
word and replacing it by the word composed anew on an auxiliary sheet, which
is applied on the stone or the metal plate after the transfer of the proof has
been made upon it in this way words, lines,' and periods may be over-run
and broken in the same way that type is actually handled on the imposing
stone..
I further expressly reserve the, exclusive application of this Invention. io
electric telegraphing in two ways, namely, firstly, in composing dispatches with
metallic ink on ordinary paper, or with fat, ink on metallic paper, and
afterwards submitting them to the electric current; or, secondly, in isolating
the reservoir F in causing the electric current to pass through it, and in
composing the dispatches directly on to chemical paper as it unrolls at the
two stations, when dispatches may thus be simultaneously transmitted and
received.
When the apparatus is to be used for telegraphic purposes it is lighter, and
the reservoir contains but one alphabet, a series of ciphers, and conventional
signs.
In witness whereof. I. the said William Edward Gedge, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
W. E. GEDGE. (L.S.)