A NEW METHOD OF PRINTING FROM PLATES OF GELATINE OR EQUIVALENT MATERIAL
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Herbert John Haddan, of the Firm of Herbert
and Company, Patent Agents, of 67, Strand, in the City of
Westminster, for the Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF PRINTING
FROM PLATES OF GELATINE OR EQUIVALENT MATERIAL."-A Communi-
cation from abroad by Ernest Edwards, of the City of Boston, in
the United States of America, Heliotyper.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Herbert John Haddan
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 5th October 1875.
I, HERBERT JOHN HADDAN, of the Firm of Herbert and Company,
Patent Agents, of 67, Strand, in the City of Westminster, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW METHOD OF
PRINTING FROM PLATES OF GELATINE OR EQUIVALENT MATERIAL," a communi-
cation to me from abroad by Ernest Edwards, of the City of Boston, in
the United States of America, Heliotyper, to be as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to produce impressions from gelatino

page_text: (1.) Mordant to be applied to the paper. Solution of protochloride

page_text: of tin, 1 part; water, 9 parts. For wetting or dampening the gelatine
plate a saturated solution of extract of logwood.
(2.) A saturated solution of aniline purple used alone or with a
mordant, where necessary, of perchloride of tin.
(3.) Chloride of cobalt, 1 part; water, 10 parts. The image in this
case does not appear till heat is applied. On cooling it disappears, and
heat is always necessary to redevelop it.
I wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself to the above
or any particular formulas for preparing the plates or producing
impressions, but vary these both as regards the substances and quantities
as occasion may require.
My said process is also applicable to printing on fabrics, and on all
other material suitable for receiving the action of dyes.
What I claim as my Invention and desire to secure by Letters
Patent is, the described process of printing from plates of gelatine, gum,
albumen, and other analogous bodies which are absorbent of water
with soluble colors, known as dyes, in contradistinction to those known
as printing inks, the parts not required to produce an impression having
been previously rendered non-absorbent of water and incapable of
printing either by exposure to light, the application of a coagulating
substance, an opaque varnish or mat, or other suitable means, substan-
tially as specified and for the purpose set forth.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Herbert John Haddan in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 5th April 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HERBERT
JOHN HADDAN, of the Firm of Herbert and Company, Patent Agents,
of 67, Strand, in the Oity of Westminster, Civil Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,

page_text: picture by causing such remaining absorbent parts to absorb or take up
a quantity of water containing, in solution, any convenient color
or dye.
It will be readily understood that by placing paper or other suitablo
material on such a surface and applying sufficient pressure the paper
or other material will receive the color from the gelatine plate in
just such proportion as the gelatine has been allowed to remain
absorbent.
My Invention consists in producing impressions with colors known as
dyes, as distinguished from printing inks, from plates consisting of 1
gelatine, gum, albumen, fibrine, or analogous substances which are
absorbent of water, the parts which are not required to print having
been rendered non-absorbent of water, or otherwise suitably prevented
from printing.
I will describe the mode by which I have successfully prepared and 1
printed from such plates according to my said Invention :-Upon a
suitable surface of metal, wood, stone, glass, or other suitable material I
place a layer of gelatine, gum, albumen, fibrine, or analogous substance,
on which an image has been or is to be produced by rendering such
portions as are not required to print non-absorbent of water by any of
the well-known means.
In preparing the gelatine or equivalent plate, I have found the
following to be a convenient formula: -I take of gelatine, 1 oz.; water,
6 oz.; bichromate, 30 grs. I dissolve the gelatine and bichromate in
the water heated for the purpose, and spread the mixture upon a surface
of slate. When dry the plate is to be exposed to light under a
photographic positive (as distinguished from a negative). After an
exposure sufficient to render non-absorbent those parts not to be printed
the plate is washed with water till all bichromate has disappeared. It is
dried and is then ready for use.
In place of a photographic positive a design or tracing may be used,
or the bichromate may be omitted and a design drawn directly on the
gelatine (or transferred thereto) with chrome alum; or a design may
be drawn on or transferred to the gelatine in an opaque or waterproof
varnish; the portions of gelatine not covered with the varnish being a
then rendered non-absorbent; or a stencil plate or mask may be used so
as to mechanically prevent the portions of the gelatine covered by it

page_text: 0
from imparting any of the solution in those parts to the paper on which
the impression is to be made.--
Impressions may be taken from the plate prepared as above described
in the following manner:-The surface of the prepared gelatine or
equivalent plate is to be wetted or dampened with a solution in water
of the desired color, and the surplus moisture is to be removed by any
convenient means.
The paper or other material on which the image is to be printed is
then to be pressed upon the surface of the plate so as to receive a
portion of the color. As the colors to be used in this kind of printing,
and known as dyes, are soluble in water, and as these colors are to be
applied to the surface of the plate in solution, they will not be absorbed
by the parts of the plate which have been rendered non-absorbent of
water, but in the other portions they will be absorbed just in proportion
as the absorbent property has been modified by the treatment which the
gelatine has received.
"
When the colors used are dyes which require mordants to strengthen
any convenient
the color, the dyes and mordants may be applied in
manner or order. Care must be taken, however, to use only such dyes
or mordants as do not injuriously affect the gelatine plate.
The following are convenient formulas,―
(1.) Mordants to be applied to the paper. Solution of protochloride
of tin, 1 párt; water, 9 parts. For wetting or dampening the gelatine
plate a saturated solution of extract of logwood.
(2.) A saturated solution of aicline purple used alone or with a
mordant, where necessary, of perchloride of tin.
(3.) Chloride of cobalt, 1 part; water, 10 parts. The image in this
caso does not appear till heat is applied. On cooling it disappears, and
heat is always necessary to redevelop it.
I wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself to the above
ör any particular formulas for preparing the plates or producing
impressions, but vary these, both as regards the substances and
quantities, as occasion may require.
My said process is also applicable to printing on fabrics, and on all
35 other material suitable for receiving the action of dyes.

page_text: What I claim as my Invention and desire to secure by Letters
Patent is, the described process of printing from plates of gelatine,
-gum, albumen, and other analogous bodies which are absorbent of
water. with soluble colors known as dyes, in contradistinction to those
known as printing inks; the parts not required to produce an
impression having been previously rendered non-absorbent of water and
incapable of printing, either by exposure to light, the application of a
coagulating substance, an opaque varnish, or mat, or other suitable
means, substantially as specified and for the purpose set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Herbert John Haddan, have here- 1
unto set my hand and seal, this Fourth day of April, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.