IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING, 'AND' IN 'APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George-Davies, of - No.- 1,- Serle Street, Lincoln's
Inn, in the County of Middlesex, and No. 28, St. Enoch Square, in the
City of Glasgow; Civil Engineer and Patent Agent, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING, 'AND' IN 'APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH."-
A communication from abroad by M. Alois Auer, Aulic Councillor' and
Director of the State Printing Office, Vienna.
S'IN
Scaled the-28th-February-1860, and dated the 3rd September-1859.
PROVISIONAL, SPECIFICATION left by the said George Davies at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd September 1859.
I, GEORGE DAVIES, of No. 1, Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn, in the 'County
of Middlesex, and 'No. 28, St. Enoch Square, in the City of Glasgow, "Civil
Engineer and Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING, AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THERE-
Ww" (a communication from abroad by M. Alois Auer, Aulic Councillor
and Director of the State Printing Office, Vienna,) to be as follows':→
This Invention consists principally in the employment, in typographic,
lithographic, and copper and other plate" printing presses of endless paper
in place of the "separate sheets". hitherto employed. By this system also the

page_text: damping of the paper is performed by an automatic apparatus, which directs
it on to the press, thus dispensing not only with the persons usually employed
to feed in the sheets and remove them when printed, but also with the appa-
ratus hitherto employed to introduce the paper into the press. This system
has also the advantage of enabling the printing press to be put into immediate
connection with the paper-making machine. The endless paper is passed
around rollers, which keep it at the requisite tension, being prevented from
unrolling too fast by a break and weighted lever, and is drawn forwards by
means of two feeding rollers covered with cloth. The paper is then cut
transversely by a pair of automatic scissors or cutters, and passed to the
printing cylinder. In order to cut the paper into two or more sheets longi-
tudinally after being printed, it passes between pairs of revolving circular
cutters arranged for that purpose. The sheets are then delivered by automatic
means from the machine.
The damping apparatus consists principally of two hollow perforated metal
rollers containing water, and covered with cloth or flannel, round which the
endless paper passes in its progress from one roller to another.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Davies in the Great Seal. Patent Office on the
3rd March 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
DAVIES, of No. 1, Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn, in the County of Middlesex,
and No. 28, St. Enoch Square, in the City of Glasgow, Civil Engineer and
Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third 'day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said George Davies, Her special licence that I, the said George
Davies, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said George Davies, 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, AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH,"

page_text: being a communication to me from abroad by M. Alois Auer, Aulic
Councillor and Director of the State Printing Office, Vienna, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said George Davies, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my 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 Palent Office within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Davies, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement in writing, and on reference to the accompanying Drawings, that is
to say:-
This Invention consists principally in the employment, in typographic,
lithographic, and copper and other plate printing presses of endless paper,
in place of the separate sheets hitherto employed. By this system also the
damping of the paper is performed by an automatic apparatus, which directs
it on to the press, thus dispensing not only with the persons usually employed
to feed in the sheets, and remove them when printed, but also with the appa-
ratus hitherto employed to introduce the paper into the press.
This system
has also the advantage of enabling the printing press to be put into immediate
connection with the paper-making machine. The endless paper is passed
around rollers, which keep it at the requisite tension, being prevented from
unrolling too fast by a break and weighted lever, and is drawn forwards by
means of two feeding rollers covered with cloth. The paper is then cut
transversely by a pair of automatic scissors or cutters, and passed to the
printing cylinder. In order to cut the paper into two or more sheets longi-
tudinally after being printed, it passes between pairs of revolving circular
cutters arranged for that purpose. The sheets are then delivered by automatic
means from the machine.
The damping apparatus consists principally of two hollow perforated metal
rollers containing water, and covered with cloth or flannel, round which the
endless paper passes in its progress from one roller on to another.
Such being the nature and object of the said Invention of "Improvements
in Printing, and in Apparatus connected therewith," I will proceed to describe
more in detail the manner of carrying the same into practical effect. And in
order that the Invention may be perfectly understood, I have annexed here-
unto a Sheet of Drawings illustrative thereof, and have marked the same

page_text: represent detached views, on a larger scale, of the different pieces which
compose the apparatus.
APPARATUS FOR CONDUCTING THE ENDLESS PAPER.
The numbers of the detached Figures, as well as the letters of reference
which are indicated thereon, point out the same parts in the complete view,
Figure 2.
Figures 1 and 2* represent standards in cast iron; in Figure 2* only the
upper part of the standard is represented, the construction of the other parts
being similar to that of Figure 1*. These standards, which are fixed by
their lower part to the upper extremity of the back of the printing press (see
Figure 2), and by their upper part to the wall, carry at a, a, the paper roller,
Figure 3. At b and c are iron rollers (Figure 4) moveable in their supports,
and at d and e the two standards are connected together by rods. The
wheel (Figure 2*), which carries a worm on its axis, serves to regulato
the paper roller, that is to say, to direct it, when required, more to the right
or the left, to conduct the endless paper exactly to the centre of the printing
press. The rollers b and c (seen in detail at Figure 4), under which the
endless paper passes, serve to augment the friction and tension thereof. The
pulley (Figure 1*), fixed on the axis of the paper roller, serves to regulate
the break a (Figure 5), the object of which is to prevent the paper from
unrolling too quickly during the impression. This regulating is effected by
means of the spiral spring c and the screwed wheel b, inasmuch as, by the aid
of this latter, the rod d can be tightened or loosened. Two rollers covered
with cloth, similar to that represented at Figure 6, between which the endless
paper is passed, are placed immediately one above the other in the bearings a, a,
(Figure 7), and operate, by their rotation, the unrolling of the paper, and
direct it on to the impression cylinder. The lower roller is actuated by the
toothed wheel, Figure 8, which gears with the wheels, Figures 9 and 10,
which are set in motion by the mechanism of the press. On the face. of the
wheel, Figure 10, is fixed an excentric a, which is in communication with one
arm of the lever a (Figure 11). This lever operates the engaging and dis-

page_text: engaging of the toothed discs or clutch-box, Figure 12, a and b, and by the
aid of this arrangement the above-mentioned cylinders, which direct the
paper, can be put in a state of momentary repose. By the position of
the excentric a (Figure 10) is determined the duration of the revolution of
the paper-conducting cylinders, and consequently the desired width of the
sheet of paper which is to be cut off by the transverse scissors, Figure 13.
The momentary and exact stoppage of the cylinders above named is of especial
importance, because on it depends the uniform width of the sheet of paper.
To effect this momentary and exact stoppage in the most complete manner
there is fitted on the axis of the lower cylinder behind the toothed wheel,
Figure 8, a wheel, Figure 14, rather larger than the latter, and having very
fine teeth, into which the click a of the lever, Figure 15,. engages, and by
these means instantaneously arrests the centrifugal force of the rollers. This
lever moves on its axis b, and is put in action by means of the roller c, by the
excentric, Figure 16, which is fixed on the other side of the toothed wheel,
Figure 10. The levers, Figure 17, are in communication with the two
levers, Figures 11 and 15, (which are constantly drawn downwards by the
spiral springs, Figure 18,) and transmit the motion to them at the proper
moment. The leyer and link b, b, Figure 7, actuate the rising and falling of
the scissors, Figure 13, in such a manner that the upper part of the scissors a
rises at the moment when the impression commences, and allows the paper to
be printed to pass through, and descends and cuts off the sheet at the moment
that it arrives on the impression cylinder, where it is seized by the nippers.
In addition to their rising and falling movement, the scissors have a slight
movement to the right, which is produced by the small lever b, Figure 13.
To prevent the recoil of the scissors, they are caused to move in a slide c.
The scissors can also be moved on their base, either backwards or forwards,
and by these means the sheet may be cut wider or narrower.
.
. In order to cut the printed paper after it leaves the impression cylinder
into two or more sheets, the arrangement of circular cutters, Figure 18*, may
be employed. This consists of two small parallel shafts, on each of which are
moveable circular cutters a, b, and c, which are so arranged that their circum-
ferences touch closely, and whilst the printed paper is conducted to the auto-
matic delivering apparatus by means of tapes or bands, it is cut by the rotation
of the circular cutters one against the other, and thus separate strips or sheets
of paper are formed, and the number and width of these strips or sheets can
be varied according as the circular cutters above named may be arranged. By
the aid of the arrangements above described, the parts which compose the
machine move without any human aid by the action of steam, and thus, the

page_text: endless paper is conducted to the press, cut off in sheets, then printed, divided
into smaller sheets, returned in order, and deposited outside the machine.
For the steam presses employed for copper-plate and lithographic printing
the arrangements above named are the same, with slight modifications. The
damping off the endless paper is performed by the aid of an automatic damping
apparatus arranged for that purpose, and exhibited-at-Figure 3. This operation
is performed in the following manner:-The roll of paper is placed on the
axis a, one of the ends b, c, being previously removed for that purpose. The
end of the paper is then conducted on to the cylinder d, which is driven by
means of the strap e. By these means the paper becomes rolled on to the
cylinder d uniformly and solidly, and when the said roller has received the
desired quantity of paper it must be removed from its supports and placed in
the upper bearings f, g. In place of the roller d, a similar roller is to be put
(empty) and connected to the moving power by the strap. The end of the
paper which is on the upper roller at h, after having been conducted round
the two damping rollers i and k, (which are hollow iron cylinders perforated,
filled with water, and covered with. flannel), is put into communication with the
lower roller d. The paper will then be unrolled from the roller h, and rolled
on to the roller d, passing around the damping cylinders i and k, and is
moistened by means of the water which these cylinders contain, and which is
communicated to the flannel with which they are covered through the perfora-
tions with which they are furnished: In this manner the paper is sufficiently
and uniformly damped. After this oparation the roller d is removed
from the apparatus and allowed to rest for some hours, in order that the
moisture may be communicated more intimately and uniformly to the paper.
To maintain the paper at the desired degree of tension, and to prevent it from
unwinding too fast from the roller h, the latter is held by the break 1, which
presses on the pulley m by means of the weights n, o. This simple arrange-
ment, which does not require any attention except for changing the rolls
of paper, will furnish in an hour or two a sufficient quantity of damped paper
for a day's work of a steam printing press.
"
.
Having now fully described the nature and object of the said Invention for
"Improvements in Printing, and in. Apparatus connected therewith," together
with the manner of carrying the same. into practical effect, I would remark,
that I claim as the Invention communicated to me by the said Alois Auer,
Firstly, the employment, in typographic; lithographic, copper-plate, or other
printing presses, of endless paper, in place of the separate sheets as hitherto
employed.
And, secondly, the general arrangement of the apparatus above described

page_text: and shown in the Drawings, for damping, cutting, feeding, printing, and
delivering the said paper by automatic means.
And, lastly, the placing the printing press in immediate and uninterrupted
communication with the paper-making machine, as shown in Figure 1 of the
Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Davies, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty.
GEORGE DAVIES. (L.S.)