IMPROVE- MENTS IN RULING PAPER AND OTHER MATERIALS
Year: 1856

page_text: (This Invention received Provisional Protection, but notice to proceed with the
application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Craig at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 8th September
1856.
I, THOMAS CRAIG, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Paper Ruler, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN RULING PAPER AND OTHER MATERIALS," to be as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention relates to certain improvements in ruling machines, for ruling
or delineating lines upon paper, parchment, and other surfaces, the objects
of which improvements are, the more effective working of the apparatus, the
being able to use less expensive inks or colours than hitherto, and the rapid
drying of the ink or colour upon the paper or other surface, together with
other practical advantages.
In ordinary ruling machines the ink or colour is applied to the paper in a
cold state, and requires to be prepared in a peculiar expensive manner to make
it mark the paper.
According to the present Invention, however, arrangements are made for
heating the ink or colour, which makes it run easily, and ensures its marking
the paper, whilst at the same time it dries more rapidly than if cold.
The ruling pens or markers are held between metal plates, contrived so as
to nip the pens with their front edges, whilst the screws for closing the plates

page_text: upon the pens are not in the way of the dripping cloth which supplies the ink
or color to the pens or markers.
It is usual to supply the dripping cloth with ink or color by means of
a brush, which is dipped by hand in a vessel containing the ink or colour and
is then applied. But the present Invention provides for doing this by means of
small tubes or pipes fitted with stop-cocks, and communicating with an ink or
color vessel above the pipes, being capable of being shifted to and fro by
hand or otherwise to distribute the ink or color. Heat is applied to the
penholding plates, and is by them communicated to the ink as it passes over
them to the pens, the heating medium being a set of gas flames or steam
introduced into cavities within the penholding plates.
When the paper leaves the ruling pens it is usually traversed forward by a
number of cords passing round grooved rollers, but it is intended to employ an
endless web or cloth for this purpose. The distance the paper is carried is
such as will allow the ink or colour upon it to dry before the sheets (if the
paper is in sheets) is delivered upon the receiving board; and it will be
obvious, that as the heated ink or colour dries more rapidly than cold ink or
colour, a less extent of traverse, and consequently a machine of diminished
length, will answer the purpose according to the present Invention.
The receiving board is inclined, and is formed with a sliding cross bar, which
is adjusted to suit the size of sheet by means of a screw movement; and
to insure the proper deposition of the ruled sheet, arrangements are made for
blowing two thin films of air, one on each side of the sheet, as it is being
delivered upon the receiving board, these air blasts being produced by means
of a small revolving fan or other suitable apparatus. The air blasts also have
a final drying effect upon the ruled lines if they should not be quite dry by
the time the sheets reach the place of delivery, and this drying effect may be
increased by heating the air forming the blasts.