CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ART OF CASTING STEREOTYPE OR OTHER PLATES FOR PRINTING, AND IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PLATES FOR PRINTING BANK OR BANKERS' NOTES, OR OTHER PRINTED IMPRESSIONS WHERE DIFFICULTY OF IMITATION IS A DESIDERATUM
Year: 1818

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AUGUSTUS
APPLEGATI, of Nelson Square, Great Surrey Street, in the County of Surrey,
Printèr, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-third day of April, in the fifty-eighth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Augustus Applegath, His especial licence that I, the said Augustus Apple-
gath, my exors, admiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Augustus
Applegath, my exors, adûiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ART OF CASTING STEREOTYPE OR
OTHER PLATES FOR PRINTING, AND IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PLATES FOR
PRINTING BANK OR BANKERS' NOTES, OR OTHER PRINTED IMPRESSIONS WHERE
DIFFICULTY OF IMITATION IS A DESIDERATUM;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Augustus Applegath, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said récited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Augustus Applegath, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and
nscertained in the several Figures drawn in the margin of these Presents, and
the following explanation thereof, that is to say:-
My said Invention or improvements consist in the formation of a metallic
mould or matrix, and in the casting or striking a plate with the same, in the
manner and by the means herein-after described; and for their more clear eluci-
dation, I will first describe the process of making the mould or matrix (a).
The letters or types, or metallic blocks or ornaments from which the matrix
is to be made, aro composed or set up into a page in the ordinary manner,
observing to use the high spaces and quadrats commonly employed in stereo-
typing, as also metal furniture or bars round the page. The page is then
placed in the metal frame or chase C, shewn in Figure 1 in the margin; it is
then firmly fastened by the screws S, S, S, S, and the intervals between the
types and the sides of the chaso are to be filled up with pieces of metal or
wood. The page and chase are now laid upon tho metal plate B, P,
shown in Figure 1, which I term the back; this plate is mado perfectly true.
The frame M, which is called the moulding frame, is then placed upon the
chase, so that the type occupies the open space. The frame M is furnished
with pins p, p, p, p, which pass through corresponding holes in the back plate,
where they are fastened either with screw nutts or with keys (k, k), as shown
in the Drawing of the striking or casting apparatus. The back of the plate
B, P, has a groove g, r, which corresponds with a projecting dovetail H in
Figure 2, on the bottom of the striking rod of the casting apparatus, of which
Figure 2 in the margin is an elevation, and the following a description:-
DESCRIPTION OF FIGURE 2.
A is a solid block of wood, to which the iron support or pillar B is fixed with
screw's,
C is a wheel and pinion, from the barrel of which a rope or chain passes
over the pullies p, p, to wind up the striking rod D; the ratchet wheel is fur-
uished with a pall or catch G, which can be easily disengaged.
E, E, are two or more strong springs, which are compressed by winding up
the striking rod, and which cause by their reaction the striking rod to descend
upon the wooden block; these springs must be so arranged that they may act
forcibly ngainst the block after the descent of the striking rod.

page_text: The lower part of the striking rod D is furnished with a piece of iron,
which has a projecting dovetail H to fit the groove g, r, in the plate B, P,
Figure 1. The wooden block may be furnished with a small flap or screen
of thin plate iron to protect the workman from the splashing of the metal.
The mode of using this apparatus and of forming a matrix therewith is as
follows:-
The chase, type moulding frame, and back plate being attached by means of
the groove and dovetail to the lower part of the striking rod D, as shown in
the Drawing, the rod is wound up by means of the wheel and pinion to
about the distance of eight inches from the wooden block; the workman then
takes a small quantity of metal (or an alloy composed of twenty parts lead,
two parts regulus of antimony, and one or two parts bismuth, in a state of
fusion, and pours it into a piece of dry cartridge paper loosely folded up
as a box or trough, as shewn in Figure 3 in the margin, and places it upon
the wooden block immediately under the striking rod D; ho gently raises
the corners of the paper and moves the fluid metal towards the centre, that
it may attain the same degree of heat in every part; it should also be a little
thicker or heaped towards the centre. As it becomes cool, and just in the
point between fusion and fixity, the workman nimbly disengages the catch or
pall of the ratchet wheel, when the striking rods instantly descends by the
action of the springs, and causes the type and moulding frame to form an im-
pression on the semi-fluid metal, in the same manner as sealing wax receives
the impression of the seal.
If the operation has been well performed, a perfect creux impression of the
type is formed in the metal, which thus becomes a metallic mould or matrix.
The back plate and chase, having the type and inatrix adhering thereto, are
then removed from the striking rod, and the matrix is disengaged from the
type by gently raising the moulding frame. If the type has not been originally
made with much bevil it will adhere a little to the matrix. This may in
some measure be prevented by slightly brushing the face of the type over with
a little dry soap and red ockre; but I prefer and recominend the use of type
which has been cast from a shallow matrix with as much bevil as possible.
The mould now detached from the letter is taken out of the moukling frame,
and the back of such mould is made true by turning, planeing, or filing.
The next operation to be performed is the striking, or casting a plate from
the metallic mould, which is done in the following manner :-
(b). To strike a plate from the metallic mould.-The mould is to be placed
upon the plate B, P, Figure 1, and the mould'ng frame laid over it and
fastened with the ins p, p, and keys h, k, as before, to the plate B, P, which

page_text: is then attached to the striking rod, and the operation of striking the plate is
precisely the same as that of striking the mould, namely, in the semi-fluid or
half-sot metal; the plate metal may be the same as the ordinary typo motal,
or an alloy of one part regulus of antimony to three, four, or five parts of
.lead.
.
If tho operation has been well performed, a perfect plate or fac-similo of the
original page of type is produced. The plate may be disengaged from the mould
by gently raising the moulding frame. If any difficulty occurred in disengaging
the mould from the type, it will be necessary to brush the mould over with dry
soap and red ochro previous to casting the plate.
The back of the plate may then be turned in a lathe to make.it true.and
parallel to the face.
(c). I form a mould from a stereotype plate, or from a copper plate, by placing
such plate upon the back plate B,.P, Figure 1, with the mould frame, and
proceeding in the manner before set forth, and from such mould I cast other
plates, in the manner described in that part of my Specification marked (b). It
is to bo observed that the mould from a creux or copper-plate engraving is in
relief, and that the stereotype plate from such mould is cast with the ordinary
type metal.
•
(d). In the application of this my Invention to the construction of plates for
printing bank or bankers' notes, or any printed impressions wherein difficulty
of imitation is a desideratum, I proceed by forming an original plate or block,
in which I avail myself of both relief and creux engraving on metal, whether
performed by hand or by machinery, such as rose, engine, or eccentric
turning; and sometimes I form the original of several or many distinct pieces
of engraved metal, which I unite into one pago or form, either by soldering
at the back or by locking up in a chace or frame.
It is evident that the design and complexity of the engraving.must entirely
depend upon the nature of the note or document to be produced. The original
being formed, I strike, in the manner described in that part of my Specification
marked (a), as many matrices as inay be required; such matrices, being struck
from one original, are all perfectly similar; and from these matrices I again
strike, in the manner represented at (6), the printing plates, which plates being
alike, an issue of notes or impressions perfectly similar is secured to any given
extent, while the facility of multiplying the plates enables me to make use of
tho most complicated patterns or designs. And I hereby declare that I do not
claim as my 'Invention the union of the several kinds of engraving in one
original, nor do I claim the exclusive use of a metallic mould or matrix'; but,I
do claim the exclusive right to make and use metallic moulds or matrices by

page_text: casting or striking upon metal in that state between fusion and fixity before
described, not limiting my Patent to any particular apparatus for performing
the act of casting or striking, though I prefer the apparatus shewn in Figure 2;
nor do I limit myself to any particular alloy for forming the moulds, tho'
I prefer that given in that branch of my Specification marked (a). And I
also claim the application of such metallic moulds or matrices to the formation
of plates, as well in relief as in creux, and also to the formation of plates in
which both relief and creux engraving are united.
In witness whereof, I, the said Augustus Applegath, have hereunto set
hand and seal, the Twenty-second day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighteen.
AUGUSTUS (L.s.) APPLEGATH.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-second day of June, in
the year of our Lord 1818, the aforesaid Augustus Applegath came beforo
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-second day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighteen.