AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR BACKING ELECTRO-TYPE SHELLS
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the Firm of Haseltine,
Lake, & Co., Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London,
for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR
BACKING ELECTRO-TYPE SHELLS."-A communication from abroad by
James Samuel Brooks, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
of America, Electro-type Founder.
Scaled the 3rd August 1875, and dated the 12th June 1875.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said William Robert Lake at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with bis Petition and
Declaration, on the 12th June 1875, pursuant to the 9th Section
of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR BACKING ELECTRO-TYPE SHELLS," and have
petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators,

page_text: and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made
solemn Declaration that it has been communicated to me from abroad
by James Samuel Brooks, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
of America, Electro-type Founder.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Robert Lake, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and
scal, fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawing forming a
part of this Specification, and in which―
Figure 1 represents a side elevation of the said apparatus.
Figure 2 represents a plan of the truing plates and pressure device
berein-after described.
Figure 3 represents a plan of the lower truing plate, the upper onc
being turned up on its hinged edge.
Figure 4 represents a section of the guide rule in the different styles.
This Invention relates to an improved method of and devices for
backing electro-type shells.
In practising the said Invention I pour the metal when the pans,
shell, and rules are all of the same degree of temperature as the metal,
at the same time confining three sides of the shell, thus directing any
tendency to expansion or contraction towards the free edge, where it
can do no harm, and by these means producing at once a true and perfect
backing, which requires no finishing whatever.
$6
"
The present method is as follows:-The woodcut or type form is
laboriously locked in a chase, care being taken to have all the
surfaces even and accurate. It is then pressed in the wax, after which
the wax matrix is immersed in the battery solution, and a copper
impression made. Then it is taken to the hot "pan" laid face down-
ward therein, and the molten metal poured upon its back to a little over
the required thickness, so as to allow for planing and truing it up. This
method has the following drawbacks :-When the locking in a chase is
doing if one cut varies the slightest from a general level of all the shell
will be very imperfect, if not useless. When the shell is placed upon
the hot pan it instantly expands, and as the air above it is cooler than
its face the expansion of its face is greater than that of its back, and

page_text: the shell curls up at the corners and edges. Now when the metal is
poured upon it in this condition, the corners give access to the metal,
which runs under and helps the natural tendency of the light copper to
float in the heavy type metal; all these causes produce the unevenness
or hollows in the face, known as "sinks," which sometimes appear in
the form of very minute waves on the face, in which case the most
delicate skill of the finisher is called upon to true up the plate; then
the back is necessarily uneven and must be planed true and parallel with
tho faco; then the metal which has run in on the face must be cut
away with care and skill. This tedious and laborious finishing process
not only requires time and skill, but also very considerably injures the
quality of the plate.
By my method, when the shell is ready, by one speedy operation it is
so backed that its face will be accurately true and perfect, and needs no
finishing, its back no planing, and the plate is produced of any required
fractional thickness, thereby saving all the time and tedious labour now
expended in finishing, constituting a saving of more than three-fourths
of all the time now necessary to produce a perfectly backed electro-type.

page_text: so as to be capable of turning to allow the opening of the pans.
The plates B, B', are hinged in slotted lugs c, c, on one end, to allow of
vertical variation in the distance between the plates in proportion to the
thickness of backing required. On the slide C is placed a suitablo
beating apparatus, and when not wanted, or for the purpose of canting
plates B, B', the slide C may be pushed out of the way; ff, are the
guide rules or side sticks made true and perfect, and laid upon threo
sides of the shell bearer. These regulate the thickness of backing and
the size and shape of the finished plate. They may be rectangular or
recessed along their under side towards the shell as shewn in Figure 4.
The pan B has a vertical ledge along its under outside edge to confine
the flames of the heating apparatus. Now the shell being ready and the
pans B, B', heated to the proper degree, they are opened, the shell
placed on pan B face downward, and the side sticks laid on its three
inner marginal bearings. The fourth may be covered with a sheet of
thin iron or stiff paper extending out to the mouth of the pans, beyond
which also extend the guide rules or side sticks to direct the molten metal.
Then the pan B¹ is let down, the cross bar a¹ placed in position, and the
screw D turned till the shell is held firmly by the rules f. In placing
the shell on pan B it may expand, but when pan B¹ of equal temperature
comes down immediately over it, the air is heated also, and expansion
on both faces of the shell is equal. Hence, no irregularities can occur.
When this is done the pans B, B¹, are canted and the metal poured in.
The sides being all straight and vertical, no air can clog the corners or
produce bubbles" on the shell. The rules make the plate of an even
thickness, and the pans being true and perfect the plate so produced
must necessarily be perfect and of an even and exact thickness through-
out. Nothing now remains to be done except to saw off the copper
margins or bearers, after which the backed shell is ready for blocking
and the press.
Not a touch is necessary for either face or back.
Having thus fully described the said Invention as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondent, and the manner of performing the
same, I wish it understood that I claim,-
First. The method of producing finished electrotype backs consisting
in securing the shell face downward between truo and parallel plates,
determining the size and thickness of the plate by adjustable straight
edged metallic rules, constructed and adapted to give a true and finished
edge, heating all to a uniform temperature, and then pouring the

page_text: molten metal upon or between the back of the shell and the upper or
opposing truing plate as above described.
Second. The apparatus for backing electro-types, consisting of hinged
and swivelled plates B, B', frame A, slide O for heating appliance,
supports a, a, cross bar a', arms b, screw D, and guide rules f, com-
bined and operating as above described.
Third. In combination with the pans B, B', for backing electro-types
the adjustable guide rules for equivalent devices, as and for the purposes
set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of June, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
Witness,
HY. JA. NOONE.
W ROB. LAKE. (L.S.)
:
8