IMPROVEMENTS IN LITHOGRAPHIC PRESSES
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Felix Arnheim, of No. 43, Ampthill Square,
in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
LITHOGRAPHIC PRESSES."-A communication from abroad by Arnold
Stöffler, A. Schmittzche, and Friedrich Klett, of Stuttgart, in the
German Empire.
Sealed the 17th April 1874, and dated the 17th February 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Felix Arnheim at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 17th February 1874.
I, FELIX ARNHEIM, of No. 43, Ampthill Square, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN LITHOGRAPHIC PRESSES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to apparatus for lithographic printing of that
kind in which the sheet to be printed is drawn along with the printing
stone or plate under a pressing rubber, the chief object of the Invention
being to connect the stroke of the table, the alternate depression and
relief of the rubber, the inking and distributing and moistening of the

page_text: stone or plate, and the feed of the sheet and working of the tympan by
mechanism worked from one prime moving shaft, so that the necessary
movements succeed each other regularly, and the printing is effected
with rapidity and precision. For this purpose the main shaft of the
apparatus has on it a crank, which by means of a connecting rod and
lever works the table to and fro upon runners.
It has also fixed upon it
a cam, which by means of a lever and connecting rod during one part of
the revolution of the shaft depresses and holds down the rubber, but
during another part of the revolution permits the rubber to be raised by
a counterweight or spring. The cam, which acts thus on the rubber,
is made in parts, which can be set relatively to each other so as to give
the rubber a longer or shorter dwell, according as the sheet to be printed
is of greater or less length.
The ink is supplied from a roller provided with a trough knife and
dipping roller worked in the ordinary way, which delivers the ink on
an inking table forming part of and travelling with the printing table,
and passing with it to and fro under suitable distributing rollers.
The stone or plate is adjusted to its proper height on the table by set
screws, and is made to pass under moistening rollers mounted in a
frame, which is connected to the rubber by a lever, so that these rollers
are raised off the stone or plate while the rubber is depressed for taking
the impression, but are lowered so as to run on the stone or plate while
the rubber is raised and the table is making its back stroke. A tympan
sheet, which is preferably of parchment, is led along with tapes by guide
rollers so as to pass under the rubber between it and the sheet while it
is being printed. One of these rollers is worked by a spring from a long
lever arm connected to the rubber, so that when the rubber is raised the
spring is drawn up and the roller then turns in obedience to the spring,
thereby drawing back the tympan sheet during the return stroke of the
table while the rubber is raised therefrom.
The apparatus so far described can be worked either by hand or by
power applied to turn the main shaft, the sheets being fed and removed
by hand, and grippers being provided on the table to take and let go the
sheets.
The feed of the sheets can however be effected by means of additional
apparatus of the following description:-Above the table is mounted á
registering roller, at one end of which is a toothed wheel gearing into

page_text: a rack fixed on the edge of the table, so that when the wheel is in gear
with rack the roller revolves with a circumferential velocity equal to
the velocity with which the table travels. The teeth are omitted from
part of the circumference of the wheel, so that when it is brought round
to a certain point in the travel of the table it ceases to be in gear with
the rack, and the table makes its back stroke without turning the roller.
A cam on the main shaft by means of a lever and fork taking into an
arm connected to the roller at the proper period of the revolution of the
shaft moves the roller partly round so as to make its teeth again engage
with the rack, so that during the forward stroke of the table the roller
turns. On the roller are mounted grippers, which in the stationary
position of the roller are opened to receive a sheet supplied from a
sloping feed table above, such table being provided with registering
needles mounted on a rocking frame. By means of a lever connected to
the rubber acting on a cam the grippers are closed to pinch the edge of
the sheet when the roller turns, the registering needles being at the
same time depressed, and thus the sheet is drawn off the feed table and
brought by the roller in contact with the printing stone or plate on the
travelling table, when the grippers are again opened, leaving the sheet
free to be carried along with the stone or plate under the pressing rubber
along with the tympan and tapes, the rubber being raised during the
entrance of the sheet under it, and brought to bear down upon it during
its farther travel.

page_text: any
special license that I, the said Felix Arnheim, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Felix
Arnheim, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at timo
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there.
after 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 In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LITHOGRAPHIC PRESSES," (a communication
to me from abroad by Arnold Stöffler, A. Schmittzche, and Friedrich
Klett, of Stuttgart, in the German Empire) upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Felix Arnheim, 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 Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Felix Arnheim, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
accompanying Sheets of Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to apparatus for lithographic printing of that
kind in which the sheet to be printed is drawn along with the printing
stone or plate under a pressing rubber, the chief object of the Invention
being to connect the stroke of the table, the alternate depression and
relief of the rubber, the inking and distributing and moistening of the
stone or plate, and the feed of the sheet and working of the tympan by
mechanism worked from one prime moving shaft, so that the necessary
movements succeed each other regularly, and the printing is effected
with rapidity and precision. For this purpose the main shaft of the
apparatus has on it a crank, which by means of a connecting rod and
lever works the table to and fro upon runners. It has also fixed upon it
a cam, which by means of a lever and connecting rod during one part of
the revolution of the shaft depresses and holds down the rubber, but
during another part of the revolution permits the rubber to be raised by
a counterweight or spring. The cam, which acts thus on the rubber

page_text: is made in parts which can be set relatively to cach other so as to give
the rubber a longer or shorter dwell, according as the sheet to be printed
is of greater or less length.
The ink is supplied from a roller provided with a trough, knife, and
dipping roller worked in the ordinary way, which delivers the ink on
an inking table forming part of and travelling with the printing table,
and passing with it to and fro under suitable distributing rollers.
The stone or plate is adjusted to its proper height on the table by set
screws, and is made to pass under moistening rollers mounted in a
frame, which is connected to the rubber by a lever, or is operated by a
cam on the main shaft, so that these rollers are raised off the stone or
plate while the rubber is depressed for taking the impression, but are
lowered so as to run on the stone or plate while the rubber is raised,
and the table is making its back stroke. A tympan sheet, which is
preferably of parchment, is led along with tapes by guide rollers so as to
pass under the rubber between it and the sheet while it is being printed.
One of these rollers is worked by a spring from a long lever arm
connected to the rubber, so that when the rubber is raised the spring is
drawn up, and the roller then turns in obedience to the spring, thereby
drawing back the tympan sheet during the return stroke of the table
while the rubber is raised therefrom.
The apparatus so far described can be worked either by hand or by
power applied to turn the main shaft, the sheets being fed and removed
by hand, and grippers being provided on the table to take and let go the
sheets.
The feed of the sheets can however be effected by means of additional
apparatus of the following description:-Above the table is mounted a
registering roller, at one end of which is a toothed wheel gearing into a
rack fixed on the edge of the table, so that when the wheel is in gear
with the rack the roller revolves with a circumferential velocity equal
to the velocity with which the table travels. The teeth are omitted from
part of the circumference of the wheel, so that when it is brought round
to a certain point in the travel of the table it ceases to be in gear with
the rack, and the table makes its back stroke without turning the roller.
A cam on the main shaft by means of a lever and fork taking into an
arm connected to the roller at the proper period of the revolution of the
shaft moves the roller partly round so as to make its teeth again engage

page_text: on the shaft a is so set that at the proper period of its revolution it
causes the levers u and w to oscillate, and the pin of the lever x² being
then engaged in the fork a¹ the roller c is by this oscillation caused
to turn so far as to make its teeth engage with those on the rack h¹.
A modified construction of this mechanism is shewn in side view to
an enlarged scale in Fig. 4, where a³ is the second shaft, on which arc
fixed two cams g, one behind the other. The rod v slides on a bush
embracing the shaft a², and carries two rollers f³, f*, one bearing against
each of the cams g. By the action of the cams on those rollers the
connecting rod v is caused to reciprocate and to move the forked lever w,
as above described.
On the shaft a there are also fixed cams for working the pressing
rubber A' and tympan D, the mechanism for which will be more clearly
understood on reference to the detached side view of those parts in an
inverted position shewn in Fig. 5 to an enlarged scale. On the second
shaft a² are placed side by side two cams B, one of which is fixed on the
shaft, and has a studs passing through a slotted hole in the other, and
provided with a nut and washer, so that by setting the latter cam more
or less backwards in relation to the other the dwell of the roller z upon
the circular part of the periphery can be made longer or shorter to suit
the printing of a longer or shorter sheet. The roller z is mounted on a
loaded lever z¹, which is pivotted to the framing at 3, and is connected
by the rod to a bent lever Q. In the short arm of this lever is fixed
the pressing rubber A', which is kept up from the paper while the
roller remains in the circular part of the cam, but which is pressed
down upon the paper by the action of the weight on the lever z¹, when
the roller z descends into the hollow of the cam.
2
Round the nose of the rubber A' is passed a tympan or sheet of
parchment extending from D to D¹, the edges of the sheet being
connected together by several bands, which arc passed round a roller o.
The end of the lever Q is connected by a cord or band to the periphery
of a pulley fixed on the axis of the roller o. When the end is raised,
as shewn in Fig. 1, the rubber A¹ being then pressed down on the paper
which is carried along under it with the stone or plate on the table b
the tympan is caused to travel with the paper round the nose of the
rubber, turning the roller o and winding up the slack of the cord or band
from ; but when the lever Q descends, as shown in Fig. 5, the rubber

page_text: being thereby raised from the paper the pull on the cord or band from
on the roller o causes it to turn and to draw back the tympan sheet
to the position D to D', shewn in Fig. 5, ready for another impression.
The bearings of the moistening rollers w¹, w², w³, are worked by an
independent cam on the shaft a², as shewn in Fig. 6, where the cam E³
fixed on the shaft a² works a roller R on a lever * pivotted to the
framing at ³, and connected by a rod 6 to an arm on a rocking
shaft ws, from which are suspended brackets w carrying the moistening
rollers w¹, w², w³.
The construction of the registering roller c with its grippers and the
mechanism for working them and the register points will be understood
on reference to Fig. 7, which represents a side view of those parts to an
enlarged scale. A cam n loose on the shaft of the registering roller C
has an arm n¹, to which is connected a horizontal rod n² working through
a hole in a fixed bracket ns, and drawn towards the right by a spring 8, p,
till it is stopped by a stud s, t, coming against the bracket m³. On the
rod n² is an adjustable stop n³, and a stud s, t, is fixed on the table b, so
that when the table makes its back stroke the rod n² is pushed by the
stud s, t, towards the left, and the cam n is partly turned thereby. By
this partial revolution of the cam na roller m, which rested on a
prominent part of the cam, is permitted to drop. This roller is mounted
on an arm fixed on a rocking shaft k, on which are fixed the
grippers b¹, b², 6³, 6', and these grippers when the roller m drops are thus
permitted to close in obedience to a spring (shown in Fig. 1), and to
pinch between them and the edge of the roller C the front edge of the
sheet placed on the feed table h².
The cam is also connected by a rod 8¹ to an arm 82 on a rocking
shaft, which has arms carrying rollers & under levers s5 mounted on a
pivot beneath the feed table h². On these levers is an adjustable
slide & carrying the register pins, on which the sheet is adjusted on the
table. By the same movement of the cam n, which permits the grippers
to clamp the edge of the sheet as above described, the levers & aro
allowed to descend, and thereby to withdraw the pins from the sheet,
leaving it free to be drawn off the table by the rotation of the roller C.
Guide plates a¹ resting on the roller serve to adjust the edge of the sheet
truly on the roller, these plates being lifted from the roller when the
sheet is seized by the grippers by the action of a cam similar to that

page_text: which raises the grippers. When the edge of the sheet held by the
grippers has been brought round to the lower side of the roller C, where
it meets the stone or plate travelling in the table b, the roller m meets
another protruberance n³ on the cam n, and the grippers are thus lifted,
releasing the sheet which travels onwards with the table b, and passes
under the pressing rubber A¹.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondents, I claim in respect of lithographic presses worked
by a revolving shaft,-
First. The method substantially as herein described of working the
pressing rubber A¹ by means of a double cam, the dwell of which can
be adjusted to suit the length of the sheet printed.
Second. The method substantially as herein described of working the
tympan sheet D, D¹, in connection with the pressing rubber A¹, the said
tympan sheet being drawn back when the rubber is raised.
Third. The use of the registering cylinder C with its grippers acting
in combination with the register pins of the feed table, substantially in
the manner and for the purposes herein set forth.
Fourth. The method substantially as herein described of working the
registering cylinder C by a rack on the printing table, the cylinder
being thrown into gear therewith by means of the forked lever w worked
by a cam.
In witness whereof, I, the said Felix Arnheim, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Fourth day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.