CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MAKING OR PRODUCING PRINTING TYPES
Year: 1831

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
THOMSON, of Spencer Street, Goswell Street Road, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fourteenth day of February, in the first year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
James Thomson, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said James Thomson, my exors, adñors, and assigns, and such
others as I, the said James Thomson, my exors, adñiors, 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 mentioned, 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 MAKING OR PRODUCING
PRINTING TYPES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I,
the said James Thomson, shall cause a particular description of the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar

page_text: .
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Thomson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained by the following description thereof (that is to say):-
My improvements consist in making printing types by casting or forming
a cake of metal having letters formed and protruding on one side of it, and in
afterwards sawing this cake directly and transversely so as to divide it into
single types. The forming or casting of this cake is done in two distinct ways.
The first is by taking a cast or forming a mould from types-set up, and in
immersing this within an iron box into a pot of melted type metal, the whole
being done as in making stereotype plates, with this difference however, that in
the present case the plate must be as thick as the length of the intended type,
and further that in setting up the types for the cast proper spaces must be
made between each letter and between the lines in order to allow for what
will be taken away in the sawing.
The second mode of forming this metallic cake is by taking a plate of
copper or other suitable metal and making in it indentations or matrices with
a punch having on it the letter for the intended type, taking care to mako
them in straight rows direct and transverse. This plate-being so indented is
put into an iron box and immersed in a pot of liquid type metal, and kept.
there the proper depth and proper time, so as to enable the metal fully to
enter into these indentations or matrices that the letter may be well formed.
The cake thus cast or formed, after being taken out and cooled, is sawed as
before.
The cutting of this cake is done either with circular or straight saws, and,
by using one at a time or a number together.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Thomson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Tenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.
JAMES
(L.S.) THOMSON.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Tenth day of August, in the
year of our Lord 1831, the aforesaid James Thomson, came before 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 Statuto made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Eleventh day of August, in the year of our Lord. One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.