IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTING TYPE FOR PRINTING
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LOUIS
FRANCOIS FEUILLET, of Paris, but now of George Yard, Lombard Street, in
the City of London, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the First day of August, in the third year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Louis
Francois Feuillet, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Louis Francois Feuillet, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Louis Francois Feuillet, my exors, adiñors, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTING TYPE FOR
PRINTING; " in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said
Louis Francois Feuillet, 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 Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
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 Louis
Francois Feuillet, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and the

page_text: manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon
(that is to say):-
This Invention consists in a mode of casting type by machinery in separate!
moulds, in place of making them by hand, which is the ordinary mode of
casting; it is known that a number of characters has been cast together in an
extended mould, but it has never been done by machinery to cast the different
characters or letters in separate moulds.
In order the better to understand the nature of my machine, I will explain
the mode at present in operation to cast type by hand. The workman takes a
mould, which is composed of two pieces, which slide the one over the other, and
the interval between such two pieces when brought together forms the size
or body of the character to be cast, which does not vary. By the body it is
meant the height given to all the letters of the alphabet, and which com-
prehend the high letters and the lengthened letters, such as b and p, the
ordinary letters are those such as m. The mould should be so placed that the
part of the letter which is called the eye should be at the suitable point, for
the arranged letters in the composition may be all in the same line, the
separating of the two parts of the mould will give the proper size to each
letter. The mould is always the same, but the matrice changes. The matrice
is a small piece of copper, in which the letter is punched by means of a steel
punch. It should be so adjusted to the bottom of the mould as to be blended
with the body of the letter. The moulder brings the two parts of his mould
together by means of a wire spring, and he then presses and holds them
together with his hands. The metal in a liquid state is then poured in, and
at the time of pouring it in he raises his arm in order that it should fall into
the mould with greater force. It becomes almost immediately cool when he
separates the mould, and the character or type cast will fall out. This
operation consists of four parts, first, to pour in the metal; secondly, to raise
the mould in receiving the metal; thirdly, to open the mould; and fourthly,
to force out the character when formed. These four operations are all
performed by the machine which I am now going to describe.
First, the means of melting the metal and pouring it into the moulds. A is
an iron framing, attached to which is a stove B, over which is placed a long
rectangular cast iron or other metal trough. The fire, after having heated the
under part of this trough, passes over it, and afterwards escapes through a tube
or pipe attached to the stove for the purpose of carrying off the smoke, so that
when the metal is heated above and below, the exposed part of the stove may

page_text: be shut out by means of a cover. At two or a greater number of places are
attached to the stove small metal cases C, which project from the stove and
which are separated from it by small slides or partitions, so that the melted
metal may enter in the cases C. These slides may be closed by means of two
levers; the metal is taken from about the centre of the trough. In these
cases C are valves D for the purpose of retaining or permitting the metal to
flow out, they are vertical rods E, having weights at their upper parts, they
slide in grooves which regulate their movements, their ends may be flat or
conical according to the shape of the hole through which the melted metal
passes, these valves are raised by forked levers F, the axis of their movement,
which may be changed and varied by placing the pin G, which serves as the
axis in the holes, farther or nearer from the said valve; by this means I can
change (as may be required) the two arms of the lever. At the end of the
lever F, which is opposite to the valve, is an excentric piece H affixed to the
shaft I; the object of this excentric piece is to press against the lever F, and
in so doing to raise the valve D, and thus allow the metal to escape. It
should be remarked, that as the action of the excentric is always the same,
the valve is more or less raised according as the position of the axis G is
nearer or farther from the excentric, and thus the quantity of supply of metal
is regulated; the excentrics are capable of being thrown into and out of gear
and motion.
Description of the moulds and the manner of the moulding. J are the
moulds which are fixed to the ends of the two arms K, joined by a cross piece
Lattached to the shaft M; at the end of this shaft is fixed a toothed wheel N,
which receives its movement from another wheel O, which has only half the
number of teeth as the wheel N, so that the wheel O makes two revolutions
for one of the wheel N. The mould is very similar to an ordinary mould,
but is made sufficiently strong to be attached to the piece L; it opens
and makes the parts slide one over the other, it has fixed to its lower part
the matrice of the letter, and it is also furnished with the means of forcing out
of the mould the character when it is cast, the mode of doing which I will
now describe: the moveable half of the mould carries a roller P, which rolls
over a curved piece Q, fixed to the upper part of a small upright R, fixed to
the cross framing S; this curved piece, the form of which is seen by the dotted
lines in Figure 1, and is represented by the Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, the rollers P
are placed at opposite points to each other; the part. marked 5, 6, and 7, is
that which regulates the opening of the mould, the moveable part of the mould
carries a square piece T, which passes behind the fixed part, to this is attached
a pin t, which traverses the fixed part and corresponds to the casts; this rod

page_text: also detaches the cast, forces out the letter from the other side, and to ensure
the fall of the letter there is placed upon the same curved piece an inclined
plane U, which puts in motion the lever V, which forces the character through
the side, so that it is forced out of the mould either one side of the mould'or
the other; when the eye of the character is very deep and the character fine
there may be some difficulty in separating. them from the mould, and in
making them fall out from a side movement without having it first withdrawn
from the matrice by a movement directed according to the length;: for this
reason the matrice is fixed upon a small fod X, which penetrates into the
lower part of the mould; this rod passes through a hole which regulates its
movement, so that the matrice may be kept back or brought forward from the
bottom of the mould, according to the direction of the axis of the character,
and also to force out the eye before causing the letter to fall; the movement
of the rod X is determined by the levers Y, Z, attached to the fixed part of
the mould, these levers move on axes at a and b. The end c of the lever Z
(during almost all the revolution) is carried, upon a circular part which
maintains it in a suitable position to press the matrice against the bottom of
the mould, this circular part is broken in a point of the circumference of the
wheel, in order to withdraw the matrice just before the opening of the mould;
then the characters do not hold in the eye and fall with the greatest facility
without risking the breaking of the delicate parts, such as the fine parts of the
letter. When the characters are composed of fine lines or of lines crossing
one another, there is placed beneath the whole of the valve a small trough d,
which receives the metal before it is poured into the moulds, so that the
melted metal passes into the bottom of this trough or vessel d; it does not:
operate afterwards but to turn quickly the metal into the mould. For this purpose
there is applied to the ends of the trough d two levers, the axes of which is at e,
a weight f keeps the vessel d in its position; and to perform the operation of
turning in the metal to the mould there is affixed a piece g to the-cross piece
h of the framing, to this piece is fixed a bari; it is crossed by a pin which
serves at its axis, the other end of the bar i is split and receives a pin k fixed
to the trough d; upon the shaft I is an excentric, which in its revolution
presses upon the bar i, and forces the trough d to swing and pour into the
moulds the melted metal which it has received through the valve.. In the
Drawing, to avoid complexity, I have placed this part of the mechanism.at
the top of the Figure 1, but its application and operation will be readily
traced.
:
7
After these details it will readily be understood how this machine works to
produce the desired effect; it is put in motion by turning the handle, which,

page_text: in communicating motion to the excentric H, acts upon the lever F, and raises
the valve, the melted metal passes through the hole in the valve and falls
perpendicularly into the funnel of the mould, which presents itself in its
revolution at the proper moment to receive it; the fall of the metal and rising
movement of the mould forces the metal to penetrate into the eye of the matrice.
The mould continues its movement and is turned over when it has passed to
the opposite side to the stove; then the rollers P of the moveable part having
rolled over the circular portion 1, 2, 3, 4, which keeps the mould closed against
the portion of the circular piece, and met the part of the curved piece 5, 6, 7,
which open the mould, the levers Y and Z, which were also kept by a portion
of the circumference, are forced into a hollow part of the curved piece, and
the matrice is withdrawn from the bottom of the mould. The mould in
opening draws with it the square piece T, which pushes the pin t, then pushes
the cast of the latter and detaches it from the mould and to insure its fall;
the small lever V, pushed by the inclined plane U, detaches the letter and the
moveable part of the mould, if by accident it should remain fixed. I would
remark that I do not confine myself to any particular number of moulds in
one machine, provided they be arranged according to this Invention.
The claim of this Invention is for the mode of applying moulds on a
rotatory axis for casting type for printing, and for the mode of arrangement
of apparatus for pouring the melted metal into the moulds and for opening
the said moulds and separating the characters.
In witness whereof, I, the said Louis Francois Feuillet, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this First day of February, in the year of our
Landund and foster
Inrolled the First day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty.