IMPROVED MEANS FOR PRINTING ON ROUGHI AND UNEVEN SURFACES
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Carl Pieper, Civil Engineer, of Dresden, Kingdom of
Saxony, for the Invention of "IMPROVED MEANS FOR PRINTING ON ROUGHI
AND UNEVEN SURFACES," A communication from Paul Liebe, residing at
Dresden, Saxony.
Sealed the 23rd September 1876, and dated the 27th March 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Carl Pieper at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 27th March 1870.
CARL PIEPER, Civil Engineer, of Dresden, Kingdom of Saxony. "IMPROVED
MEANS FOR PRINTING ON ROUGH AND UNEVEN SURFACES." A communication from
Paul Liebe, residing at Dresden, Saxony.
The extent to which traffic and cominercial intercourse have grown at present
makes it desirable to have means of signing and marking packages in a quick,
distinct, and durable way. This has been done formerly by the use of a brush and
common ink or other coloring liquid, which always endangered the contents of the
parcels whenever the covering or envelope was not fit to stand the ink. A little
better are the stencil plates, which in some cases even admit signatures on uneven
surfaces, but it takes nearly as much time as the first-mentioned method, and it is
not very easy to keep equal distances between the letters when a signature is to be
composed of single stencils from an alphabet. Also great skill is required to obtain
clean, nice letters, not blotted ones, and the colour must always be of a certain
solvibility. Besides this, large stencil plates, containing the whole firm, or a trade
mark and such like, require to be pressed down with great power, especially on
uneven surfaces, and thereby make the work hard and tiresome.
These and other inconveniences show the necessity of overcoming the above-
mentioned disadvantages by a method of marking boxes, sinooth and rough, even
or uneven parcels and packages, which I shall hereafter describe.
This method can be divided into two classes-
1. Print by undivided mark-stamps.
2. Print by combined mark-stamps.
It is evidently of great value that signatures and the marking of the firms can
be obtained on packages distinctly and quickly by the same means, on surfaces of
parcels which may be even, round, convex, or quite unshaped, the outside cover of
which may be smooth or rough, hard or soft, of wood, metal, packing paper, or
packing cloth.

page_text: I attain this purpose by using a very flexible and elastic material, which adapts
itself on account of its elasticity to the rough and porous surface of even the coarsest
packing cloth. I use, by preference, a mixture of gelatine and glycerine, to which
I add, for greater tenacity, according to the cases, some parts of mineral substances
and colours. But I do not consider this material to be iny Invention; it is rather
the form of signs and the mode of preventing the flattening of the clastic material
forming the signs, and thereby securing a fine and inore distinct signature.
My mark-stamps are provided with a convex printing surface, to be moistened
with ink in any convenient way. The flattening of the elastic letters and conse-
quent injury to a sharp and fine outline of the print is prevented by the adaptation
of an elastic bed, also made by preference of gelatine and glycerine; a layer of
this composition is fixed on a piece of wood, serving as a handle.
The combined mark-stamps are formed by a clamp with a convex surface on the
bottom, covered also by a layer of the said elastic material to form an elastic bed,
whereupon wooden blocks are placed, the upper faces of which are provided with
the elastic material forming the respective letters or signs. To hold these blocks in
place they are provided with a projection engaging in a groove of the clamp, and
can be tightened by a screw in the cheek of the said clamp.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by the
said Carl Pieper in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th September 1876.
CARL PIEPER, Civil Engineer, of Dresden, in the Kingdom of Saxony. "IMPROVED
MEANS FOR PRINTING ON ROUGH AND UNEVEN SURFACES." A communication from
Paul Liebe, residing at Dresden, in the Kingdom of Saxony.
The extent to which traflick and commercial intercourse have grown at present
make it desirable to have means of signing and marking packages in a quick,
distinct, and durable way. This has been done formerly by the use of a brush and
common ink or other liquid coloring, which always endangered the contents of the
parcels whenever the covering or envelope was not fit to stand the ink. A little
better are the stencil plates, which in some cases even adinit signatures on uneven
surfaces, but it takes nearly as much time as the first-mentioned method, and it is
not very easy to keep equal distances between the letters when a signature is to be
composed of single stencils from an alphabet. Also great skill is required to obtain
clean, nice letters, not blotted, and the colour must always be of a certain solvibility.
Besides this, large stencil plates, containing the whole firm, or a trade mark, etc.,
require to be pressed down with great power, especially on uneven surfaces, and
thereby make the work hard and tiresome.
These and other inconveniences show the necessity of overcoming the above-
mentioned disadvantages, and led me to find out a method of marking boxes, smooth
and rough, even or uneven parcels and packages, which 1 shall hereafter describe.
This method can be divided into two classes-
1. Print by undivided mark-stamps.
2. Print by combined mark-stamps.
It is evidently of great value that signatures and the marking of the firms can
be obtained on packages distinctly and quickly by the same means on surfaces of
parcels which may be even, round, convex, or quite unshaped, the outside cover of
which may be smooth or rough, hard or soft, of wood,. metal, packing paper, or
packing cloth.
I attained this purpose by using a very flexible and elastic material, which adapts
itself on account of its elasticity to the rough and porous surface of even the coarsest
packing cloth. I use by preference a mixture of gelatine and glycerine, to which
I add, for greater tenacity, according to the cases, some parts of mineral substances
or colours. But I do not consider this material to be iny Invention; it is rather
the form of signs and the mode to prevent the flattening of the elastic material
forming the signs, and thereby securing a fine and more distinct signature.

page_text: The form of my mark-stamps is represented by Fig. 1 & 2, and shows a convex
printing surface, which varies according to the cases very little within a more or
less surmounted segment. The convex surface of the letters or marks can be
moistened with ink in any convenient way, either by rolling a coloured cylinder
over, or by pressing the marks against, a blackened level surface.
Another great advantage which my Invention offers is the method of preventing
the flattening of the elastic letters, and thereby insuring the clean and sharp out-
lines of the signs, etc. to be printed, which I obtain by placing the letters on an
clastic bed, made also by preference of gelatine and glycerine, which I, however,
do not mix with any other hard materials, for the sake of greater elasticity, and a
layer of this composition forming the letters on the top is fixed on a piece of wood
which serves as a handle.
The form of combined mark-stamps is shown by Fig. 2, and by the section
Fig. 3. is a wooden claimp or chuck, the inner bottom face of which is cut out
convex, whereupon an elastic layer b is placed, and on which I place the separate
signs or letters in the form of types. Such type, represented by Fig. 4, has its
lower part made of wood, and is provided with a projection g, which fits into the
groovec (Fig. 2 and 3). The top of the wooden block is covered with the elastic
inaterial forming the mark, and the sides are cut radial to a point, which forms the
center of the concentrical curves of the elastic bed, of the printing surface, of the
groove, etc. It is self-evident that the inner checks of the clamp, c and f, must be
radial too. Instead of securing the types in the clamp by the engagement of a
projection in a groove, I can slot out the type blocks and fit them on a circular
tongue of the clamp concentrically to the clastic bed. The required intervals of
letters or marks in such stamp I regulate in the same way, as it is usually done in
type setting, by interposition of wooden blocks of the same form, only more or less
thick. Between d' and do such a space block is represented. The types and
space blocks are held in the clamp by a screw in the check f; but it is best not to
tighten the screw very much that the valuable effect of the elastic bed may not be
lost.
Having thus described this Invention, and the mode of carrying the same into
practical effect, what I claim as my Invention, and desire to secure by Letters
Patent, is-
1. The convex form of the stamp and the mode of printing signs by rolling the
coloured convex surface of the stamp upon whatever surfaces of parcels.
2. The application of the elastic bed under the clastic signs or types for and to
the purpose specified.
3. The construction of types with radial sides, and the mode of securing the same
for the purpose of printing letters and signs in an easy and expeditious manner on
uneven or rough surfaces of the objects to be marked, the outside of which being of
metal, of any kind of wood, or of any packing material.
In witness whereof, I, the said Carl Pieper, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this First day of September, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-six.
CARL PIEPER. (L.S.)