IM- PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR ETCHING OR ENGRAVING ROLLERS FOR PRINTING
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Leake, of the Strangeways Engraving
Works, Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, and Richard Platts,
of the same Place, Eccentric Engraver, for the Invention of "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR ETCHING OR ENGRAVING ROLLERS FOR
PRINTING."
Sealed the 21st August 1868, and dated the 7th March 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Leake and
Richard Platts at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 7th March 1868.
We, ROBERT LEAKE, of the Strangeways Engraving Works, Manchester,
in the County of Lancaster, and RICHARD PLATTS, of the same Place,
Eccentric Engraver, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR ETCHING OR ENGRAVING ROLLERS FOR
PRINTING," to be as follows:-
This Invention is applicable to the machines known in the trade as
eccentric engraving machines and pentagraph machines; these machines

page_text: have hitherto been made with single mandrills supporting a single roller
to be engraved.
Now this Invention consists in applying two mandrills and rollers to
the said machines, whereby both the rollers are etched or engraved
simultaneously, and a considerable saving in labor and time is effected.
The rollers are mounted on the mandrills in the usual manner, and
the rollers or the mandrills are connected by wheels or by bands and
pulleys, or the rollers are supported upon parallel rails. By varying the
relative motions of the rollers the character of designs on each may be
diversified.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Leake and Richard Platts in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 22nd August 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ROBERT
LEAKE, of the Strangeways Engraving Works, Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, and RICHARD PLATTS, of the same Place, Eccentric
Engraver, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said Robert Leake and Richard Platts, Her
special license that we, the said Robert Leake and Richard Platts, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Robert Leake and Richard Platts, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time, and at all times thereafter 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 Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
ETCHING OR ENGRAVING ROLLERS FOR PRINTING," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Robert Leake and Richard Platts, our executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or
one of our or their hands and seals, should particularly describe and

page_text: 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 immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Robert Leake and Richard Platts,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement (that is to say) :-
This Invention is applicable to the machines known in the trade as
eccentric engraving machines and pentagraph machines; these machines
have hitherto been made with single mandrils supporting a single roller
to be engraved.
Now this Invention consists in applying two mandrils and rollers to
the said machines, whereby both the rollers are etched or engraved
simultaneously, and a considerable saving in labor and time is effected.
The rollers are mounted on the mandrils in the usual manner, and
the rollers or the mandrils are connected by wheels or by bands and
pulleys, or the rollers are supported upon parallel rails. By varying the
relative motions of the rollers the character of designs on each may be
diversified.
And in order that our Invention may be fully understood and readily.
carried into operation we will proceed to describe the accompanying
Sheet of Drawings.
Figure 1 is a front elevation, and Figure 2 a transverse section of our
improved machinery for etching or engraving rollers for printing; this
machine is constructed on the principle of the ordinary eccentric
engraving machine.
a, a, are the two rollers to be etched or engraved; these rollers are
mounted on mandrils in the usual manner; b, b, are the ordinary diamond
or tracing points connected to the usual slotted levers c, c, hinged to
the brackets d, d. The slotted levers c, c, are acted upon by the pattern
rollers e, e, revolving in the bearings f,f, which are supported by the
cross slide g. These pattern rollers e, e, may have either similar or
different patterns engraved or embossed thereon. One of the rollers a
is driven in the usual manner by the train of wheels and pinions shewn
to the left-hand side of Figure 1, and the motion from this roller is
transmitted to the other by the pinions a² fixed to the mandrils of the

page_text: roller a, as shewn, to the right-hand side of Figure 1 and in Figure 3.
All the machinery for actuating the diamond or tracing points, and for
lifting them out of contact with the surfaces of the rollers a, a, is made
in the ordinary manner, but in duplicates and independent of each other,
so that by varying the relative motions of the rollers and diamond or
tracing points the character of the design on each roller may be diver-
sified. By thus connecting the two mandrils and applying duplicate
sets of etching or engraving tools both rollers are etched or engraved
simultaneously, thus economizing time and labor.
Figures 4 and 5 are two views of part of a pentagraph machine to
which our improvements are applied. In Figure 4 one of the rollers a,
is actuated by the friction of the discs h, as usual, and the motion is trans-
mitted to the second roller a by the pulleys a fixed to the mandrils of
the rollers a and the steel band a*. The diamond or tracing points b, b,
and slotted levers c, c, are made and actuated as in ordinary pentagraph
machines, and by varying the relative motions of the sliding or diamond
bars i, i, the patterns can be diversified.
Figures 6 and 7 are two views of a modification of our Invention. In
this arrangement the rollers a, a, are placed one above the other, and
the upper one receives its motion from the lower one by the friction
discs a; these discs are placed at each end of each mandril, as shewn in
Figure 7.
Figure 8 represents another modification of our Invention applied to
a pentagraph machine constructed in the manner described in the Speci-
fication of Letters Patent granted to William Shields on the Eighth day
of March One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, Number 587. In
this case both the rollers a are driven by the friction of the parallel
rails k, and the four sets of diamond or tracing points and levers c, c,
are actuated simultaneously by the diamond bars i, i.
Having thus stated the nature of our Invention, and described several
convenient modes of carrying the same into operation, we wish it to be
understood that we do not intend to limit ourselves to the details given,
as the same may be modified according to the peculiar construction of
the machine to which our improvements are applied; we would also
observe that we make no claim to any of the well-known parts of the
eccentric and pentagraph machines shewn to illustrate the application
of our Invention; but what we do claim is the application of a second

page_text: mandril and roller to the ordinary engraving machines, whereby two
rollers may be etched or engraved simultaneously, and with similar or
different patterns.
In witness whereof, we, the said Robert Leake and Richard
Platts, have hereto set our hands and seals, this Thirteenth
day of August One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
ROBERT LEAKE.
(L.S.)
RICHARD PLATTS. (L.S.)