IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PLATES OR SURFACES FOR PRINTING OR EMBOSSING
Year: 1848

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SIDNEY
EDWARDS MORSE, of Ampton Place, Gray's Inn Road, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirteenth day of
January (One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight), in the eleventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Sidney Edwards Morse, my exors, adñors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Sidney Edwards
Morse, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Sidney
Edwards Morse, my exors, adññors, 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, and in the
Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and in all Her
Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PLATES OR SURFACES FOR PRINTING OR EMBOSSING;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said Sidney
Edwards Morse, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the

page_text: 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
Sidney Edwards Morse, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My improvements consist, first, in making the plate or surface by a new
mode of combining two substances, one of which is afterwards partially
destroyed or removed; and, secondly, in a new mode of forming the cavities
or sunken parts of the surface.
The first part of my Invention may be performed in the following
manner-Take a copper plate, a little wider and several inches longer than
the subject to be printed or embossed, and upon all the lower part of the plate
spread an etching ground, as if for making an ordinary copper-plate etching of
the same subject; cover also all the lower part of the back of the plate with
the etching ground, to protect it from the acid solutions to which it will
be exposed. Through the etching ground, on the front of the plate, with
an etching needle or other suitable tool, write, draw, or make the letters, map,
picture, or other subject which you wish to print or emboss, not in reversed
lines as in ordinary copper-plate etching, but directly, as in ordinary pen-and-
ink writing or drawing upon paper. When the writing or drawing is finished,
immerse the part of the plate which contains it for a moment in a weak
solution of pernitrate of mercury, formed by adding one part of the saturated
solution to fifty or sixty parts of water; all the lines and marks of the writing
or drawing on the copper will thus be covered with a thin film of mercury,
which will prevent the too strong adhesion of the copper about to be deposited
in them. Rinse the plate well after taking it from the mercurial solution by
pouring clean water over the face. Immerse the part of the plate containing
the writing or drawing in a solution of sulphate of copper, and connect it with
a galvanic battery, so that copper may be deposited in all the lines and marks
of the writing or drawing by the well-known electrotype process. For some
time this deposit will be confined to the lines and places from which the
etching ground has been removed by the needle; when at length the copper
begins to be deposited in other places, or before, if the copper lines shall
be getting too broad for the proper effect in the contemplated printing or
embossing, take the plate from the battery, rinse it well by pouring on both
sides clean water; immerse again for a moment the lower parts of the plate,
embracing all the deposited copper in the mercurial solution, to facilitate
the adhesion of the melted metal, which is soon to be cast against it, and again

page_text: rinse the plate by pouring water over its surface; dry the plate; take a piece
of pasteboard, of the length and breadth of the copper-plate, and of the thick-
ness of the intended printing or embossing plate, cut out all the interior,
leaving merely a rim, narrow at the sides and bottom, but broader at the top,
so that it may just encircle the writing or drawing upon the copper-plate, and
when placed around it form a cavity of the precise dimensions of the intended
printing or embossing plate. Through the middle of the upper side of the
rim cut a narrow channel, through which melted metal may run, and place.
this pasteboard flask, as I will term it, around the engraving. Take now
a flat block of mahogany or other suitable wood, of any convenient thickness,
but of the length and breadth of the copper-plate, and made smooth and level
on one of its broad surfaces. In the part of this level surface which, when it
is laid directly over and covers the flask, comes opposite the channel in
the broad rim, cut out the gate of a mould. Lay this mahogany block upon
the flask with its smooth level surface in contact, and its gate directly over the
channel in the flask. Prepare another pasteboard flask and another mahogany
block, similar in all respects to those above described, and attach them in the
same way to the back of the copper-plate, so that the two blocks and two-
flasks, with the copper-plate in the middle, when bound together in a vice, will
form two cavities or moulds, one on each side of the copper-plate. Bind them
thus together in a vice or in any other convenient way; take metal, composed
of bismuth, tin, and lead, in such proportions that the alloy will melt at
a temperature a little above that of boiling water, and heat it till it will turn
white paper to a straw color; then fill with the melted metal, first, the cavity at
the back of the copper-plate, for the purpose of heating the plate, and next the
cavity in front of the plate. When sufficiently cool, take the cast from
the mould, and the deposited copper will be found everywhere firmly united to
the alloy and forming a surface; which on the removal of the intervening alloy
to a sufficient depth will print every letter and line of the drawing which was
made in the etching ground. To remove the alloy in these parts, drop or
carefully pour on the face of the plate dilute nitric acid. The acid will
not attack the copper, but will reduce the alloy to powder, and, if allowed to
proceed so far, would soon determine the copper lines; check the action of the
acid before it does this mischief by dipping the plate in water; then with a stiff
brush remove the powder or oxyde from the surface of the plate. If the
cavities are not sufficiently deep, their depth may be increased by rubbing
briskly the face of the plate upon or with a woollen or other suitable rough
material, which will wear down the softer metal while the copper will be com-
paratively unaffected. The broader cavities may be still farther deepened by

page_text: the use of acids, in connection with stopping-out varnishes and the other
methods practised in finishing common copper-plate etchings. If the metal
poured against the back of the plate does not sufficiently heat it, the cavity
there must be made larger by using a thicker pasteboard flask, or in any other
suitable way.
The second part of my Invention may be performed thus:-Proceed exactly
as described under the first head until you come to the direction "dry the
plate." The plate may be dried by holding it in a hand vice, with its face
upwards, over a spirit lamp. When it is dry, and still warm, release it, and
immediately hold over the lamp another copper plate or small thin copper cup
containing a lump or two of common chloride of zinc, which has been exposed
to the air so long, say, twenty or thirty minutes, that it is deliquescing freely on
the surface. I prefer the common article, because it deliquesces more slowly
than that which has been purified. Keep it over the lamp till it is heated
to the temperature of boiling water and a little higher. The melted part
will then be a viscid fluid. While it is in this state, with a soft camel's hair
brush spread a thin coat of it over the whole of the etched surface, but gently,
to avoid displacing the deposited copper. At first it may be difficult to spread
this fluid evenly, but if, while the plate is slowly and gradually heated to a
temperature a little above that of boiling water, you continue the attempt to
spread it, it will soon become of such a consistency that you may cover every
part of the surface with a thin and even coat, and if the heat is continued, it
will soon everywhere set. Allow it to set, but as soon as it is in this con-
dition withdraw the plate from the flame or other source of heat, and continue
to move the brush, as in the act of painting, until a fluid is revived on every
part of the surface. This revived fluid will not, like the other, on the appli-
cation of heat, collect in spots, but will remain equally diffused. Take, now,
the pasteboard flasks and mahogany blocks described under the first head, and
laying one of the flasks on the front of the plate around the engraving, the
other on the back of the plate, and the mahogany blocks upon the flasks, bind
them all together, so that they will form two cavities or moulds, one on each
side of the copper plate, and cast into them the melted alloy of bismuth, tin,
and lead, just as described under the first head. When cool, open the mould,
and if the work has been properly done, a plate will be found with a surface
of copper lines in the most projecting parts, and between the copper lines
cavities formed in the process of casting by the accumulations of the chloride
of zinc and the evaporation of the water united with it. In pouring the metal
into the moulds it will be best to hold them, so that the copper plate will be
at an angle of forty-five degrees, or less, with the horizon, and with its face

page_text: downward, so that the metal in running into the mould on the face of the
plate may not tear away the copper lines or carry before it the fluid between
the lines, and with a view to the same end, and to other good effects, the
printing or embossing plate when first cast should be of considerable thickness,
say, an eighth of an inch or more. As the cavities are made in part by the
evaporation of the water which the chloride of zinc absorbs from the atmo-
sphere, if the plate is allowed to cool too long after the fluid begins to revive
upon its surface, and before casting, too much water will be absorbed, and the
cast plate will have some cavities where they are not wanted. If, on the
other hand, there is too little moisture, and the heat applied at the back of
the plate should be sufficient to expel it entirely in any parts, the chloride in
those parts would form a crust upon the deposited copper, which would
prevent a union with the alloy, and the lines there would not be taken off.
With the alloy just scorching hot, the copper plate will generally be suffi-
ciently heated with a quantity of the melted metal equal to itself in bulk, and
it will not be best ordinarily to delay the casting more than two or three
minutes after the fluid has been revived over the whole surface of the
etching. When the cavities are not perfectly formed the imperfections will
be generally found, not in the central parts of the cavity, but in the part near
the copper lines, and they may often be entirely removed over the whole
plate in one minute by dilute nitric acid applied as described under the first
head. Under this head of my description I add that it is possible to make
a plate having the requisite cavities for printing or embossing with the alloy
alone, the copper exposed in the lines of the etching ground being used merely
to attract the melted metal and hold it loosely until it cools. I have noticed
this effect when the melted metal has been too cold to form a firm union with
the deposited copper.
Having thus minutely described the process by which a plate or surface for
printing or embossing may be made on the principles of my Invention, it is
hardly necessary to say that I do not claim as my Invention all that I have
here described, nor, on the other hand, do I confine my claim to the manu-
facture of plates or surfaces according to the precise details here given.
What I claim may be comprehended under two heads, videlicet,-
First, the method of making surfaces for printing or embossing by the
combination of two substances, and the subsequent partial destruction of one
of them in the manner above described, whereby the less destructible substance
is caused to attach itself first, slightly, to a matrix or surface, which properly
shapes the most projecting parts of the intended plate or surface, and then

page_text: strongly to the said second substance, which is afterwards partially destroyed,
as herein explained.
Second, the method of making the sunken part of the surface in plates or
blocks for printing or embossing, herein described, whereby a substance spread
over the ground containing the matrix of the most projecting part will, at the
time of casting the plate or block, or of uniting its parts, form cavities by
acting as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Sidney Edwards Morse, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.