In this work the stencil paper often tore. To overcome this there was only one remedy, which was to make the roller hollow and feed it with color from inside. I did not have the time to try this and worked out another plan. I cut out the places to be colored in felt or leather, applied paste to their obverse sides, laid them face down on the exact parts of the picture which were to be colored, rolled a perfectly round roller over them, and the pieces adhered to the roller in their right places. Then the roller was inked with the required color, and of course took it only in the elevated parts. At both ends the roller had a strip of leather of the same thickness as the cut-outs, thus making it certain that it would not touch the ink except in the proper places. In this way pictures could be illuminated very quickly, and several shades of color could be obtained if the pieces were of different qualities of leather, or of leather, cloth, and cotton, according to the shades desired. A very moderate pressure sufficed for good and even work.
What could be more natural than that I should deduce that this sort of printing might be utilized for cotton? Once inked, the roller was good for ten to twelve impressions, if the operator merely used a little more pressure as he proceeded. I saw also that the roller could easily be colored by attaching another to revolve with it and convey the ink. That would give us a form of cotton-printing that would proceed automatically.
The idea was too important to be left untried. I took a little roller, two inches in diameter and six inches long. I glued a piece of calfskin completely around it and then cut a design into it. Then this roller was so adjusted with relation to another of exactly the same dimensions that both touched perfectly. On this second one, which was to convey the color to the other, there rested a little box without a bottom, so that the roller itself represented the bottom as soon as the box was pressed on it, which was most easily done with two screws. The color was poured into this box. Now when the lower roller was passed over linen or cotton which was stretched on an evenly planed board with an under layer of cloth, a continuous print was obtained, without off-set, and with such celerity that it could be reckoned easily that with this process several thousand yards a day could be produced.
When I invented the chemical printing afterward, I held that a stone roller could be used for this work as well as a wooden one. I had too little knowledge of the industry at that time and believed that cotton print was done with oil-colors; for I thought that water-colors would wash out. I was a complete stranger to this work. Therefore, I drew a pretty cotton pattern on a stone plate and printed from it with oil varnish and finely pulverized indigo. The impressions turned out very handsome, so that I considered the matter settled and made no further experiments. I imparted this idea to Herr Andre, who saw its importance at once and determined to obtain a patent for it specially.
However, we had much to learn. As soon as he arrived in England he discovered that rollers with the design on them were in general use in England. So I had imagined mistakenly that my invention was new. However, printing from stone was in itself valuable for a patent, but Herr Andre unfortunately received the incorrect information that the inventor himself must appear in England, and he decided to send me there. I did not care to go; firstly, because I was vexed at the failure of my hopes in regard to cotton-printing; and secondly, because I wished to go to Vienna. However, I yielded to his representations, and within a few weeks journeyed to London with one of his brothers who spoke English.
We went through Hamburg to Cuxhafen and thence in an English packet-boat to Yarmouth, where we landed after a six days' stormy passage.
My sojourn in London did not achieve its purpose, which was to establish printing from stone. The exaggerated caution and precision of Herr Philip Andre, who had been named as the man who was to manage the London negotiations, caused a waste of seven months, during which nothing was done to reach our object.
We lived with Herr Philip and he kept me at home most of the time, for fear that I might betray our purpose, in which case some speculative spirit might take out a patent before us and then compel us to buy him off for some heavy sum. He did not reflect that a mere declaration is not sufficient in England, but that an exact description of a process must be deposited with the Patent Office.
As he could have rendered all these fears unnecessary by simply taking out the patent, I could not understand why he delayed from month to month, and at last I voiced my suspicion that he was not honest with me and had some unknown designs. I declared that nothing would keep me longer in England, which had become wearisome to me owing to my constant seclusion; and my suspicions were increased by the entire lack of all news from the Gleissners and from my family. When Herr Philip Andre realized that I could be held back no longer, he went to work at last, and in twelve days we had the patent in our hands. As I had trained Herr Philip already in the art of stone-work, there was nothing to keep me longer, and I began my homeward voyage at once with my former companion, Herr Friedrich Andre.
My seven months' sojourn in London had the following results for myself and for lithography:—