England. Anthony Francis Berte. GB patent No. 2931 of 1806, issued April 29, 1806. GB patent No. 3033 of 1807, issued April 15, 1807.
Legros & Grant attribute to Berte the application of the force pump to typecasting ( Legros & Grant 1916, p. 271). This is an error. The Specifications of Berte's two patents indicate that his machine, while it may have contained a piston, did not employ a force pump. It did, however, employ a valve which performed one half of the office of the choker valve.
Berte's patents present a problem of identification as well. His 1806 patent is in his name only and does not refer to anyone else. But his 1807 patent, while in his name, indicates that its invention was "communicated to him by a Foreigner residing abroad." This foreigner is not identified.
Whether or not one defines Berte's invention as a type casting machine is a matter of definition and opinion. It was an appliance for use in hand casting, and it had mechanical elements to it which were automatic in their operation, but the overall device was manual in its operation, not self-acting. Berte himself does use the term "machine."
{Huss 1973}, p. 13, refers to Berte by name, but not specific invention, and classifies his machines as failures. They may have been, but they are nonetheless interesting.
Berte's first patent was GB patent No. 2931 of 1806, issued April 29, 1806. Apparently it did not have drawings. The Specification of this patent was published in { Repertory 1807} , pp. 167-169. Here is an extract of Berte's 1806 Specification, from the Google Books digitization of the Bavarian State Library copy of { Repertory 1807} : repertory-of-arts-series-2-vol-11-no-43-1807-august-google-280-AAAAcAAJ-bavarian-state-library-pp-167-169-berte-1806-patent.pdf
This 1806 patent was also abridged in {GB 1859}, p. 109.
Berte's 1806 patent describes a gravity-fed melting pot to which hand molds may be applied. No mechanism for applying the molds is described, so presumably it was done manually. The pot is equipped with a sliding-plate form of automatic valve to cut off the flow of typemetal. This is significant, because this valve performs one half of the office of the choker valve. (In later and more conventional practice, the choker valve performs two functions: to cut off the flow of typemetal through the nozzle, and to seal off the main body of the pot from the pump well. This second function is necessary when a force pump is used, but Berte's machine does not contain a force pump.)
Berte's second patent was GB patent No. 3033 of 1807, issued April 15, 1807. It didn't have drawings either. The Specification of this patent was published in { Repertory 1807} , pp. 241-243. Here is an extract of Berte's 1807 Specification from the Google Books digitization of the Bavarian State Library copy of { Repertory 1807} : repertory-of-arts-series-2-vol-11-no-44-1807-september-google-280-AAAAcAAJ-bavarian-state-library-pp-241-245-berte-1807-patent.pdf
This 1807 patent was also abridged in {GB 1859}, p. 115-116.
It is to this 1807 patent that Legros & Grant refer when they write that to Berte "beyond question, belongs the credit of the application of the pump to typefounding" ( Legros & Grant 1916, p. 271). But this both overstates and incorrectly describes Berte's invention. The machine described by Berte does have a piston, but the action of this piston is to pressurize the entire pot of typemetal (which is sealed). It is in no way a "pump."
In Berte's 1807 patent, he describes as an alternate form of his device a melting pot "closed on all sides, except at the aperture or place out of which it is intended that the said metal whall flow, and also at another Larger aperture, terminating upwards in a tube, pipe, or prismatic cavity." Into this "tube, pipe, or prismatic cavity" he fits "a metallic plug or piston." This piston, in turn, descends "by its own weight ... so as to strike the surface of the smelted metal, and impel the same into the mould." This is a pressurizing device, not a pump.
The mold described by Berte is also of interest, as it is an adjustable four-piece mold which is not opened to discharge the type (Berte would "strike out or expel the cast letter from the mould, by a punch, or proper tool, without opening themold, as is usually done.")
{GB 1859} Great Britain, Commissioner of Patents. Patents for Inventions: Abridgments of Specifications Relating to Printing. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1859.
For a local copy of the Google Books digitization of this work go up one level.
{Legros & Grant 1916} Legros, Lucien A. and John Cameron Grant. Typographical Printing Surfaces. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1916.
Reprinted in the CircuitousRoot Notebook of General Literature on Making Printing Matrices and Types.
{ Repertory 1807} The Repertory of Arts and Manufactures. Second Series, Vol. XI. London: For J. Wyatt, 1807
This book has been digitized by Google from the Bavarian State Library copy. Here's a local copy of that digitization: repertory-of-arts-2nd-series-vol-11-1807-google-280-AAAAcAAJ-bavarian-state-library.pdf
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