Ink′ing-roll′er.
(Printing.) A roller which receives the ink from the inking-table and transfers it to the type in hand-press work. In power-presses, several rollers are employed, which are fed with ink from a trough, distributing it and transferring it to the inking-roller. The composition of glue and molasses was invented by Donkin and Bacon (English patent, 1813). It is stated to have been previously used by one Edward Dyas of Madeley, Shropshire, England, who was indebted to an accidental overturning of his glue-pot to the suggestion of using the lump of semi-hardened glue. Francis and Letmate's patent composition, June 21, 1864, consists of glue, 14 pounds; glycerine, 28 [1188] pounds; castor-oil, 2 1/4 pounds; borax, 3 ounces; ammonia, 2 ounces; sugar, 7 pounds. The endwise motion of the ink-distributing rollers is in the English patent of Professor Cowper, 1818. The diagonal arrangement of the inking-roller, to give it a relatively endwise motion to the inkingtable, is described in Applegath's English patent, 1823.