The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1873-06-28
A NEW BALLOT.BOX.
A COntrivance which Makes Ballot
Box StuffinS Impossible.
From the Brooklyn IN. W Eagle.

From the Brooklyn IN. W Eagle.
There was exhibited the Mayor yes
terday, by the inventor, ballot box
which has been patented in England
and the United States and which is
now being brought to the attention of
the authorities of states and cities. By
the application of two simple princi-
pies, which will be explained, absolute
safety against the opening ofthe ballot
box, except by the authorized parties,
has been secured. Nobody can get
into the box without leaving the plain
est evidence OF violence to betray him
behind him, and the collision of an
impossible number of persons is neces-
sary to effect an entrance to it, beside
which every one of them would
betray himself in the effort. This
invention does not, Of course, prevent
fraud. But it requires any fraud per
petrated to be done either before the
ballots go into the box-or after they
come out-in the counting of the votes
Frauds of that kind are preventible by
vigilance. The kind which has been
nearly always successfully committed,
when committed, has had to do with
stutfing the ballot boxes, for which end
they have been opened with duplicate
keys. Access to the contents of this
Dallot-box is obviously impossible, as
We will show SO the chances to com
nit the kind of fraud known as ballot
box stuf1ing is out of the question.
Let us explain. The box as now ex-
hibited is of sheet iron, the material
easiest for transportation. The boxes
can be made, however, OF glass, or of
any material thought best The box
is an ordinary cube ID form, the top
side being the lid, which fits down
close and tight, like the lie of tea
caddy. Internal shoulders ran up
from all sides to the top of the lid
On the front side the lid slopes, and
oG the slope are the very simple but
perfectly secure fastening. Upon
tins incline which the lid makes is IA
sliding panel shutting with catch, and
openable by provision on the handle
of the key. When the panel is released
or slid from It's position covering the
key-hole, a square of thin glass, about
seven Fights of an inch by one sixteenth
thick, is sllt ped into ''snug," which
1t accurately fits. The panels (there
are three are then shot back, at once
fixing themselves and the seals. 1T is
now impossible to insert the keys in
the locks without smashing the seals
all to pieces, and flaw III any one
would show that tampering had been
attempted. If these seals were imi-
table, their likes could be substituted,
but they are inimitable, and are rem
dered SO by the fusion of red and white
glass blown into sheets or panes On
each sheet, while in fresh state, is
spread paper ruled into squares. On
each square devices of any arbi-
trary kind are then penciled. Re
moving the paper, asphaltum is APP
piled to the glass surface. 1t eats away
of the red glass, pretty much all, ex-
cept where the devices are penciled.
Those 1T leaves intact III red, with here
and there separate, eccentric streak
of red, different In every case. These
squares are then cut by diamond and
become the seals. The seals are pho
tographed, and while the same pro-
cesses gone through with would not
produce any snch seals at all, the pho
tographs of them preserve their re-
semblance infect. These photographers
are posted on the pages of little blank
books, and one book each containing
the seals on each box at a polling
place is given to the officers of election,
to each candidate, or to the represen
tative of each, or of each committee.
Every book-holder thus becomes a
check on all the rest. If the seals are
smashed that shows. Ii the seals are
changed each book shows. And with
out smashing the seals no human being
can get into the box except by break
ing the entire thing all to pieces. The
panels thus covered by the seals fasten
the lid and box together by a screw on
the inside. just as the knives of Jack
plane are screwed together.
Mr.. Henry Marston, the patentee,
and resident of Washington, though
citizen Of this state, patented this
arrangement IN England last spriug.
He took the box to the office of the
London Times in the fall. That paper
stipulated in advance, in noticing the
box, that 1t should be given over in the
custody of experts whom it picked for
three months, to see If they could get
inside the box without breaking the
seals. Two hundred and fifty pounds
were put inside as an incentive The
experts tried for the time specified, and
could not break the seals, and could
not make others just like them for
substitution. On December 6, last year.
the Times stated these facts III an
exceptional and quite favorable article
upon the invention. Since then the
box has been patented in the British
Empire and the United States, and has
been exhibited to the authorities of
several cities and of the District uf
Columbia, securing from all attestation
of its complete security and admiration
for it's simplicity. Its general intro
duction, indeed its compulsory adoption
by law, is only a question of time, be-
cause 1t entirely neutralizes ballot box
stutfing, and by SO much is about the
best aid to pure politics and free gov
eminent which mechanical genius has
yet supplied to the world
Semi-Ir0picai Fruits in California.
The San Diego Union, In an argu-
ment to show that the wheat coun-