Improvements in Devices for Ascertaining the Identity of Persons Entitled to Receive Letters, Parcels, or the like Addressed to such Persons at the Post Office.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 18th Sept., 1895
Complete Specification Left, 5th June, 1896-Accepted, 5th Sept., 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Devices for Ascertaining the Identity of Persons
Entitled to Receive Letters, Parcels, or the like Addressed to
such Persons at the Post Office.
I, ANTHONY GARNIER of Kirchenfeld Berne in Republic of Switzerland,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
The identity of persons entitled to receive "poste-restante "-sendings is generally
established by means of visiting-cards, photographs, passes. and the like but all
these well-known means are liable to cause very regretable errors; some of them
being very troublesome and costly as for instance the production of a pass.
With the object of improving those systems of establishing identity, a system
of books of identity has been introduced in Italy in the year 1873 and proposed to
the International Postal Congresses of Lisbon (1885) and Vienna (1891) but the
said system was not found acceptable in practice.
The object of this invention is to provide practical means for realizing the same
purpose in such a manner as to remove all the objections made to the said "book
of identity," the said means being adapted to be manufactured and sold by a
private central office and provided for the post-offices of any country whatever
throughout the world. The device may also be used for ascertaining the identity
of persons in other cases, for instance to ascertain the identity of the owner of a
bicycle or other object held in trust by another, or in other similar cases.
The invention consists essentially in the combination of three tickets of any
dimensions whatever, made either of paper, cardboard, metal, aluminium, or any
other suitable material and having on one or on both faces suitable designs or
inscriptions applied either by perforation, stamping or by printing or otherwise in
any colour or combination of colours whatever for the purpose of rendering their
imitation or counterfeiting as difficult as possible, as is usually done for instance!
for the paper intended to be used for banknotes.
Two of those three tickets are moreover provided on the one hand with a
combination of say three letters of the alphabet and of say four figures, such
letters and figures being exactly the same on both the said tickets.
The third ticket does not contain the aforesaid combinations of letters and
figures provided on the two firet tickets but it bears a sign or word which is also
affixed to one of the two other tickets..
The said letters, figures and signs or words may be perforated, stamped or
printed or applied by any other suitable means and in any colour or ink upon the
tickets and while the first of those tickets (the one bearing exclusively the letters
and figures) shall only exist in one copy, the two others of the said tickets may be
printed in more than one copy but all the copies of such a series of three tickets
are intended to be sold as a whole to one and the same person for receiving "poste-
restante "-sendings.
"
i
In practice that one of the first two tickets which does not contain the sign or
word printed on the third one and which will be hereafter called the "identifyer
will be printed in only one copy and in a form adapted to be easily kept in one's
pocket, for instance in form of a railway-ticket, the second ticket which will be.

page_text: hereafter called the "label" will be printed in several copies in the form of
labels suitable for being glued to the letters or parcels intended to be sent by
poste-restante to the owner of the first ticket.
و"
The third ticket is formed so as to also be adapted to be easily kept in one's
pocket, it will be hereafter termed the "controller."
The identifyer and the label are both provided on the one hand with a
combination of letters, as for instance A W L and on the other hand with a
combination of figures, as for instance 8956.
I do not limit myself to the use of a combination of three letters and of four
figures as described, but the said combination must always be identical on both
the "identifyer" and the "label."
0
The label and the controller bear one and the same sign which may be a suitable
design or a fancy word and is not provided on the identifyer.
The herein described tickets are used as follows:
The traveller who desires to have letters, parcels or other sendings addressed to
him "poste-restante," purchases a series of tickets formed for instance of one
"identifyer," one", controller," and of several "labels."
He leaves the latter to those persons who will be in a position to send such
letters or parcels to him and he keeps the "identifyer" in one of his pockets and
the "controller" in the other, the object of this being to prevent the use of one
of those two tickets without the other, should one of them have been lost or
stolen.
Now if a letter or parcel bearing the label is filed "poste-restante" at any
post office whatever it will only be delivered to the person presenting at the same
time the identifyer and the controller.
If the issue of the described tickets is made by a reliable central office so as to
never have more than one series of corresponding tickets issued, the described
device will be as reliable as simple and the post-office will certainly not object to
its being generally applied.
Instead of bearing a combination of letters of the alphabet and a combination
of figures the identifyer and the label may if desired be each provided with only
one of these combinations but the first described arrangement, will of course be the
most reliable one and also allow the largest number of different combinations.
In certain cases a combination of only two of the described tickets, for instance
of the identifyer and label might be used for ascertaining the identity of persons
entitled to receive an article of any kind whatever, the said person being provided
with one of the said tickets and the article bearing on the other one affixed to it
but in all cases in which complete security is to be warranted the formerly described
combination of three labels will be preferred. The said two tickets will preferably
both be provided with a combination of any number of letters of the alphabet
whatever with a design or device or with a combination of any number of figures
with a design or device.
It will be understood that I do not limit myself to the precise details of the
device herein described as such device may be modified in various ways without
departing from the spirit of my invention.
Dated this 18th day of September 1895.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Devices for Ascertaining the Identity of Persons.
Entitled to Receive Letters, Parcels, or the like Addressed to
such Persons at the Post Office.
I, ANTHONY GARNIER, of Restaurant Kirchenfeld 1 Berne, in the Republic
of Switzerland, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
Difficulty has been experienced in identifying persons entitled to receive letters
or other sendings "poste-restante," and photographs, passes and similar devices
have been resorted to for identification. Systems of books have also been made
use of for identifying the person entitled to receive "poste-restante" sendings,
and these books have been employed in Italy since 1873 and proposed to the
International Postal Congress of Lisbon in 1885 and Vienna in 1891, but such
systems have not been found acceptable in practice.
The object of the present invention is to provide a practical means for identifying
the person entitled to receive the letters or other sendings, and the herein described
devices may be manufactured and sold by private individuals or provided by the
post office authorities of the different countries.
The present devices may also be used for identifying individuals, such for
instance as the owners of portable articles, such as bicycles or for other objects
that may be left in the custody of other individuals.
In carrying out this improvement, labels are made use of, to be attached to the
letter or other article, and these may be printed or otherwise produced to any
desired number and two other tickets are provided one of which I call the
identifier and the other the controller. Upon one of these a portion of the label
is represented and upon the other the other portion of the label is represented so
that when the two are brought together they show the whole subject of the label,
and the identifier and controller are to be carried by the owner, and preferably in
separate pockets, so that in case of the loss of one it cannot be used as a warrant
for the reception of the letter or other article, but both the "identifier" and the
" controller have to be produced simultaneously to indicate the whole of the
representations upon the label.
The labels and the identifier and the controller may be of paper, celluloid,
aluminium or any suitable material, and the letters, numbers, characters or designs
employed may be varied at will and they may be printed, perforated, embossed or
otherwise produced on the respective surfaces.
In the accompanying drawing,
Figure 1 represents the ticket which I term the "identifier."
Figure 2 represents a label or device to be affixed to the letter or other article
to be sent, and
Figure 3 represents the "controller."
It is to be understood that the labels, Figure 2 are to be printed or otherwise
produced in any desired number so as to be affixed to the letters or other articles,
and the identifier, Figure 1, and controller Figure 2, are only produced singly so
as to be carried by the party entitled to apply for and receive the letters or other
articles bearing the label Figure 2.
It will now be understool that for the purposes of identification both the
identifier, Figure 2, and the controller, Figure 3, have to be produced by the party
applying for the letter or other article containing the label, Figure 2, because
the identifier, Figure 1, only contains a portion of the device represented on the
label, and the controller, Figure 3, represents the remainder of the devices

page_text: represented on the label, Figure 2, and these two tickets Figure 1 and Figure 3.
have to be brought together to show that the party is entitled to receive the
article containing the label Figure 2.
By this improvement the risk of error in identification is reduced to a minimum
and great security is offered because in printing and furnishing the labels with the
identifier and controller an indefinite number of combinations or permutations of
devices can be employed, for instance, the drawing represents the letters "A W L"
and also the figures "8956." These figures are subject to variation almost
infinitely, and the device shown upon the controller, Figure 3, which is an X
with dots, can also be varied indefinitely so that the same set of identifying
devices would never be printed a second time by the parties using such
identifiers.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that wbat I
claim is
First. The herein described identifying devices for parties entitled to receive
letters or other "poste restante" sendings, consisting of a label to be attached
to the letter, or other article and two tickets, one showing a portion of the devices
upon the label and the other the other portion of such devices, substantiaily
as set forth.
Second. An identifying label having letters, numbers or other characters to be
affixed to the letter or other article and two identifying tickets one of which
corresponds to the letters, numbers or similar characters on the label and the
other of which corresponds to the designs or other devices also upon the label,
substantially as set forth.
Third. The herein described improvement in identifying devices for parties
entitled to receive letters or other "poste restante" sendings, consisting in labels
to be affixed to the article sent, separate identifying and controlling tickets, one of
which contains the letters numbers and similar devices of the ticket and the other
the arbitrary signs or designations that are shown additionally upon the label,
substantially as set forth.
Dated this 5th day of Tune 1000
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.