IMPROVEMENTS IN CUTTING AND FOLDING PAPER TO FORM LETTERS OR NOTES AND ENVELOPES IN ONE PIECE
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Gedge, of Number 4, Wellington Street South,
Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN CUTTING AND FOLDING PAPER TO FORM LETTERS OR NOTES
AND ENVELOPES IN ONE PIECE."-A Communication from Guillaume Pierre,
of Clichy la Garenne, in the Empire of France.
Sealed the 10th June 1856, and dated the 22nd December 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Gedge at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd
December 1855..
I, JOHN GEDGE, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN CUTTING AND FOLDING PAPER TO FORM LETTERS OR NOTES AND
ENVELOPES IN ONE PIECE," communicated to me by Guillaume Pierre, of Clichy
la Garenne, in the Empire of France, to be as follows:-.
I am aware that a sheet of paper has been so cut and folded as to form a
letter and envelope, but by this proceeding that portion forming the envelope
has occupied either the half or a considerable portion of the said sheet of
paper. I propose to leave the whole sheet intact, so that, if it be desirable,
the envelope can be cut or torn off, and the letter or note folded for endorse-
ment, as if it had been enclosed in a separate envelope; or, where it is
desirable to keep the post mark for evidence, or any other reason, the envelope
can be turned in between the pages, and the letter endorsed in the ordinary
manner.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Gedge in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
16th June 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
GEDGE, of Number 4, Wellington Street South, Strand, in the County of
Middlesex, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent-Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of December, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said John
Gedge, Her especial license that -I, -the said John Gedge, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Gedge,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time. and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CUTTING AND
FOLDING PAPER TO FORM LETTERS OR NOTES AND ENVELOPES IN ONE PIECE," (com-
municated to me by Guillaume Pierre, of Clichy la Garenne, in the Empire
of France,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Gedge,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Gedge, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement,
and by reference to the Drawings hereunto annexed, on which Figures or
Diagrams illustrating the said Invention are designed :-
.
The great 'superiority of the improved envelope, .as compared with the
envelope in ordinary use, consists not so much in its being of one piece with
the note or letter to be enclosed within it, as in the fact of its. being obtained
without in anywise trenching upon that portion of the paper forming the
letter or note, leaving it of the same form and dimensions as the ordinary
sheet of note or letter paper, and enabling the writer to cover with writing
every portion of the sheet in the same manner as if it were to be placed in a
seperate envelope. This Invention meets a want long felt by the commercial
:

page_text: community. Hitherto the merchant, when desirous that his correspondent
should preserve his letter in its integrity, with the postal mark thereon proving
the date of his communication, has been obliged to confine himself to the use
of three-fourths only of the sheet of paper, the other fourth being required for
the address, et cetera; whereas this improvement enables him to use the
entire sheet, and yet (the envelope being of one piece with it) to preserve the
postal mark, as additional evidence of the date of transmission of the letter.
The ordinary system of enclosing a sheet of paper in a seperate envelope is
useless for such purpose, as there can in that case be no proof that the
envelope and sheet of paper said to be enclosed form part of the same
communication. In the Drawing I have shewn four Figures or Diagrams,
illustrating the said Invention, similar letters of reference denoting similar
parts in each of the Figures respectively where such parts appear. a
being the
envelope; b, b, red dotted lines, where the envelope joins the letter or note;
and c shewing a portion of the letter or note. when folded in position to be
turned over into the envelope, which is then closed in the ordinary manner.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Gedge, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eleventh day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
W. E. GEDGE,
4, Danes Inn, Strand.
JOHN GEDGE. (L.S.)