IMPROVEMENTS IN THE INDICATION OP VALUE ON CHEQUES BILLS OF EXCHANGE, AND OTHER DOCUMENTS
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Jameson, of 10, Catherine Terrace, Gateshead,
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE INDICATION OP
VALUE ON CHEQUES BILLS OF EXCHANGE, AND OTHER DOCUMENTS."
Sealed the 20th March 1868, and dated the 26th September 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Jameson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th September 1867.
I, JOHN JAMESON, of 10, Catherine Terrace, Gateshead, Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
INDICATION OF VALUE ON CHEQUES, BILLS OF EXCHANGE, AND OTHER DOCUMENTS,"
to be as follows:-
I perforate the cheque or bill or other document in such a way as in some
conventionally fixed manner to indicate the amount written on it, and so arrange
the perforations. as that any additional perforation would indicate a reduced
value; or I print, watermark, or otherwise indicate on the cheque or bill or
other document a scale or scales of amounts, cutting through, tearing, or
perforating, which at a certain place or places would indicate the amount or

page_text: an approximation to the amount stated in writing; or I cut off certain parts
or cut, perforate, or tear the bill, cheques, or other document in any convenient
convenionally understood manner, so that any further cutting, perforation, or
tearing would indicate a reduced value. Silk threads might also be run
through the paper so as to be involved in the perforation if desired. This
mode of indication of value could also be applied to affixed stamps, the
cutting, perforating, or tearing of which might be made a legal obliteration.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Jameson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
26th March 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
JAMESON, of 10, Catherine Terrace, Gateshead, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Jameson, Her special licence that I, the said John
Jameson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said John Jameson, 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
ake, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "In-
PROVEMENTS IN THE INDICATION OF VALUE ON CHEQUES, BILLS OF EXCHANGE,
AND OTHER DOCUMENTS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said John Jameson, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 Jameson, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say: -

page_text: I perforate the cheque or bill or other document in such a way or in some
conventionally fixed manner to indicate the amount' written on it, and so
arrange the perforations as that any additional perforation would indicate a
reduced value; or I print, water mark, or otherwise indicate on the cheque
or bill or other document a scale or scales of amount, cutting through,
tearing, or perforating, which at a certain place or places would indicate the
amount or an approximation to the amount stated in writing; or I cut off
certain parts, or cut, perforate, or tear the bill, cheque, or other document
in any convenient conventionally understood manner, so that any further
cutting, perforation, or tearing would indicate a reduced value. Silk threads
might also be run through the paper so as to be involved in the perforation
if desired. This mode of indication of value could also be applied to affixed
stamps, the cutting, perforation, or tearing of which might be made a legal
obliteration.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention I will proceed more
particularly to describe the manner in which the same is to be carried into
effect.
In a case in which I perforate a document so as in some conventionally
understood manner to indicate the amount written thereon, and so that any
additional perforation should indicate a reduced value, I first define the limits
from which perforations indicating value are to be made, as, for instance,
in the Drawing No. 1, supposing it to be understood that each perforation
indicating value is to be centre and centre nearly or exactly one-eighth of
an inch distant from the next, and that th of an inch in diameter is
to be the fixed size of the perforations, I make two or more perforations
as at A, A, which are distinctly within the distance prescribed for value
perforations, and then in a line th of an inch above the centre of these
perforations I make 10 or a smaller number of perforations, and in a line
parallel to and th of an inch above the last, ten or a smaller number of
perforations, and so on according to the amount to be indicated. If, for
instance, I desire to indicate £1,868, I make in the first line from the limit
before described two perforations, thus leaving eight spaces unperforated; in
the second line from the limit A, A, I make four perforations, thus leaving
spaces for six; in a third line parallel to and equally distant from the
second, I make two perforations; and in a fourth similar line I make
nine perforations; after which, at the distance of one-eighth of an inch
from the top line and on a line parallel thereto, I make two or more
perforations, as at B, B, similar in character and position in reference to

page_text: each other to those at A, A. It is manifest that if the amount be reau
from the unperforated spaces, taking the bottom line for units and the,
next for tens and the next for hundreds, and so on, any further perfo-
rations in the lines indicating value would indicate à reduced value. This.
may also be accomplished by using different sizes of dies or in many other
ways.
In the case of indicating value by means of perforations in combination with.
a printed or water-marked scale, such a scale as that drawn in Figure 2 may.
be used, the amount being perforated as there indicated by black spaces,
observing always to perforate at the figure 0 on the lines of value above
the limits of the amount intended to be indicated; if, for instance, the amount
to be indicated be only £68. I perforate, as in Figure 3, where the black spaces
indicate the perforations; or for greater convenience the scale may be placed;
on the edges of the document, as at Figure 4, or at one end as
Figure 5, both of which would be cut on the red lines to indicate the amount
stated; or the amount may be indicated by cutting or tearing the document
without any indicated scale thereon, as in Figure 6, where the red line indicates,
the cutting or tearing, and the measurement in eights of an iuch the value,
the measurement being taken from the red line 1, 1, the position of which is
indicated by the cutting at its extremities.
at,
The process of indicating value may be rendered more simple if cheques
distinguished from each other and to be used only for amounts under different
maximums be used, as for instance, cheques for hundreds only which could
not be used for thousands.
Many methods of carrying out my Invention may be devised, and
additional safeguards to prevent the possibility of reuniting several parts.
so as to be undiscovered, such as running silk threads into the substance
of the paper during its manufacture or other processes may be adopted,
and the Invention may be made available for other purposes than the
primary one. I have indicated, for instance, for the cancellation of affixed
stamps the cutting, perforating, or tearing of which might both indicate
the value for which they were used, and at the same time be made a legal
obliteration:
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, and the manner in which
the same is to be performed, I would have it understood that I do not claim
perforation of cheques or bills so as to indicate crossing or cancellation, which
processes are already in operation, nor do I claim perforation by itself; but
what I claim as my Invention is, the cutting, perforating, or tearing in such

page_text: manner as to indicate value, substantially in the manner which I have
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Jameson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
JOHN JAMESON. (L.B.)