IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR RECEIVING AND RECORDING VOTES BY BALLOT
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas North, of Oxford, in the County of Oxford,
Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR RECEIVING
AND RECORDING VOTES BY BALLOT."
Sealed the 17th August 1860, and dated the 24th February 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas North at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th
February 1860.
I, THOMAS NORTH, of Oxford, in the County of Oxford, Gentleman, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR
RECEIVING AND RECORDING VOTES BY BALLOT," to be as follows:-
The apparatus is designed for taking votes at elections, for securing perfect
secresy to the voters, and prevention of fraud. It is to be constructed in
outward appearance somewhat as an ordinary box, the top, bottom, and sides
being closed. In the front are holes which I term eye sockets (their use being
to receive and retain for a short period the balloting balls, which may be
made of any suitable substance); these vary according to the number of
members for election. There is also a cup for the reception of waste balls.
The back of the apparatus is glazed, in part to allow the inspector (who does
not see the voter) to see the balls as they roll into an intermediate chamber.

page_text: previous to passing to their receptacles. The inspector has control over the
chamber by means of a spring in connexion with a species of trap door. In
or on the front is a sliding lift or door, the rising or lifting of which reveals
the eye sockets, and acts by the same movement on an inner door or lift,
closing the eye sockets inside or at their back. By this internal arrange-
ment, the balls used by the voter for the candidates lodge in the eye socket,
which can only receive ono ball at a time, and thereby protects the voter
against himself. The ball or balls not used by the voter for the candidates
(which I term waste-balls) are placed by him in the cup before mentioned,
and drop into a distinct compartment. The return of the outer slide or door
(which is self-acting) brings back the inner slide or door, and the balls imme-
diately pass into the intermediate chamber. If improper balls are used, the
inspector makes a signal, and the voter is stopped for question.
SPECIFICATION. in. pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas North in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
21st August 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
NORTH, of Oxford, in the County of Oxford, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Thomas North, Her special licence that I, the 'said Thomas
North, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Thomas North, 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
"IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR RECEIVING AND RECORDING VOTES BY BALLOT," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas North, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, 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

page_text: calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas North, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, and
to the figures and letters marked thereon to denote similar parts where such
parts appear or can be seen at each of the Figures respectively
:-
My Invention is designed for the better recording of votes taken either at
elections for members of parliament or municipal elections, or for the use of
clubs or other societies where the votes are to be recorded by ballot, securing
perfect secrecy to the voter, and prevention of fraudulent voting. Before
describing the apparatus, I would observe it may be made of any size, or of
any material that may be found desirable or suitable for its construction.
In the Drawing, Figure 1 represents a front elevation of my ballot box;
Figure 2, an interior view of part of the apparatus with the casing (elevation,
Figure 1) removed; Figure 3 shews (in elevation) the back of the apparatus;
and Figure 4 is a section (in part) of Figure 3. It will be observed, that my
ballot box is constructed, in outward appearance, much as an ordinary box,
the top, bottom, and sides being closed. At the front (Figure 1) on raising
a sliding lift or door A, which acts by the same movement on an inner door or
lift, two holes, B, B, (which I term eye sockets) are discovered, their use
being to receive and retain for a short period the balls used in voting, which
vary in number to correspond with the number of members to be elected.
As the backs of said sockets are covered by the inner door, slide, or lift before
mentioned, while the outer door A is in a raised position, as is seen at
Figure 1 of the Drawing, the balloting balls (which may be made of any
suitable material, ivory, bone, glass, porcelain, or other, and colored variously
according to the number of candidates for election) fall into an intermediate
chamber on the door or lift A being lowered. At the side will be observed
a cup C (Figures 1 and 2), the use of which is to receive the waste ball or
balls not used for voting by the voter.
On reference to Figure 2, the action of the apparatus with regard to the deli-
very of the balls, will be apparent, a sliding door a working in grooves by means
of a spring and pullies attached to the outside lift or door marked A, Figure 1,
front elevation, is shewn; b, b, in this Figure shew the interior of eye sockets
or holes for receiving the election balls; c, the cup or hole for the waste
balls; and d, d', the conductor d of the election balls to their first receptacle

page_text: (the intermediate chamber); and d' the trough or conductor of the waste
balls to theirs.. Figure 8 represents the back of the apparatus; by means of
the glazed windows D, D, the interior of the intermediate chamber into which
the balls pass in their passage from the eye sockets B, B, is placed under the
view of the inspector (who does not see the voter); e, Figure 4, denotes the
intermediate chambers before mentioned, which have moveable bottoms in.
them. The inspector being satisfied with the correctness of the voting balls
passed from the eye sockets B, B, presses upon the lever E (Figure 3), and;
causes them to fall into the drawer or. chamber by raising the moveable
bottom of the intermediate chamber aforesaid, which is pressed down or closed.
again by the action of the springs f, f, Figure 4. The letter g at the same
Figure 4 denotes a partition separating the inner chambers; in this partition.
works the lever (or spring) E, before mentioned, by which the balls are passed.
into their several receivers G, G'. In using my ballot box (supposing the
preliminary arrangements for voting complete), no one is admitted into the
room containing it but the voter, who sees before him the front of the ballot
box (the back thereof. being in another room or compartment in which sits
the inspector.) The voter, on entering, raises the sliding lift or door A of the
ballot box with one hand (or it may be raised for him by mechanical con-
trivance if preferred), and with the other deposits in the eye sockets B, B, the
balls he intends to vote with (these sockets being made to receive only one
ball at a time), and the remaining ball or balls he puts into the waste cup C;
he then retires. The inspector observes the balls pass from the voter into the
intermediate chamber of the ballot box, and by means of the lever or spring E,
he passes them into. the receptacles G, G', there to remain (the receptacles
being under seal) until the close of the poll. If the voter has voted fairly, the
inspector signals to the doorkeeper "all right," and the voter departs. Should
a fraud be attempted by a voter, then by a different signal from the inspector.
to the doorkeeper, he causes the voter to be detained for explanation, the
contents of the intermediate chamber becoming evidence against him.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the mode or
means of carrying it into practical effect, I would have it distinctly under-
stood that I do not confine myself to the precise details herein given, as such
may be varied to suit the circumstances of particular cases without the modi-
fications made causing any departure from the principle of my Invention;
and I do not claim the exclusive use of any of the parts of mechanism forming
my ballot box taken separately as parts and not in combination, or for the
purposes of my Invention; but I claim the exclusive use, as of my Invention,

page_text: the combination of parts herein described and shewn in the Drawing, forming
when so combined or arranged, a contrivance or "Improved Apparatus for
Receiving and Recording Votes by Ballot."
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas North, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
Witness,
JOHN GIBBS,
Saint Giles's,
Oxford.
THOMAS NORTH. (L.B.)