An Improved Contrivance for Facilitating the Opening of Envelopes...
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 14th Aug., 1890
Complete Specification Left, 9th Feb., 1891-Accepted, 14th Mar., 1891
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Contrivance for Facilitating the Opening of Envelopes...
We, HECTOR MCLEOD, of No. 197, Nelson Place, Williamstown, near
Melbourne in the Colony of Victoria, Carpenter, and HERBERT OUTRIDGE
CLARING BOULD, of the same address, Bookseller, do hereby declare the nature of
this invention to be as follows:--
This invention has been devised for the purpose of providing a simple contrivance
which will render the opening of envelopes a quicker and simpler operation than at
present.
The essential feature of our invention consists in an envelope having a short
piece of thin twine cotton, wire, or thread secured either within the fold of the
flap or else along the bottom of the envelope and arranged so that its ends project
beyond the envelope. Or in the event of said projecting ends being thought
objectionable or unsightly a small piece of the envelope might be cut away to allow
the centre of said string or twine to be pulled outwards, and so effect the object of
opening the envelope.
Dated this Third day of July One thousand eight hundred and ninety.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Contrivance for Facilitating the Opening of Envelopes.
We, HECTOR MOLEOD, of 197, Nelson Place, Williamstown, near Melbourne,.
in the Colony of Victoria, Carpenter, and HERBERT OUTRIDGE CLARING BOULD,
of the same address, Bookseller, 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:-
Although the opening of a single envelope is not in itself either tedious or
unpleasant, yet to business men and others having to deal with an extensive
correspondence it oftentimes entails a by no means inconsiderable sacrifice of
valuable time, in addition to being a somewhat unpleasant task.
Now, our invention has been designed for the purpose of providing a simple and
inexpensive device whereby the opening of envelopes will be greatly facilitated.
The essential feature of our invention consists in an envelope having a piece of
thin twine, thread, cotton wire, or other similar material secured either beneath the
fold of the flap of the envelope or along the bottom or one of the sides thereof, and
arranged so that its ends project; or the envelope may be formed with recesses at
about the centre of said piece of twine, thread, or cotton wire in order that the latter
may be grasped between the fingers and pulled upwardly so as to cause it to cut
through the fold of the envelope, as will be well understood from the following
description, reference being had to our drawings, wherein
Figure 1 is an elevation of our improved envelope, with its flap in its open or
raised position.
Figure 2 is a view of our improved envelope, illustrating the manner of opening
it, and
Figures 3 and 4 are elevations of the back of an envelope, illustrating two different
modifications of our invention.
Similar letters of reference indicate the same or corresponding parts in all the
figures.

page_text: A represents an ordinary envelope, beneath the fold of whose flap we paste, gum,
or otherwise secure a length of twine, thread, or cotton wire B, which we prefer to
make sufficiently long to project slightly beyond the sides of said envelope, as
illustrated in Figures 1 and 3.
When in use our improved envelope is secured in the ordinary manner by means
of gum upon its flap. When it is required to open such envelope it can be accom-
plished by pulling one or other of the projecting ends of the twine, thread, or cotton
wire B upwardly in the manner indicated in Figure 2, the effect being to sever the
flap of the envelope in much the same way as if it had been opened with a knife.
As will be well understood, the operation of opening our improved envelope is much
simpler and quicker than is the operation of opening an ordinary one, even with a
knife.
Instead of arranging the thread, twine, or cotton wire Balong the fold of the
Hap of the envelope (as shown in Figure 1) it may be made sufficiently long to
extend from, say, one of the lower corners and around three sides to the correspond-
ing opposite corner, as will be well understood on reference to Figure 3, in which
figure the ends of the thread are shown as being allowed to project beyond the edge of
the envelope in a similar manner to that illustrated in Figure 1. It will be readily scen
that the operation of opening this envelope is substantially identical with that
shown in Figure 2.
If it is found that the projecting ends of the thread, twine, or cotton wire B.
are objectionable, then such thread, twine, or cotton wire may be cut off short at the
edges of the envelope, as clearly illustrated in Figure 4 in which case we cut a
small portion out of the envelope, as shown at C, in order that the thread, twine or
wire may be taken hold of by the thumb and finger and drawn upwards, so as to
cause it to cut through the envelope from one end of the twine, thread, or wire to
the other, thus opening it in a quick and satisfactory manner.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
First. An envelope (such as A) having a piece of thread, twine, cotton wire or
other similar material gunmed pasted or otherwise secured inside one or more of
its folds, substantially as and for the purpose herein described and explained and as
illustrated in our drawings.
twine or cotton wire pasted,
its folds, as well as a notch or
more of the edges along which
ntially as and for the purposes
Second. An envelope having a piece of thread,
gummed or otherwise secured inside one or more
recess (such as C) cut or otherwise formed in one
said thread, twine, or cotton wire is secured, sul
specified and as illustrated in Figure 4 of our dra
Dated this Fifteenth day of November One housand eight hundred and ninety.
Jgs.
HECTOR MCLEOD.
HERBERT OUTRIDGE CLARING BOULD.