Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 18th Sept., 1888
Specification Accepted, 2nd Nov., 1888
I, CHARLES LOUIS SEARCY, residing at Waco, in the County of Madison and State
of Kentucky, one of the United States of America, Merchant 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 :-
My invention relates to a combined ledger and billhead-book for use by merchants,
generally, lawyers, doctors, etc., but is especially adapted for the business of retail
dealers, wherein goods are sold on account, from day to day, and it is necessary to
render itemized bills or statements of accounts; the objects being to write the single
and double entry system of keeping accounts in one book, so as to save separate bill-
heads and books, and to have an itemized statement of an account always prepared
and ready to be delivered to a customer, thereby saving time, labor and expense.
Referring to the accompanying drawing
Figure 1, represents one page of my combined ledger and billhead-book for a single
account, and
Figure 2, represents a page for two accounts.
The same letters of reference indicate the same or corresponding parts in both
figures.
Referring by letter to Figure 1, of the drawing, C, represents a page which is
divided into two parts, A, and B, by the line of perforations, a, a, so that the part, B,
can be readily detached, as hereinafter described. The line of perforations extends
upward, by preference, to within about one inch of the top of the page and downward
to within about the same distance from the bottom of the page, for a purpose herein-
after set forth.
The main or permanent part, A, is ruled for a double entry ledger, with profit,
date, day-book page number, debit and credit columns, a blank for the customer's
name, the year
and number of the account being arranged above the column ruling,
as customary.
The removable part, B, is ruled with date, item, debit and credit columns, and
above the column ruling are arranged lines for the name of the customer, the
merchant or dealer and the year of the account, the whole forming an ordinary bill-
head, with columns for date, item, debit and credit added.

page_text: In general practice the daily entries are carried from the regular day-book to the
bill-head part, B, and from there the footings are transferred to the ledger part A,
the entries in the ledger part of each day's footings being made on a line opposite
the line of the last charge on the bill-head part, as shown in the drawings, so that the
itemized account on the bill-head part and the footings of the same on the ledger part
can all be seen at a glance.
By combining a ledger and bill-head-book substantially as described, I am enabled
to have an itemized statement of an account of a customer always prepared, and ready
for delivery at any time by simply detaching it from the main part. It will also be
seen that I am enabled to dispense with the ordinary journal, my combined ledger
and bill-head-book only being absolutely necessary in use, since, instead of taking
the entries from the day-book, they can be made direct upon the bill-head, when
desirable or necessary, thereby saving still more time, labor and expense. The object
in not extending the lines of perforations quite to the top and bottom of the page is
to prevent the bill-head from being accidentally detached. In practice, when the
bill-head is to be detached, the top and bottom edge of the page will be clipped to
the line of perforation with a pair of scissors or other instrument.
If desired the pages may be ruled to contain more than one account.
When the page is divided for two accounts, as shown in Figure 2, a horizontal line
of perforations, b, b, will be arranged between the bill-heads. The ledger and the
bill-heads are both to be correspondingly numbered, as shown in the drawings.
I find it a matter of convenience, in the event of the accounts over-running the
ordinary page, to utilize the back of the sheet, with the same rulings and headings as
on the front, but reversed.
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 what I
claim is :-
1. A combined ledger and billhead-book composed of ledger-ruled pages of paper,
each of which is provided with one or more bill-blanks, the ledger and bill-blanks of
each page being integral and adapted to be separated along a predetermined line or
lines, substantially as described.
2. A combined ledger and billhead-book having the main or permanent part, A, of
the pages ruled or otherwise provided with profit, date, day-book-page number, debit
and credit columns, and an upper blank for the name of customer and number and
date of account, and the removable part, B, provided with the ordinary bill-head blank
and ruled or otherwise provided with date, item, debit and credit columns, the parts
being divided for separation by a line of perforations, substantially as and for the
purpose described.
Dated this 18th day of Soetomhaw 1000