IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS FOR THE PREVENTION OF FRAUD BY ALTERING CHEQUES, DRAFTS, BILLS, LO.U.'s, AND DOCUMENTS OF ANY DESCRIPTION RELATING TO THE PAYMENT AND RECEIPT OP MONEY."
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Edward Donovan, of Court Duffe, at Castle-
knock, in the County of Dublin, Gentleman, and Robert Bowles, of
Blackhall Place, in the City and County of Dublin, Farming Imple-
ment Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS
FOR THE PREVENTION OF FRAUD BY ALTERING CHEQUES, DRAFTS, BILLS, LO.U.'s,
AND DOCUMENTS OF ANY DESCRIPTION RELATING TO THE PAYMENT AND RECEIPT
OP MONEY."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Edward Donovan
and Robert Bowles at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 1st June 1864.
We, RICHARD EDWARD DONOVAN, of Court Duffe, at Castleknock, in the
County of Dublin, Gentleman, and ROBERT BOWLES, of Blackhall Place, in
the City and County of Dublin, Farming Implement Manufacturer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MEANS FOR THE PREVENTION OF FRAUD BY ALTERING CHEQUES, DRAFTS, BILLS, I.O.U.'s,
AND DOCUMENTS OF ANY DESCRIPTION RELATING TO THE PAYMENT AND RECEIPT OF
MONEY," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists in printing or marking upon cheques or documents
of any description relating to the payment or receipt of money a succession
of figures or marks serving to denote figures corresponding with any amount
for which such cheques or other documents may be made out, so that when
such orders or receipts are made out the figures or marks denoting greater or
in some cases less amounts than the amount for which the cheque or other
document is made out may be effaced or torn off, whereby any fraudulent

page_text: alteration subsequently made in the amount of the order or receipt would be
at once detected, as the amount would then exceed or be less than the highest
figure remaining attached to or not effaced from the cheque or other document;
also any attempt to alter such figures or marks would be useless, as the
amount denoted by them would be known by the position which they occupy
upon the cheque or other document. We prefer to print such succession of
figures on the margins of the cheque or other document, marking, for instance,
on the one margin the succession of units or tens, and on another margin the
succession of tens or hundreds, and, if necessary, upon a third margin the
succession of thousands; or we mark upon one margin the succession of units,
upon a second the tens, upon a third the hundreds, and upon a fourth the
thousands, and we prefer to perforate or otherwise prepare the paper upon
which such figures are marked in such a manner that any number of them
may be readily removed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Edward Donovan and Robert Bowles in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 1st December 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, RICHARD,
EDWARD DONOVAN, of Court Duffe, at Castleknock, in the County of Dublin,
Gentleman, and ROBERT BOWLES, of Blackhall Place, in the City and County
of Dublin, Farming Implement Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Richard Edward Donovan and Robert Bowles, Her special licence that
we, the said Richard Edward Donovan and Robert Bowles, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Richard Edward
Donovan and Robert Bowles, our 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 THE MEANS FOR THE PREVENTION OF FRAUD BY ALTERING
CHEQUES, DRAFTS, BILLS, I.O.U.'s, AND DOCUMENTS OF ANY DESCRIPTION RELATING TO
THE PAYMENT AND RECEIPT OF MONEY," upon the condition (amongst others) that
we, the said Richard Edward Donovan and Robert Bowles, our executors or

page_text: administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and
seals or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 we, the said Richard Edward Donovan and
Robert Bowles, 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 thereof, reference being had
to the accompanying Drawing, and to the figures aud letters marked thereon,
that is to say-
Our Invention consists in printing or marking upon cheques or documents
of any description relating to the payment or receipt of money a succession of
figures or marks serving to denote figures corresponding with any amount
for which such cheques or other documents may be made out, so that when
such orders or receipts are made out the figures or marks denoting greater
or in some cases less amounts than the amount for which the cheque or other
document is made out may be effaced or torn off, whereby any fraudulent
alteration subsequently made in the amount of the order or receipt, within
certain limits, would be at once detected, as the amount would then exceed or
be less than the highest figure remaining attached to or not effaced from the
cheque or other document; also any attempt to alter such figures or marks
would be useless, as the amount denoted by them would be known by the
position which they occupy upon the cheque or other document.
We prefer
to print such succession of figures on the margins of the cheque or other
document, marking, for instance, on the one margin the succession of units.
or tens, and on another margin the succession of tens or hundreds, and, if
necessary, upon a third margin the succession of thousands; or we mark upon
one margin the succession of units, upon a second the tens, upon a third the
hundreds, and upon a fourth the thousands, and we prefer to perforate or
otherwise prepare the paper upon which such figures are marked in such a
manner that any number of them may be readily removed.
On the accompanying Drawing is shown the manner in which we prefer to
apply our Invention to cheques or bankers' drafts.
Figure 1 shows a blank draft having at one end a number of strips, partly
separated by perforations, and having the series of units marked upon them,
whilst at the other end it has similar strips having the series of tens marked
upon them.
If now it be required to fill in the cheque for, say, thirty-three

page_text: pounds, then all the strips at the one end bearing figures above thirty are
removed, whilst at the other end all strips bearing figures above three are
removed, as indicated at Figure 2, when it will be seen that the sum of the
outside figures of each end will be the amount for which the cheque is to be
filled in. Instead of arranging the strips and figures as above described, they
may be arranged at one or both ends, as shewn in the arrangement of the
series of units at Figure 3, the squares bearing figures higher than the amount
for which the document is to be filled in being removed as before described
with reference to the first arrangement. For cheques or drafts requiring a
higher range of figures than that indicated, either a series of hundreds may be
added at top or bottom, as indicated at Figure 4, or there may be at one end
the series of hundreds and at the other the series of tens and units, as at
Figure 5.
Having now described the nature of our Invention, and the manner in
which it is to be performed, we wish it to be understood that we in no way
limit ourselves to the arrangements herein-before described with reference to
the accompanying Drawing, as it is evident that our Invention is capable of
being carried out by a variety of other arrangements; but what we claim is,
printing or marking upon cheques or documents of any description relating to
the payment or receipt of money a succession of figures or marks denoting
figures corresponding exactly or within narrow limits with any amount for
which such documents may be made out, so that the alteration of the amounts
for which the documents are made out may be prevented within such limits,
or readily detected, by removing or effacing at the time of executing the
documents such of the succession of figures that are higher than or in some
cases lower than such amounts.
In witness whereof, we, the said Richard Edward Donovan and Robert
Bowles, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Thirtieth day
of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-four
Witness,
ALEXANDER LINDSAY.
RICHARD E. DONOVAN. (LS.)
ROB. BOWLES.
(L.S.)