KEEPING ACCOUNTS CURRENT IN PRINTED FORM, FOR ADDRESSING CARDS, CIRCULARS, PAPERS, AND PERIODICALS OF ALL KINDS WITH GREAT RAPIDITY, BY THE AID OF A VERY SIMPLE MACHINE, WHICH IS A CONSTITUENT PART OF THIS IN- VENTION
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Dick, of the City of Toronto, in the County
of York, and Province of Canada, for the Invention of "KEEPING
ACCOUNTS CURRENT IN PRINTED FORM, FOR ADDRESSING CARDS, CIRCULARS,
PAPERS, AND PERIODICALS OF ALL KINDS WITH GREAT RAPIDITY, BY THE AID
OF A VERY SIMPLE MACHINE, WHICH IS A CONSTITUENT PART OF THIS IN-
VENTION."
Sealed the 23rd December 1859, and dated the 27th June 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Dick at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 27th
June 1859.
I, ROBERT DICK, of the City of Toronto, in the County of York, and
Province of Canada, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"KEEPING ACCOUNTS CURRENT IN PRINTED FORM, FOR ADDRESSING CARDS,
CIRCULARS, PAPERS, AND PERIODICALS OF ALL KINDS WITH GREAT RAPIDITY BY
THE AID OF A VERY SIMPLE MACHINE, WHICH IS A CONSTITUENT PART OF THIS
INVENTION," to be as follows:-
The names and addresses of all persons whose accounts it is required thus
to keep are first carefully set up in printer's type in regular columns, or other-
wise, and in connexion with each name is placed a precise statement of the
individual's account in figures, symbols, dates, or numbers, either separately or
in combination, or whatever else will represent the extent to which each is

page_text: debtor or creditor. From the type thus carefully and fully set in order, an
impression on any suitable substance is taken, which exhibits in printed form
the accounts as set in type. On this impression, placed as the first folio of a
fitly prepared skeliton book to be carefully preserved, the accountant enters all
alterations occurring in the state of the accounts up to the period fixed for
balancing the sheet, at which time the type are changed, so as to incorporate
and truthfully represent all the changes and alterations that have occurred in
the accounts. From the type thus corrected an impression is taken to
constitute folio No. 2 in the skeliton book, and thus onward in continuance.
When it is desirable to render or transmit the accounts at the expiration of
any balancing period, an impression is taken from the type in addition to the
one required for the skeliton book, its columns cut apart, and the head of
each succeeding column is gummed to the lower extremity of that preceding
it, till the whole forms a continuous web. This is reeled (like the paper web
of the telegraph operator) into the simple machine (adapted to this and
numerous other purposes, and embraced in this my Invention), by which the
back of the web of accounts is rendered adhesive, the accounts cut off
separately, and firmly stamped on cards, circulars, papers, or periodicals at
the rate of 3,000 an hour; to understand which, and the mode of operation,
let A in the attached Drawing represent an apron movement; B, a compart-
ment filled with fluid, used to render the back of the web of accounts adhesive,
and through which the apron revolves; and C, the compartment into which
the web is first reeled. When thus reeled in, and all things in readiness,
place the back of the end of the web on the apron as it rises out of the fluid
in B, and saturated therewith; when so placed on the apron it will adhere
to it and move with it, and by imbibing from it become itself strongly adhesive
on reaching the front of the machine, beyond which as it is projected from
the apron, the uplifted cutter and stamp descending cuts off the names and
addresses with the accounts separately (or labels of any other kind), and
stamps them firmly on whatever is placed below to receive them.
What I claim as my Invention is, the contrivance of keeping and rendering
accounts current in printed form, embracing the combination of fluid vessel,
apron movement, reel, and cutter stamp, which constitute the simple machine
used in separating and attatching them to cards, circulars, papers, or periodicals,
for the purposes of transmission, whereby immense saving is rendered prac-
ticable in nearly every department of business.
For example, the periodical publisher is enabled by this my Invention, to
address his papers to all his subscribers with or without their accounts in a
neat and distinct manner at the rapid rate of 3,000 an hour, preventing

page_text: innumerable vexatious misunderstandings in relation to accounts, rendering
practicable the immediate correction of errors whenever they originate, pre-
venting the missing of names in dispatching papers consequent on copying by
pen, and the straying of papers sent, in consequence of illegible writing, in
addition to the saving of wrapping paper, pens and ink, and terminating the
whole of the wearisome, toilsome drudgery of endlessly reproducing long lists
of names by the pen.
Savings correspondingly valuable can be effected by the application of this
my Invention in every other form of business wherein accounts required to be
kept and transmitted, or labels of any kind applied in large quantities.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Dick in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
24th December 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
DICK, of the City of Toronto, in the County of York, and Province of Canada,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by. Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the 27th day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Robert Dick, Her special licence that I, the said Robert Dick, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert
Dick, 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 "KEEPING ACCOUNTS
CURRENT IN PRINTED FORM, FOR ADDRESSING CARDS, CIRCULARS, PAPERS, AND
PERIODICALS OF ALL KINDS WITH GREAT RAPIDITY, BY THE AID OF A VERY SIMPLE
MACHINE, WHICH IS A CONSTITUANT PART OF THIS INVENTION," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Robert Dick, 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 calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that 1, the said Robert Dick, do hereby declare
the nature of my 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:
The names and addresses of all persons whose accounts it is required thus
to keep are first carefully set up in printer's type in regular columns, or other-
wise, and in connexion with each name is placed a precise statement of the
individual's account in figures, symbols, dates, or numbers, either separately or
in combination, or whatever else will represent the extent to which each is
debtor or creditor. From the type thus carefully and fully set in order, an
impression on any suitable substance is taken, which exhibits in printed form
the accounts as set in type. On this impression, placed as the first folio of a
fitly prepared skeliton book, to be carefully preserved, the accountant enters
all alterations occurring in the state of the accounts up to the period fixed for
balancing the sheet, at which time the type are changed, so as to incorporate
and truthfully represent all the changes and alterations that have occurred in
the accounts. From the type thus corrected an impression is taken, to con-
stitute folio No. 2 in the skeliton book, and thus onward in continuance.
When it is desirable to render or transmit the accounts at the expiration of
any balancing period, an impression is taken from the type in addition to the
one required for the skeliton book, its columns cut apart, and the head of
each succeeding column is gummed to the lower extremity of that preceeding
it, till the whole forms a continuous web. This is reeled (like the paper web
of the telegraph operator) into the simple machine (adapted to this and
numerous other purposes, and embraced in this my Invention), by which the
back of the web of accounts is rendered adhesive, the accounts cut off
separately, and firmly stamped on cards, circulars, papers, or periodicals at the
rate of 3,000 an hour; to understand which, and the mode of operation, let
A in the attached Drawing represent an apron movement; B, a compartment
filled with fluid, used to render the back of the web of accounts adhesive, and
through which the apron revolves; and C, the compartment into which the
web is first reeled. When thus reeled in, and all things in readiness, place
the back of the end of the web on the apron as it rises out of the fluid in B,
and saturated therewith; when so placed on the apron it will adhere to it, and
move with it, and by imbibing from it become itself strongly adhesive on
reaching the front of the machine, beyond which as it is projected from the
apron, the uplifted cutter and stamp descending cuts off the names and
aldresses, with the accounts separately (or labels of any other kind), and
stamps them firmly on whatever is placed below to receive them.

page_text: What I claim as my Invention is, the contrivance of keeping and rendering
accounts current in printed form, embracing the combination of fluid vessel,
apron movement, reel, and cutter stamp, which constitute the simple machine
used in separating and attaching them to cards, circulars, papers, or periodicals,
for the purposes of transmission or identification, whereby immense saving is
rendered practicable in nearly every department of business.
For example, the periodical publisher is enabled by this my Invention to
address his papers to all his subscribers, with or without their accounts, in a
neat and distinct manner at the rapid rate of 3,000 an hour, preventing
innumerable vexatious misunderstandings in relation to accounts, rendering
practicable the immediate correction of errors whenever they originate, pre-
venting the missing of names in dispatching papers consequent on copying by
pen, and the straying of papers sent in consequence of illegible writing, in
addition to the saving of wrapping paper, pens and ink, and terminating the
whole of the wearisome toilsome drudgery of endlessly reproducing long lists
of names by the pen.
Savings correspondingly valuable can be effected by the application of this
my Invention in every other form of business wherein accounts require to be
kept and transmitted, or labels of any kind applied, in large quantities.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Dick, have heretofore set my hand
and seal, this Thirteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
ROBERT DICK.
(L.S.)

page_text: through which the apron revolves. C, the Compartment into which
the web of names is first reeled. D, the Cutter and Stamp combined.