AN IMPROVED METHOD OF, AND MEANS FOR, EXPEDITOUSLY ADDRESSING OR DIRECTING ENVELOPES OR WRAPPERS FOR LETTERS, NEWSPAPERS, OR OTHER PAPERS OR DOCUMENTS
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Eugenio De Zuccato at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th July 1880.
EUGENIO DE ZUCCATO, of Charterhouse Street, in the City of London.
"AN IMPROVED METHOD OF, AND MEANS FOR, EXPEDITOUSLY ADDRESSING
OR DIRECTING ENVELOPES OR WRAPPERS FOR LETTERS, NEWSPAPERS, OR OTHER
PAPERS OR DOCUMENTS."
My Invention relates to an improved method of, and means for, addressing or
directing envelopes or wrappers for letters, newspapers, or the like, which are
required to be sent periodically to the same set of persons or firms.
Merchants, publishers, and others who send out at periodical, or other intervals,
large numbers of circulars, newspapers, books, or other papers or publications to the
same persons, are compelled to exercise great care that the whole of the names and
addresses of their customers or subscribers are accurately recorded and preserved, in
order that none may be omitted at any of the times at which the circulars
or publications are forwarded, and machines of various kinds have been devised,
and are in use, at newspaper and other offices for printing in regular order
or sequence a series of addresses, which are required to be repeated or re-printed
from time to time. Such machines entirely obviate the necessity of referring
to lists of customers or subscribers every time the circulars or publications have
to be sent out, for when once the type has been set up the machine only requires
to be set in motion to reproduce or re-print the same addresses whenever required.
Moreover, any changes may be readily effected as required, that is to say,
any address may be withdrawn if a person ceases to be a customer or subscriber,
and with equal facility the addresses of new customers or subscribers may be
added. These machines have been found to be exceedingly useful, but they
are costly, and this fact has prevented their adoption except in the largest
establishments.
The object of my said Invention is to provide a simple method and, means
whereby, practically, all the advantages of the machines above named are secured at
a very trifling cost.
In carrying my Invention into practice I make use of the principal, now well
known, of writing by making minute perforations in prepared paper, which
thus forms a stencil sheet. For making these perforations I prefer to employ

page_text: the Invention for which Letters Patent were granted to me and dated the 29th day
of September 1877, No. 3647; but any of the well known methods of forming such
stencil sheets may be employed for the purposes of my present Invention.
To a piece or slip of the prepared paper above mentioned, I unite at one end
a correspondingly-shaped piece or slip of some absorbent material, such for instance
as blotting paper, and I prefer that these two pieces shall be united by linen
or other textile material, as it is important to provide a flexible connection, so
that the two pieces or slips, which are joined only at one end, may be opened readily
for the insertion of an envelope or wrapper. At the part where the two pieces or
slips are joined I provide two apertures by punching or otherwise, one aperture
being near the top and the other near the bottom. Then any suitable number of
these double pieces are placed together in a position perfectly parallel with each
other, and a piece of cord, tape, or other flexible material is passed through the
apertures of all the pieces, and is fastened in such a manner that they are all held
securely together but with a capability of being readily opened or separated.
In place of the cord or tape I may in some cases employ wire; or a metal stud or
pin screwed at one end may pass through the whole of the pieces, n¨removable nut
being upon the upper end. The absorbent material is not absolutely necessary, but
is advantageous in practice.
The names and addresses are then to be written by perforating the slip of
prepared paper, as above described, it being intended that one address will be on
each slip of this paper; consequently there must be as many slips of such paper as
there are addresses to write. When this has been done, the owner will
be provided with as many stencil sheets as there are addresses, and all he requires
to do is to place the envelopes or wrappers in succession between each slip
of prepared paper and the absorbent material in connection therewith, and to pass
over the stencil sheet the scraper, brush, or other device ordinarily employed
containing-the-ink,-to-produce, the addresses upon the said envelopes or wrappers.
These stencil sheets or slips are thus always ready whenever they may be required;
however short or long the intervals between the times of their use, and it will be
seen that no rewriting of the addresses is necessary, or thought required as to
whether they are correct or not, as they must always be so if written correctly at
first. Any new address may be added or inserted as required, and any address
may be removed when necessary.
My Invention provides means for effecting that which heretofore has only been
effected in a practical manner by elaborate and costly machines or apparatus.