A NEW SELF- ACTING LETTER BOX FOR RECEIPT AND PAYMENT PROVIDED WITH A CONTROLLING AND SIGNALIZING APPARATUS
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Noah Jacobsohn at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th
March 1868.
I, NOAH JACOBSOHN, of Berlin, in the Kingdom of Prussia, Merchant,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW SELF-
ACTING LETTER BOX FOR RECEIPT AND PAYMENT PROVIDED WITH A CONTROLLING
AND SIGNALIZING APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
This letter box is intended to receive paid or unpaid letters, news-
papers, despatches, circulars, and other articles in order to prevent
inconvenience to the receiver and unnecessary delay to the bearer,
also to acknowledge immediately the receipt and to secure the said
documents until taken out by the authorized receiver. To pay out
the necessary postage stamps or marks for letters, to register the
payment exactly and instantly, and to render all transactions performed
thereby so secure that embezzlement cannot take place, as the means
of paying are only designed for an exchange between the post and
public. To receive despatches, to give a receipt for them, and at
once to mark the very time they were received, and to deliver
receipts for all documents and statements forwarded by the courts

page_text: of law. Each letter box. is to be marked with a number given
officially, which number must be alike on every receipt and payment
delivered by the box.
This Invention will be understood by the following description
thereof, reference being had to the figures, numerals, and letters on a
the accompanying two Sheets of Drawings.
Fig. I. represents the letter box with the left side opened at the
time the postman is present; Fig. II. is a view of the right-hand
side of one half of the box, that is to say, from the right-hand of
the middle line E, F, as seen from the front, the fore plate supposed
to have been removed. The same portion is seen from behind to
the left of this middle line E, F, the door or wall on which the box
is placed being supposed to have been removed. Figs. III., IV., and
V. are vertical sections, Fig. - V. being through the middle at the
line E, F.; Fig. III. a little more outwards at the line A, B; and
Fig. IV. still further to the right at the line C, D, near the frame of
the box; and Fig. 6 is a horizontal section.
The main interior mechanism of this new self-acting letter box is
arranged symmetrically at each side of the vertical middle line E, F,
and consists in a delivery of metal marks near the small paying
place F, Fig. I., and in a delivery of paper stamps at each side.
The lower portion of the apparatus contains a slit covered with a
plate where letters, newspapers, despatches, and other articles are to
be put in. The upper portion has a dial, the finger of which is to
be regulated by the despatch carrier or postman. A bell fixed
behind the box rings, first, when the slit is opened, which takes
place by a slight pressure of the finger; secondly, when a metal
mark is discharged; and, thirdly, when the lid hinged before the
paper stamps and usually closed is removed in order to take them
out. The two sorts of stamps can only be taken out by a small
square key borne by the postman or carrier, and the finger on the
dial can only be regulated by this key. The closing of the horizontal
receiving slit of the letter box is self-signalled by means of the
bell G, the slit being covered with a rectangular lid or plate and
connected to the box by a hinge; this lid is closed by a cylindrical
spring and its inside is furnished with a pin to ring the bell, the
ringing will ensue when the lid is but partially opened, as a vertical bar
in connection with the pin of the lid is moved downwards; and in

page_text: Fig. V. the middle position of the pin is shewn by dotted lines.
This falling down of the bar is caused by a large horizontal spring
shewn at the left side of Fig. 2, which spring resting on a horizontal
pin fixed to the bar is extended at the rising thereof. When the
bar descends a swell at the end of the extended spring knocks
against the inside of the bell like a hammer. If the lid is still
further opened the pin causes the elevation of the bar from the
position marked in Fig. V. with dotted lines to its highest position,
whereby the swell is disengaged and the bell cannot ring a second
time. Through the upper end of the flat bar is a vertical slit
through which a pin fixed to the bell passes up and down. The bar
makes two different motions, first, an up-and-down one; and secondly,
an oscillating one. As soon as the lid is out of the postman's hand the
bar suspended from the pin of the bell is removed by the small vertical
spring from the hinge of the lid and again rests on the pin. The
great ringing spring is therefore resting in the slit of the fixed pin
which serves as a fulcrum on which it can be moved..
Fig. II. shews the bar as seen from behind its suspension slit and
the said pin a little lower, and the same Figure shews, to the left
the small spring and the pin of the larger one with its slit. Fig. V.
shews by dotted lines the large spring lifted when the bell rings and
the lid is in its middle position and the bar is here represented elevated
by the pin to its highest point. It is to be presumed that a box to
be locked up is fixed at the inside of the door or wall where the
letter box is hanging as a continuation of the portion of the box
behind the slit, and that the key to it is in the box proprietor's hands.
The lid or plate a that stands erect on its hinge and appertains to
the delivery of the paper stamps at the upper corners of the box is
represented opened at one side of Fig. I., but at Fig. II. it is shewn closed
on each side of the box, and each lid is supported from the inside by a pin
fixed to it passing through an opening in the frame of the box, which
pin is in the form of a hook as shewn in Fig. IV. The hook is turned
towards the back of the box so that a lever holds the hook and thus
fixes the lid, the said lever being shewn in Figs. II., IV., and VI. The
small erect spring attached to the inner front of the box in Figs. II.
and IV. would keep permanently closed if a vertical bar were not
pressed up from below and kept in this position by a small leaden
counterbalance on a lever with two arms the bearing arm of which
is in a slot in this large bar. These parts are drawn very plainly

page_text: in Fig. II., at the left with the bar raised and locked, but Fig. IV.
shews the same with the bar down when the lid is opened. The real
opening and falling of the lid takes place as follows:-The large vertical
bar lies partly behind the vertical middle wall of the box where it
is carried by the lever, and before this wall where the closing shoulder
and the two ends of the bar reach only, the upper portion comes into
action, and as soon as the postman puts his key into the keyhole
marked in Fig. 1, 2, and 3, a revolving of the key causes the de-
pression of the bar under it by means of the gearing shewn in Fig.
II., to the left. Fig. IV. shews that when the bar is moved down
the lid is freed which takes place by turning the key as a pin re-
presented in Figs. II. and VI. is pressed to an oblique position. The
spring then acts so that the finger can move the closing hook forward
after freeing the lid and then the lid falls down. The carrier after
having received a stamp must again lock the box by closing the lid
and taking out the key. It is to be observed that the arm of the lever
of the counterbalance stretches a spiral spring and removes the hammer.
swell from the bell so that the end of the freely oscillating spring rings
it until the vertical bar is again pushed forward, and thereby both
spring and lever become stationary. The apparatus for the delivery of
the paper stamps is situated in the upper portion of the box and is
represented in Figs. II., IV., and VI., and consists of a pair of parallel
fluted cylinders, the hinder one being revolved by the said revolution
of the key in unlocking the lid before mentioned. There is a square
hole for the receipt of the key and the motion wheel is shewn in Fig.
II., from behind, and in Fig. IV., in a side view. As one cylinder on
each side is in fixed bearings the other is always pressed against it
because its pivots are placed in one end of two horizontal levers each
with two arms which can be turned on a. fixed axis. The pressure
on the other arms of the lever is produced by a spring appertaining
to both compartments which spring passes behind the dial and is
fixed to the back of the iron door or wall, and each end of the spring
is bent round a vertical pin fixed to the free arms of each pair of
levers. The paper stamps in the form of a strip are furnished with
continuous numbers printed thercon, and in the corners of each stamp
the number of the letter box is also printed, and they are also perforated
to enable their being torn asunder. They are rolled up and the roll
is put in the paper compartment and its free end is passed between the
two cylinders. In order to prevent the paper strip from entangling or

page_text: rolling out there are two guides between the paper roll and the cylinders
made of metal plate which are pressed upon the free end of the paper,
and there is an opening covered with glass in the front of each paper
compartment for enabling it to be ascertained whether there is a
sufficient supply of stamps. If the paper stamps on one side are
exhausted the postman must immediately supply the necessary stamps
from the other compartment. To renew the roll of paper stamps the
top part of the front plate at each side is revolved round a vertical
hinge, an opening is only possible after a removal of the bar between
this door and the inside of the front plate, and it can only be removed
by means of the key that is in the proprietor's hands. A spring keeps
the lever of the bar permanently down and the door consequently
closed, and the lever is limited in its motion by a bar holder as shewn
in Fig. II. It must be noticed that the hinge for the door must be so
situated as not to damage the first stamp, and only one stamp is moved
forward by one turn of the key, the diameter of the cylinders being
regulated accordingly. To draw out the whole paper strip is quite
impossible because it would immediately be torn to separate stamps as
the fluted cylinders hold the second stamp and only loosen their grasp
after a renewed turning of the key. The metal mark or stamp delivery is
placed in the middle portion of the box and is also arranged in dupli-
cate, that is, at the right and the left of the middle line E, F, Fig. II.
.
In each apparatus there are 25 metal marks bearing the name of the
proprietor and the number of the box. They are distributed in two
divisions of 13 and 12 each in 13 double compartments made in the
periphery of two iron plates serving as a pocket. The thirteenth
compartment of the first pocket wheel may remain vacant to prove by
a glance through the glass (marked o and 25 in Fig. I.) in the front
plate by the appearance of the empty pocket after the wheel is
sufficiently revolved, that the marks must be renewed. The same object
is attained by the Figure o appearing behind the glass 1, Fig. I., in the
front plate. In the upper part of the frame there is an opening leading
into the paper stamp compartment through which (after opening the
before mentioned door and removing the paper roll) a new supply of
metal marks can be conveyed into the double pocket wheel which must
be turned after the delivery opening F has been closed, the operation
of which will now be described. The peripheries of the wheels carry on
the right and left side the metal marks of the pocket series down to the
delivery opening. The revolving of one of the pocket wheels by the

page_text: key is sufficient to convey one of the marks to the opening and to
disengage it from the pocket wheel. To fill the pocket wheel with
marks the wheel must be turned and to prevent the marks from falling
out it is necessary to close the opening beforehand. This is accomplished
both for the first and second pocket series of the same wheel by a loop
shaped wire hanging over a horizontal square pin having a knob,
and shewn in Fig. II., which pin is movable up and down in a
vertical slit in the front and middle plate. By pressing down the
knob the wire loops are placed before the two apertures thus locking
them as shewn in Fig. II. After filling the pocket wheels the knob
is again raised and there remains by the friction of its hinge and
the elasticity of the wire loops. Through the slit appearing under the
knob it can be perceived whether the aperture is closed or not, and the
postman is also able to see through the glass opening, if there is an
ample stock of metal marks. The opening in the frame of the pocket
wheel allows the tooth that moves or revolves the acting wheel of the
pocket series to enter as soon as the square key is inserted in the
keyholes 5 & 6, Fig. 1, by the proprietor in order to fill the wheels, or
by the postman to obtain a receipt. The marks in the pocket series are
thereby carried upwards to the centre and to the paying place. The
parts of the mechanism are so disposed and the tooth gearing is so
formed that a complete revolving of the key only turns the pocket
series a twenty-sixth of its periphery, and thus one mark appears each
time as the two divisions of 13 each are contained in the wheel. It
must be further observed that the opening in the pocket wheel frame
to admit the tooth is placed only under the acting wheel but not under
the pocket series (see Fig. II.) The upper opening of the pocket wheel
frame to replenish the marks and the hole in the bottom of the paper
compartment are so placed that the marks cannot fall into the acting
wheel. The turning back of the key is impossible as a hook 13,
Figs. II., and V., fixed on a pin to the back of a middle plate of the
box is always pressed against the wheel by a spring attached to its
other arm, but this spring does not prevent the revolving of the pocket
'wheel in its proper direction and the turning back is also prevented by
the bar. It has already been said in the beginning of this description
that a downward motion of the bar at each of the two vertical side parts
of the box frame (see Fig. II. to the left) brings the ringing hammer
into action. The lower part of this bar is supplied with a tooth reaching
from the back to the front compartment of the box. As shewn in

page_text: Fig. II. to the left the tooth previously described will in revolving
downward turn the pocket wheel and convey the first mark to the paying
place. The dial, Figs. I., II., and V., has within each division of one
hour six subdivisions so that the carrier can accurately mark the time
of his delivering the despatch, for by inserting the key into the key-
hole 1, Figs. I. and II., close under the finger of the dial, this latter
can be turned round in any direction desired.