AN IMPROVED INDEX FOR INDICATING THE PAGES NUMERICALLY OF LEDGERS, ACCOUNT, AND OTHER BOOKS, EITHER WRITTEN OR PRINTED
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Burch, of Adswood Grove, Stockport, in the
County of Cheshire, Gentleman, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
INDEX FOR INDICATING THE PAGES NUMERICALLY OF LEDGERS, ACCOUNT,
AND OTHER BOOKS, EITHER WRITTEN OR PRINTED."
Sealed the 6th November 1877, and dated the 9th May 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Burch at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th May 1877.
JOSEPH BURCH, of Adswood Grove, Stockport, in the County of Cheshire,
Gentleman. "AN IMPROVED INDEX FOR INDICATING THE PAGES NUMERICALLY
OF LEDGERS, ACCOUNT, AND OTHER BOOKS, EITHER WRITTEN OR PRINTED."
. The object of this Invention is by means of an indicating index to be able to:
open at once any book, either written or printed, at the page required. The
index is formed, and either marked entirely in printers' or other ink, colour, or dye
(by preference black) on the front edges of the leaves, or the edges of some of the
leaves may be marked, and a small portion of others removed; also the marks may
be made by gilding.
In order to set out these indicating markings, a number of straight lines, about
three-eighths or half an inch apart are first ruled or drawn in a pale colour across the
front edges of the leaves when the book is closed, or incised lines made with the
thin edge of a heated blade will answer the purpose. The leaves of the book are
then divided into sections, each containing fifty leaves, and a portion of the length
of the first, and of each succeeding fiftieth leaf, is marked along the edge with the
black ink or dye. In this state the book when closed will show the sections of
fifty leaves divided by fine black lines, and the eleven pale coloured lines which are
ruled or incised crosswise. Each section of fifty leaves contains one hundred pages,
of which the first five leaves or ten pages, from 1 to 10, are represented by the space
between the two upper transverse lines, the second ten pages, 11 to 20, by the space
between the second and third transverse lines, the third ten pages, &c., by the next
space, the fourth ten by the next space, and so on to the tenth space, which
represents the five leaves or ten pages, numbered from 90 to 100 in the first and
each succeeding hundred pages. By this means the first, and each fifty leaves in

page_text: succession are subdivided into groups, each containing five leaves, four of which are
marked on the edge in the following manner :-
The first two leaves of each group, and which carry pages 1 and 2, 3 and 4, and
the last two leaves with pages 7 and 8, and 9 and 10, are marked in black on the
edge, or a portion is cut out between the two upper transverse lines, the middle
leaf containing pages 5 and 6 being left white. Then the first five leaves in the
second section, or hundred pages, and of each succeeding hundred, are marked or
treated in the same manner, all these markings being made between the two upper
transverse lines, so that all the marks or incisions between these two lines indicate
the units from pages 1 to 10, beginning with the first hundred pages, the second
hundred, third hundred, and so on. In like manner the edges of the second groups
of five leaves are marked on the edges between the second and third transverse lines,
and these indicate the tens and units from pages 11 to 20, in numerical order, of the
first and of each succeeding hundred; then the next five leaves, indicating the
twenties and units, from pages 21 to 30, are marked between the third and fourth
transverse lines, and so on, the last five leaves of each section being marked between
the last two transverse lines to indicate numerically the nineties and units, or the
pages 91 to 100 of the first, and of each succeeding hundred in rotation.
By the above means any required page of a book so marked or indexed may be
discovered at once, and much time to book-keepers or clerks of account, and to other
writers and readers may be saved.
..
Instead of arranging the marks or indicating groups in the spaces formed between
eleven transverse lines, they may, by marking the edges of the leaves carrying the
units, and the leaves which carry the units and fifties between the two upper
transverse lines, the tens and sixties in the space between the second and third
lines, the twenties and seventies between the next lines, and so on; the index as
shown by the Drawing accompany the final Specification may be formed in the
spaces between six lines; and to facilitate the use of these indicating indexes the
number of each succeeding hundred pages may be marked in ink, or the number is
burnt on the edges of the leaves, either above or below markings of the groups which
numerically indicate them. Also, if thought desirable, the edges of those leaves
which indicate the main divisions may be thickened.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Joseph Burch in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 9th November
1877.
"
JOSEPH BURCH, of Adswood Grove, Stockport, in the County of Cheshire,
Gentleman.. AN IMPROVED INDEX FOR INDICATING THE PAGES NUMERICALLY
OF LEDGERS, ACCOUNT, AND OTHER BOOKS, EITHER WRITTEN OR PRINTED."
The object of this Invention is by means of an indicating index, as herein-after
described, to be able to open at once any book, either written or printed, at the
page required. The index is formed, and either marked entirely in printers' ink, or
any other colour or die (by preference black), on or about the edges of the leaves at
the front of the book, or the front edges of some of the leaves may be marked black
and others marked, say, yellow, or small portions of some leaves may be removed;
also, instead of yellow the marks may be made and gilt.
In order to set out these indicating markings in groups, each containing five
leaves, or ten pages, a number of lines relatively parallel, and about three-eights of
an inch or inore or less apart, are drawn in a pale or other color across the edges of
the leaves on the front of the book when the latter is closed, or slightly incised lines
made with the thin edge of a heated blade will answer the purpose. The leaves of
the book are then to be divided into sections, each containing fifty leaves, or one
hundred pages, and close to, on each side of the front edge of each succeeding fiftieth

page_text: leaf, and also on the front edge of such leaves, they are to be marked along with the
black ink or dye. In this state the book when closed will show the several sections
of fifty leaves divided by fine vertical black lines, and the eleven paler or colored
lines which are ruled crosswise. The several sections of fifty leaves are then to be
subdivided into groups, each containing five leaves or ten pages, and these groups,
indicating the pages in numerical progression, are arranged and marked in the
following manner :—
The first five leaves, or ten pages, 1 to 10 of the first hundred, and of each suc-
ceeding hundred pages are indicated by the groups or markings (a) in the transverse
space between the two upper cross lines, which space in the Figures 1 and 3 is
marked thus, 0,-1. The next five leaves, or ten pages, 11 to 20, of the first, and of
each succeeding hundred pages, are indicated by the groups or markings (b) on the
edges of such leaves in the transverse space marked 10. The next five leaves, or
ten pages, 21 to 30 of the first and each succeeding hundred, are indicated by the
groups or markings (c) on the transverse space marked 20, and so on, the leaves
containing pages 31 to 40 being all marked in groups (d) on the transverse
space marked 30; the pages 41 to 50 in groups (e) on the transverse space 40;
the leaves with pages 51 to 60 are marked in groups (f) on the space 50;
the pages 61 to 70 in groups (g) on the space marked 60; the pages 71 to 80
in groups (h) on the space marked 70; the pages 81 to 90 in groups (i) on the
space 80, and the last five leaves in each section containing the pages 91 to 100, in
the first and each succeeding section, are marked in groups (j) on the lowest trans-
verse space, which is marked 90, the several sections in the Figures 1 and 2 being
marked respectively 0,01, 1,00, 2,00, 3,00, &c. It will now be seen that each leaf
carries but one mark (see Figure 4), and that such marks come together in groups
of ten consecutive pages, such groups severally indicating ten pages in or under the
section and on the transverse spaces to which they numerically belong..
The markings of the several groups, and the divisional lines separating the
several sections when the book is closed, show rather fine and delicate, but when
the book is open the markings, which also then show on each side or face of the
leaves severally to the breadth of from one-thirty-second to one-sixteenth part of an
inch (as represented on Fig. 4) are readily distinguished, because (as shown by
Figures 5, 6, and 7) the edges of the leaves of a book, when open, lay one a little in
advance of the next, and so on, at each side, supposing the book to be opened about
the middle.
Referring more particularly to the Figures delineated on the Drawing, Fig. 1 is
intended to represent a portion of the front part of a ledger, with an indicating index
marked thereon, in which K, K, K, K, K, denote the vertical lines that divide the
sections, and L, L, L, L, &c., the cross lines that separate the ten transverse spaces,
in which the several groups a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, that represent the pages of the
first and of each succeeding hundred in numerical progression are marked.
Fig. 2 is intended to represent a portion of the front of a journal with the index
marked thereon, the two modes of marking the indicating groups, as shown, differ
(as will be hereafter explained) from the markings on Fig. 1, although the arrange-
ment of the index is the same.
Fig. 3 exhibits a modified arrangement of the index, the lines K, K, K, K,
separating the several sections which are subdivided by the lines k, k, l, k, so
that two columns of five groups each may be marked therein, one column on each
division. By this means only five transverse spaces are required, the markings in
the first space being group (a) with pages 1 to 10, and group (f) with pages 51 to
60. The markings in second space being group (b) with pages 11 to 20, and
group g, with pages 61 to 70. The markings in the third space being group (c)
with pages 21 to 30, and group (h) with pages 71 to 80. The markings in the
fourth space being group (d) with pages 31 to 40, and group (i) with pages 81 to
90, and the markings in the fifth space being group (e) with pages 41 to 50, and
group j; with pages 91 to 100. By some persons, when practised in its use, this
arrangement of the index may be preferred; it is more condensed, and the numerals

page_text: denoting the number of each transverse space are not required to be marked
thereon.
Figure 4 shows the marking on (m), representing the front edge of a single leaf,
indicated by a dotted line (m1), the same marking on the edge of the face of the
same leaf on one side (m²), and the same marking on the edge of the same leaf on the
other side (m³).
Figure 5 is intended to represent groups of markings, as seen when the book
is open, and when the edges of the leaves in succession lay one in advance of
another.
Figures 6 and 7, two views of a portion of the faces, with markings close to the
edge of the leaves of a book seen open, exhibiting two modifications of the mode of
marking the groups, as shown by the markings seen on the edge of the leaves on
Fig. 2.
It will be seen that all the several groups containing or representing respectively
five leaves, or ten consecutive pages, are similarly marked on Figs. 1 and 3,
the centre leaf of each group being either left white, gilt, or colored yellow;
and these leaves collectively contain all the pages carrying the terminal
numerals 5 and 6. The black line on the left hand represents the edges of
the two leaves- in each group which carry all the pages with the terminal
numerals 1 and 2, 3 and 4, and the black line on the right, the pages with the
terminal numerals 7 and 8, 9 and 10. Now, in the modified markings shown on
Fig. 2 (and better seen in Fig. 6), in the sections 0 0, 1, and 100, the first, third, and
fifth leaves of each group is marked black, but the intermediate, or second and fourth
leaves, are either left white, gilt, or, by preference, coloured yellow. By this means
every page in the book is separately shown, but in the modified marking of the
other groups on Fig. 2 in the sections 200 and 300 (and better seen in Fig. 7), all
the five leaves comprised in each group are marked black. This latter mode of
marking is applicable to books liable to be handled by dirty hands, and in
such and other cases, if thought desirable, the edges of all those leaves which
separate the sections and carry the pages containing the terminal numerals 99
and 00, may be thickened. By the use of this indicating index any page of a
book furnished or marked therewith may be discovered at once, the searcher
remembering that all the odd terminal numerals of the paging (viz.,) 1, 3, 5, 7,
and 9 are on the left-hand side of the leaves, and the even terminal numerals
(viz.,) 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, are on the right, thus:-Required page 379 in ledger, Fig. 1 -
Look down the column of groups in section 300, select the group in transverse
space 70, and the page required will be found on the left-hand side of the leaf
on the right of the central white, gilt or yellow, or marked leaf. Again,
wanted page 274, Fig. 3-Will be found under the divided section 250, central
group in the column, at the right-hand side of the second leaf from the left
hand. Again, required page 155, Fig. 2:-Section 100, group on space 50, the
left-hand side of the central or yellow marked leaf.
My Invention, without in the least departing from its constructive principle, is
susceptible of such other slight modifications as may possibly be necessary to adapt
such a page indicating index to the general use of all clerks of accounts, writers,
and readers, and as such, and according to the foregoing description and representa-
tion by the Figures delineated on the Drawing hereto annexed, I claim it as my
Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Burch, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Seventh day of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-seven
JOSEPH BURCH. (L.S.)