A NEW OR IMPROVED APPARATUs for ARRANGING OR DISPOSING WORDS, INSCRIPTIONS, OR ENTRIES IN ALPHABETICAL, OR DICTIONARY, OR OTHER ORDER
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Wallace Doveton Dunlop, of the City of
Dublin, in Ireland, Assistant Librarian of the Royal Dublin
Society, for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED APPARATUs for
ARRANGING OR DISPOSING WORDS, INSCRIPTIONS, OR ENTRIES IN ALPHABETICAL,
OR DICTIONARY, OR OTHER ORDER."
Sealed the 7th October 1871, and dated the 10th April 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Wallace Doveton
Dunlop at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 10th April 1871.
I, HENRY WALLACE DOVETON DUNLOP, of the City of Dublin, in
Ireland, Assistant Librarian of the Royal Dublin Society, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED
APPARATUS FOR ARRANGING OR DISPOSING WORDS, INSCRIPTIONS, OR ENTRIES IN
ALPHABETICAL, OR DICTIONARY, OR OTHER ORDER," to be as follows:-
:-
The object of the Invention is mainly to supersede the present
book indexes and catalogues for use in libraries, public and other
offices, banks, courts of law and equity, and elsewhere, and which, by

page_text: the constant alteration and addition of entrics, involve constant trouble
and have frequently to be recommenced in order to keep the entries in
dictionary order. It is also applicable for persons engaged in compiling
dictionaries or encyclopædias.
According to my Invention entries can be arranged in dictionary
position at once and with facility. For this purpose I construct an
apparatus in which any desired number of trays, drawers, frames, or
slides are suitably mounted and contain a number of labels, plates,
counters, or frames bearing the required word, inscription, or entry (as,
for instance, the name of a book or document), and so fitted or arranged
that they can be moved at pleasure and fresh ones inserted before,
behind, or among them at the proper place.
In order that the Invention may be fully understood I proceed to
describe one arrangement for carrying it into practical effect.
In a fixed frame of rectangular shape trays are fitted. These trays
rest on ledges, which form guide ways for them. Each tray bolds a
number of discs, or plates, or counters, which may be conveniently made
of bonc, tin, zinc, or other like rigid material. These discs are slotted
vertically, and they are threaded one behind the other on a horizontal
rod, and supported on the sides of the trays, and thus kept in their
places. There is a set of dises with their rod on each tray. The rod is
steadied and held in recesses or bearings in the front and back of the
tray, but it is free to be withdrawn and replaced as required. Each
disc is intended to bear an inscription or entry which can be written on
paper, or printed and pasted thereon.
Now in order to understand the use of the apparatus I will suppose it
to be applied to the cataloguing of a library. Each tray may hold a
number of discs for each letter of the alphabet respectively, that is to
say, one tray may hold discs for all entries commencing with A; the
next discs for all entries commencing with B; the third for C, and so on
to Z. If a tray containing one letter be full another tray for that letter
can be placed on the slide next to it, as the trays can take each other's
places in the frame, and so on ad infinitum, no work once done being
ever undone or done over again; thus AAA BBCCCCDE &c.
As the titles have to be arranged in exact dictionary order it is casy to
place a disc bearing the entry in precisely its proper place between
other labels by merely withdrawing the rod, dropping the plate bearing

page_text: the required entry in its proper position in alphabetical order and
replacing the rod by causing it to traverse all the discs.
It is convenient when annual catalogues are printed to cut out the
titles and paste them on the discs. By these means the extraordinary
trouble and labour and the frequent inaccuracy of manuscript catalogues
and indexes are avoided, and the constant recommencing of catalogues
by reason of fresh arrivals or entries of books prevented. Easy reference
is obtainable at any moment to each or any disc or entry by raising it on
the rod, as the vertical slot in the disc permits of its being raised above
its neighbours and lowered at pleasure to its former position.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Wallace Doveton Dunlop in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 10th October 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
WALLACE DOVETON DUNLOP, of the City of Dublin, in Ireland, Assistant
Librarian of the Royal Dublin Society, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-fourth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Henry Wallace Doveton Dunlop, Her special
licence that I, the said Henry Wallace Doveton Dunlop, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry Wallace
Doveton Dunlop, 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 "A NEW OR IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR ARRANGING OR DISPOSING WORDS,
INSCRIPTIONS, OR ENTRIES IN ALPHABETICAL, OR DICTIONARY, OR OTHER ORDER,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry Wallace
Doveton Dunlop, 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

page_text: 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 I, the said Henry Wallace Doveton Dunlop, 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 Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon,
that is to say :-
The object of the Invention is mainly to supersede the present book
indexes and catalogues for use in libraries, public and other offices,
banks, courts, and elsewhere, and which by the constant alteration and
addition of entries involve constant trouble and have frequently to be
recommenced in order to keep the entries in their proper order. It
is also applicable for persons engaged in compiling dictionaries or
encyclopædias.
According to my Invention entries can be arranged in the required
position at once and with facility. For this purpose I construct an
apparatus in which any desired number of trays, drawers, frames, or
slides are suitably mounted, and contain a number of labels, plates,
counters, or frames bearing the required word, inscription, or entry (as,
for instance, the name of a book or document), and so fitted or arranged
that they can be moved at pleasure, and fresh ones inserted before,
behind, or among them at the proper place.
Such being the nature of the said Invention I proceed to describe
more particularly with reference to the accompanying Drawings the
mode in which the same may be carried into effect.

page_text: for them; B, B, are plates, counters, labels, or discs, which may be of
cardboard, metal, vulcanized rubber, bone, or other suitable material.
The disc may be jointed at b, b, so that the upper or wider portion may
be turned or folded back at right angles to the lower portion for con-
venience of reference or addition to inscription attached to the upper
portion, as herein-after described. The lower portion of each label is
slotted at c so as to allow the insertion of a rod D resting at its ends in
bearings provided for it at the ends of the frame A, by which rod when
in place the labels are prevented from being removed or unintentionally
displaced. The rod may be held in place by a padlock or other like
contrivance. e, e, are side bars of the frame, upon which bars the labels
or plates are supported, and by which they are guided as they move to
and fro in the frame. Each label bears an inscription or entry affixed
to its upper portion.
In order that the construction and use of the apparatus may be fully
understood let it be supposed that it is applied to the cataloguing of
a library, and that each frame holds a number of labels according to
the different letters of the alphabet, one or more frames for each letter
as may be required. As each book is catalogued alphabetically a
reference is marked on the labels or written or printed on a piece of
paper which is pasted or otherwise attached to one of the labels. The
labels so marked are arranged in their proper alphabetical order or
position. The rod which was withdrawn during the arrangement of the
labels is replaced by causing it to traverse through all the labels, which
are thereby secured in their position.
For facility of reference any required plate or label B may be raised
as far as permitted by the slot, and if the plate or label be jointed its
upper portion bearing the inscription or entry may be turned over so
as to admit of any alteration in or addition to the entry or inscription
being conveniently made.
In the arrangement herein-before described the plates or labels are
shewn adapted to two parallel horizontal bars along which they may
be moved, but plates or labels of a different shape and with a slot open
at the bottom might be arranged by being suspended on a single hori-
zontal bar, but such an arrangement of plates or labels would not afford
the same extent for entries or the security by locking the plates or labels
in position by means of a rod as in the arrangement above particularly
described.

page_text: Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same may be performed, I declare that I claim, constructing
apparatus having labels arranged in frames in the manner and for the
purpose herein-before described.
-
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Wallace Doveton Dunlop,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Third day of October,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
0130
Witness,
ALEX. G. MORE, F.Z.S., M.R.I.A.,
Assistant in the Museum,
Royal Dublin Society.
H. W. D. DUNLOP. (L.S.)
Ass. Lib., Royal Dublin Socy. 1