AN IMPROVED ELECTORAL Box
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Gilbert Adolphe Frebault, of Avenue des Ternes,
No. 2, à Paris, Gentleman, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
ELECTORAL Box."
Sealed the 26th November 1869, and dated the 7th June 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Gilbert Adolphe Frebault
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 7th June 1869.
I, GILBERT ADOLPHE FREBAULT, of Avenue des Ternes, No. 2, à Paris,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"AN IMPROVED ELECTORAL Box," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in constructing an improved electoral or ballot
box so arranged that it shall offer complete security without the use
of locks, and shall inspire the voters with perfect confidence. For this
purpose I construct a box all six faces of which are formed of thick
glass, the four sides being secured in metal frames at the angles, while
the bottom is held in its place by means of screws screwed into the
framing. The glass top or cover is removeable and is secured when the
box is in use by means of a removeable top framing fitting with holes

page_text: over screws projecting upwards from the side framing, on which screws
nuts are screwed down so as to hold the top framing. The ballot
papers are rolled up and placed inside small tubes which are introduced
into the box through a hole of corresponding size in the glass cover.
When all the ballot papers have been introduced and the box is to be
preserved until the scrutiny takes place, the screw nuts are taken off, the
top. frame is removed, and a metal plate with roughened upper surface
covering the entire glass top is placed upon the latter, which plate is
secured, firstly, by the top framing and screw nuts, and, secondly, by a
tape, ribbon, or cord passed round the box and tied in a knot over the
covering plate, the ends being then sealed down upon the latter. For
effecting the scrutiny the seals are broken and the tape removed, after
which the metal plate and glass cover are taken off, the before men-
tioned screw nuts having been first unscrewed. The tubes containing
the ballot papers are then taken out and these are pushed out of the
tubes by means of a rod for examination.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Gilbert Adolphe Frebault in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 4th December 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GILBERT
ADOLPHE FREBAULT, of Avenue des Ternes, No. 2, á Paris, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred. and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Gilbert Adolphe Frebault, Her special.
licence that I, the said Gilbert Adolphe Frebault, my executors, ad-
ministrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Gilbert Adolphe
Frebault, 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 "AN IMPROVED ELECTORAL Box," upon the condition (amongst

page_text: others) that I, the said Gilbert Adolphe Frebault, my executors or ad-
ministrators, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Gilbert Adolphe Frebault, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had
to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings and to the figures and letters
marked thereon, that is to say :-
The different systems employed up to the present time for collecting
the ballot papers at elections of all descriptions all present great dis-
advantages, and have at the same time never inspired the electors or
voters with perfect confidence. Now my present Invention has for its
object to obviate these disadvantages and to offer all possible guarantees.
to the public by the construction of an improved electoral or ballot
box, which I will proceed at once to describe with reference to tho
accompanying Sheet of Drawings.
Figure 1 shews a vertical section and Figure 2 shews a sectional
plan of my improved ballot box; Figures 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 shew
detached details of construction; Figures 9, 10, and 11 shew the modes
of closing the box by ligature which may be employed according to
the circumstances under which the voting takes place; Figures 12
and 13 shew two descriptions of files which I employ for receiving the
ballot papers during their classification after the ballot; Figure 14 shews
a longitudinal section of one of the tubes which I employ for containing
the ballot papers and for introducing them into the box; Figure 15
shews the rod by means of which the ballot paper is removed from the
tube at the scrutiny.
The box, which is rectangular, has its four lateral sides formed of thick.
glass plates a, a, (either alone or covered with wire gauze z as indicated
in the section at Figure 16,) which glass plates are held in grooves
formed in the metal framing 6 of the box. The bottom of the box is a
thin rectangular metal plate o secured by soldering rivets or screws to.
the four uprights & of the framing b. During the voting the top of the

page_text: box is covered in by a metal platef, Figure 5, provided with a central
hole g and with four holes h, h, at the corners, which serve to secure the
plate to the uprights d of the framing 6, this plate is covered on all four
sides by means of a metal frame i,, Fig 3, which may be formed with top
flanges of any required dimensions, either of a rectangular or of an oval
or other shape, and which is secured upon the uprights by means of
four screw knobs j, shewn detached to a larger scale at Figures 6 and 7.
After the ballot, in order to completely close the aperture 9, and thus
prevent all access to the interior of the box, the metal plate fis covered
by a second metal plate / without central hole (Fig. 4), which is:
also secured upon the frame i by means of the four screw knobs j, as
before described. These knobs j, shewn in elevation at Figure 6, and
in sectional plan at Figure 7, are provided with a small loop 7, through
which may be passed the tape or band by means of which the box is
secured. This loop may have the form indicated in dotted lines in
Figure 6, or any other convenient form. The tape or band is passed
round the sides of the box after the ballot and is tied in any suitable
manner, having care to pass the tape twice over each side of the box so
that the one turn is covered partially by the second; the operator then
seals the tapes in such a manner that the seal is upon both the turns
thereof, as shewn at Figure 8 in transverse section; m is the seal; n and
n¹ are the two turns of the tape. This tape or band is by preference
of a fabric with open meshes (in order that the sealing wax may
penetrate through it and be undetachable therefrom) and may bear the
national or party colours. If it be desired to close the box with seals
during the voting of one single day the description of closing indi-
cated in plan at Figure 9 may be employed; the plate is not placed
on the cover and the tape n (by preference bearing the national or party
colours) is wound twice round each face in form of a cross and is then
tied at o, taking care to arrange the tape to one side of the hole g so as
to leave this uncovered and allow of the introduction of the tubes r,
containing the ballot papers (shown at Figure 14). If the voting lasts
longer than one day then at the end of the first day's ballot the plate k
is placed over the cover, and is secured by means of the tape, Figure
10, making two turns on each side of the box crossing in the centre and
covering each other as described with reference to Figure 8. In this case
as already described the seals are only affixed after the voting, but if it be
desired to seal the box even during the voting and at the same time to
allow of the sealing on of the plate-k after the first day the system of

page_text: ligature shewn at Figure 11, in which two turns of the tape are first
laid on at p at about one-third of the length of the box, and the two
ends are cut, being made to cover each other as already described:
The tying should be effected at the sides in order to afford a level bearing
surface for the plate k. Another ligature is then made at .q at two-
thirds of the length of the box, and is tied to the first-named one also at
the side, the tapes being made to cover each other as described, and they
are the sealed.
The manner of affixing the seals and the accessory conditions for
effecting the sealing will of course vary according to the customs and
laws by which the particular ballot is governed, and these, as also the
particular manner of effecting the ballot and the subsequent scrutiny,
need therefore not be further described. It will be understood that as
each elector encloses his ballot paper first in the tuber and then.
introduces this tube into the box the vote is perfectly secret and
inviolable. The ligatures and closing of the box are also perfectly
inviolable after the seals have been affixed. The scrutiny is readily
effected by removing the ballot papers from the tubes by means of the
rod s, Figure 15. The ballot papers after removal are then classified
by placing them successively upon their respective files t, f, Figures
12 and 13. These files may be provided at their points with a small
eye u, through which a thread o may be passed for receiving the ballot.
papers when they are removed from the file, and for tying them up into
parcels for preservation. The tubes r may be of metal, wood, or
other suitable material, and may even be replaced by any other suitably
formed receptacle for concealing the ballot paper.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what
manner it is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not.
limit myself to the precise form, dimensions, or materials for my improved
electoral box herein-before described, as these may be variously modified
without departing from the nature of my Invention, but what I claim is,
the construction and employment of my improved electoral or ballot
box combined, according to the conditions herein-before described and
characterized,-
Firstly. By the possibility of the tube or receptacle containing the

page_text: Secondly. By the perfect inviolability of the scrutiny which is formally
secret, and guarranteed by the seals affixed to the box after closing the
same by a metal safety plate at the end of the voting.
In witness whereof, I, the said Gilbert Adolphe Frebault have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of November,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine.
Witness,
CH. ARMENGAUD,
Ing. Civil,
Boulevard de Strasbourg, 23,
Paris.
G. A. FREBAULT. (L.S.)