Improvements in Files or Binders for Letters, Bills, or other Papers or Documents.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 15th May, 1890-Accepted, 21st June, 1890
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Files or Binders for Letters, Bills, or other Papers
or Documents.
A communication from abroad by the firm F. SOENNECKEN'S VERLAG, of Bonn,
Rhenish Prussia, German Empire, Manufacturers.
I, SAMUEL MAIER of 35 Aldermanbury in the City of London, Wholesale Stationer,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
This invention has reference to book-like files or binders of the kind in which
the letters, bills or other papers or documents inserted or filed therein are held
like the leaves of a book and so that any one or more of them can be readily
removed or one or more additional ones can be inserted in their proper alphabetical
or other desired order without disarranging the others on the file. In files of this
description as ordinarily made the letters or other papers are filed on upright tubes
on the lower cover of the binder, and when it is required to file fresh papers or
to take out any of those previously filed, those papers which are above the place in
the file where the fresh papers have to be inserted or from which previously filed
papers have to be removed, are temporarily lifted from the tubes on to staples or
wires which normally fit into the tubes, these staples or wires with the lifted papers
being then moved away from the tubes.
In these files or binders as hitherto constructed the upper and lower covers have
not been kept parallel to each other as in an ordinary book cover, and this is for
obvious reasons objectionable.
According to the present invention I employ bent wires or thin rods which when
the binder is open serve as heretofore to receive those papers which are temporarily
lifted from the upright filing tubes, and which also when the binder is shut like a
book serve as a fastener to keep it closed and also to maintain the upper and lower
covers parallel to each other.
The accompanying drawings represent a file or binder made according to this
invention.
Figure 1 is a plan and
Figure 2 an end view of the file when open;
Figure 3 is an end view of the same when shut.
e is a
a and b are respectively the upper and lower covers of the file; c is the back
of same, rigidly attached to the lower cover and hinged to the upper. d, d are the
filing tubes or paper receivers fixed to and standing up from the lower cover.
plate which when the file is closed as in Figure 3 comes upon the top of the
tubes d, d; this plate merely serves as a protection to the upper cover and is not
essential. ff are the bent wires; they are hinged to the upper cover a at about
the middle of the latter; this hinge is preferably formed of loops or eyes 9, 9 on
the cover in which loops a piece h formed in one with the wires f,f works. i is a
plate or strap fixed to the lower cover b near the edge thereof and having holes k, k
into which the ends of the wires f, f hook or catch when the file is closed, and
thereby not only keep it closed but also maintain the upper and lower covers parallel
to each other as seen in Figure 3. When on the other hand the file is open as
shown in Figures 1 and 2 the ends of the wires fit into the top of the tubes d, d and
form continuations thereof so that any desired number of the papers can be lifted
from the tubes on to the wires, and the wires (with these papers) be then turned
back into the position shown in dotted lines in Figure 2.
Instead of the wires being of the form shown in the Figures, that is to say with a
shoulder to fit against the top of the tubes d, d they may be tapered so as to become

page_text: more or less wedged in the tubes and therefore diminish any tendency they may have
to slip out when the papers are being transferred to them from the tubes.
Instead of the wires being attached to the upper cover by a single hinge as in
Figures 1, 2 and 3 it may be attached by a double hinge such as is shown
in Figure 4 so as to give more room for the papers when they are transferred to the
wires.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
:-
1. In a file or binder of the kind herein referred to the employment of movable
bent wires or rods which when the file is closed serve as a fastening thereto and
maintain the upper and lower covers parallel, and when the file is open form
continuations of the filing tubes or paper receivers substantially as hereinbefore
described.
2. The improved file or binder hereinbefore described and represented in the
accompanying drawings.
Dated this 15th day of May 1800
J. C. MEWBURN,
55 & 56, Chancery Lane, London, Patent Agent.