Preparing Letters, Circulars, and Newspapers for the Post.
Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 19th July, 1886.
Complete Left, 19th Mar., 1887.
Complete Accepted, 19th Apr., 1887.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Preparing Letters, Circulars, and Newspapers for the Post.
I DAVID GILMORE of 61 Roden Terrace, Limestone Road Belfast in the County of
Antrim Ireland, Grocer do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
My invention consists of a stand of wood or metal, having two metal standards or
uprights at its sides near the back; between these standards a chamber or box is
placed for holding a roll of postage stamps. A horizontal arm reaching to the front
is attached to the top of each standard, having a thin plate of metal reaching from arm
to arm attached to their undersides.
Two parallel bars, having each an arm pointing upwards, near both ends, and joined
at the tops forming hinged joints, are placed between the horizontal arms. The bar
next the chamber is for shifting the stamps, and is faced with rubber or has pins in its
face to catch in the perforations of the stamps; the other bar is set at an acute angle
to the plate of metal, and has a pin in each end working in holes in the sides of the
horizontal arms, and having its edge pressing on the sheet of stamps by a spring or
springs. To the ends of the horizontal arms is screwed a flat bar of metal, having notches
on its upper edge corresponding to the longitudinal lines of perforations in a sheet of
stamps. A flat piece of metal called a "slider," having a spring lever with a pawl for
catching in the notches, slides on the bar; a boss is cast on this slider at its lower
right hand corner and extending some distance below the slider. A bracket parallel
to the notched bar, is attached to the right of this boss, and a pair of pliers or pincers
is hung on a pin inserted in the face of the bracket, having their jaws pointing to the
left. Two pieces of sheet metal the size and shape of a stamp, joined face to face by
a hinge or loosely rivited at their back edges and having a spring between them to
seperate the opposite edges a certain distance, are attached to the inside of the upper
jaw of pliers-these pieces constitute what I call the "seperator." The under jaw of

page_text: pliers has attached to it a rectangular piece of sheet metal-called a "rest," hinged in
the middle to give it a rocking motion, and having on its upper face a groove in
which a flat spring is placed with its free end to the front. An arm pointing to the
left is attached to the back of the boss on the slider, having a rectangular, horizontal
frame, in which is placed a shallow box supported by a spring, holding a wet pad
communicating by a wick with water in a box attached to the back of the same arm.
A lever attached to the bracket by a screw at one end, and having attached at the
free end a piece of sheet metal-called the "stamp-presser "-
--a little broader than tho
wet pad, having on its upper side an eye or hook into which the end of a spring
attached to the upper jaw of pliers is inserted.
On any suitable position on the stand, or on a seperate stand is fixed a box holding
water, having on its lid two long shallow vessels or boxes holding wet pads, with tubes.
holding wicks attached to the bottoms, and passing through suitably arranged holes in
the lid of the water-box. These vessels have each one end right-angled, and the other
acute angled, so that when the tubes are placed in certain holes and the acute ends are
placed together they form an angle corresponding to the angle of an envelope's flap;
and when the tubes are put into other holes and the right-angled ends placed
together they form a straight line, corresponding to the gummed flap of a paper-
wrapper.
A spring suitably attached to the stand having on its free end two hinged arms
as long as the pad-holding vessels, and directly over them; suitably attached to this
spring is a horizontal roller; a second roller directly over the first attached to the end
of an arm having a movable joint with a binding nut or set screw to regulate the
distance of the rollers apart, is attached to a stud or short post on the stand.
The modus operandi of the invention is as follows:-
A sheet of postage stamps having its selvages removed from the two sides and one
end, is rolled up, beginning the roll with the selvage left on; the roll is placed in the
chamber or stamp-holder, the end of the sheet is then brought along to the shifting
bar by the hand, the shifting bar is now pulled back till the rubber or pins are over
the first transverse line of perforations, the bar is then pressed down against the
stamps, (which action raises the binding bar sufficiently to let the stamps pass under
it,) and pushed towards the front carrying the stamps forward, till it is stopped-
being arranged to only shift the length of one stamp at a time; the shifting bar is
again pulled back the full distance, pressed down again on the stamps, pushed forward
the full distance, then let go, and the spring or springs of the binding bar pressing it
down raise the shifting bar clear of the stamps. The stamps are now properly set for
affixing. An envelope with the letter in it has its gummed flap laid on the wet pads
in the vessels; the spring, with the arms and roller attached to it, is now pressed down,
the arms coming on the envelope presses it against the pads wetting the gum; the
spring being relieved the rollers come together; the letter is then pushed far enough
between the rollers to close the envelope, and then pulled out again. The slider is
now pushed along the notched bar till the pawl catches in the first notch to the left;
the first stamp on the row is now directly over the pad in the shallow-box; the pliers
are now closed which brings the stamp-presser down on the stamp pressing it against
the wet pad and damping it: the pliers are then let go when they fly open by a spring
lifting the stamp-presser sufficiently to let the stamp slip over the wet pad. The slider
is then pushed to the next notch which brings the wet stamp under the seperator.
The letter is then laid on the rest; the upper arm of the pliers is now pressed down,
which brings the under jaw up pressing the letter against the underside of the frame
and arm to which the frame is attached, the spring on the face of the rest serving to
bulge the letter still farther up to the level of the wetted stamp ; the under arm of the
pliers is now closed, which brings the stamp-presser down on the second stamp on the
row wetting and holding it firmly; part also of the lever to which the stamp-presser
is attached presses at the same time on the edge of the first stamp in the second row
binding it to the arm; the seperator now coming down on the two connected edges
of the stamp at acute angles to its plane presses the free corner of the stamp against

page_text: the envelope holding it firmly while the seperator tears or cuts off the stamp; and the
two pieces of sheet metal forming the seperator collapsing, the under one pressing
evenly on the face of the stamp affixes it. The same course is pursued with the next
letter, and so on till the last stamp in the row is brought under the seperator, but in
moving the slider along the bar to the last notch, the end of a small arm attached to
the notched bar presses on the spring that supports the shallow box depressing the
wet pad below the level of the frame preventing the stamp-presser from being wet.
The slider is now pulled back to its starting point on the bar; another row is
shifted forward as described, and so on to the end, the selvage serving the purpose of
bringing the last row sufficiently forward.

page_text: I DAVID GILMORE of 60 High Street Belfast in the County of Antrim Ireland,
Grocer, 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:
The object of my invention (which is to be known as the "Posthastia,") is to prepare
letters circulars and newspapers for the post, by damping and closing the envelopes
and wrappers of letters and circulars, damping the wrappers of newspapers, damping,
seperating, and affixing, in a clean and rapid manner, the postage stamps on letters,
circulars and newspapers.
The invention consists of a base or stand of wood or metal A, having two standards B
screwed on its top; each standard has cast on it a horizontal arm C that reaches a
suitable distance towards the front of the instrument; between the circular parts of
the standards is placed a box, or chamber D, for holding a roll of stamps; screwed to
the under edges of the arm C is a thin plate of metal E for bearing up the stamps as
they are pushed to the front, where they are damped, seperated and affixed. A
notched bar of metal F, about in. thick, and 1 in. broad, is screwed against the ends
of the arms C; a slider G slides along this bar, and arranged to stop at each notch by
the spring latch H which catches in the notches-the notches corresponding in number
to the stamps in a row across a sheet: a bracket I is cast on the slider; a pair of pliers
of the shape shown in the drawing, or any other shape suitable, is hung on a pin at the
end of the bracket; attached to the upper jaw of the pliers is a piece of metal J, or the
pliers may be made with this piece on their jaw; to the underface of J another piece
of sheet metal K, the size of a stamp (called the seperator) is loosely rivetted as near
their back edges as possible; part of one of their faces being bevelled, so that the
spring L may keep them apart as far as the bevel will allow. Instead of having the
seperator-piece made of ordinary sheet metal with the spring L between it and
the piece J, I prefer to make it of thin spring steel tightly rivetted to J and bent to
the shape shown in Fig. 5, and so doing away with the spring L. The under jaw of
the pliers has hinged upon it a square piece of metal M, for resting the articles on
requiring stamps, the hinge accommodating the piece to the varying thicknesses of the
articles. On the face of M is a groove in which is placed a spring N, the use of which
I will explain again. The bracket has attached to its back an arm 0, having a
horizontal frame P in which is placed a shallow box Q holding a wet pad R for
damping the stamps, the spring S supporting this box. From the water-box T, which
is attached to the end of the arm O, a wick is conducted along a tube placed at the
back of the arm, the wick entering the box Q through a hole in the arm, water flowing
by capillary attraction keeps the pad constantly wet. U is a lever having one end
attached to the end of the bracket I by a screw, the other and free end being broad
enough to press on two edges of the frame P and part of the arm O; I call this lever
the "Stamp-presser." The spring V attached to the upper jaw of pliers, and having
its free end in an eye on top of stamp-presser, serves the purpose of raising and
lowering the lever U.
"

page_text: For the purposes of shifting the stamps forward, and keeping them steady when
being seperated and affixed, I employ two bars parallel to each other, the shifting-
bar W and the binding-bar X. The binding-bar lies at an acute-angle to the plate of
metal E, and has a pivot at each end working in the sides of the arms C; a spiral
spring Y is placed on each pivot to keep the edge of this bar firmly on the stamps ;
these bars have each arms d, rising upward, a short distance from their ends, the arms
of one bar being hinged to the arms of the other, the hinges allowing the bar W to
swing, the guides Z being so arranged as to permit the length of one row of stamps
only to be shifted at once. The shifting-bar has rubber on its lower edge to aid it in
sliding the stamps forward; or it may have short pins inserted instead of the rubber to
catch in the perforations.
In the front of the base or stand-or on a seperate stand-is fixed a box a, holding
water, having on its lid two shallow vessels or troughs b, holding wet pads c; these
troughs have short tubes in their bottoms holding wicks; these tubes passing into the
water through suitably arranged holes in the lid of the water box; one end of these
troughs is right-angled, the other end acute-angled: when the tubes are placed in
one set of holes and the acute ends joined together they form an angle corresponding
to an envelope's flap; and when the right-angled ends are placed together and the
tubes put into the other set of holes, they form a straight line, corresponding to the
gummed flap of a paper wrapper. A spring e is attached to the stand at f, having
on its free end two hinged arms g, of sheet metal, as long as the pad-holding
troughs, and directly over them; suitably attached to this spring is a roller, . A
screw passes through the stud f and the spring e into a short post i binding the
post and spring firmly on the stud. An armj supporting a second roller k, is joined
to the post by a movable joint, having a binding screw to regulate the pressure of
the rollers. The wet pads in the troughs, and the arms on the spring e form the
damping arrangement for envelopes and wrappers, and the rollers are used for closing
the same.
The invention will be better understood if I describe the manner of its operation.
A sheet of postage stamps having its selvages removed from both sides and one end,
the selvage off the end being pasted to the selvage left on to make it broader, the
sheet is rolled up, beginning the roll with the selvage on; the roll is placed in the
chamber D, the end of the sheet is brought along to the shifting-bar W by the
hand; this bar is then pulled back till the rubber is on a line with the perforations
between the first and second rows of stamps; the bar is then pressed against the
stamps (which action raises the binding-bar X sufficiently to let the stamps pass
below it) and pushed forward till stopped by the guides Z; the bar is again pulled
back as far as it will go-which brings the rubber edge exactly over the second line
of perforations-pressed on the stamps again, pushed along till the guides Z stop
it, then let go, and the springs Y on the binding-bar pressing it down bind the
sheet of stamps against the metal plate E, and lift the shifting-bar clear of the
stamps. The stamps are now properly set for affixing. An envelope with the letter
in it has its gummed flap laid on the wet pads c, the spring e (which serves the
double purpose of keeping the rollers together, and the arms g off the pads) is
pressed down by the hand and the arms g pressing the flap on the pads damp it;
the envelope is now pushed between the rollers which close and seal the flap securely.
The slider G is slid along the bar F till the latch falls into the first notch, this
brings the first stamp on the row over the wet pad R; the pliers are now closed,
which brings the stamp-presser down on the stamp, pressing it against the pad and
damping it: the pliers are then let go, the spring 1, attached to the water box T,
pressing on the arm of the pliers lifts the upper jaw and its attachments high
enough to let the stamps pass over the wet pad, and under them; the under jaw falling
by its own weight leave the pliers open.
The slider is then pushed to the next notch, which brings the damped stamp under
the seperator K; the letter is now laid on the "rest" M, the upper arm of the pliers
then pressed down, which brings the under jaw up pressing the letter against the
underside of the frame P and arm O, the spring N, on the face of M, serving to bulge

page_text: up the letter still further towards the wetted stamp ; the under arm of the pliers is
now closed, which brings the stamp-presser down on the second stamp in the row
wetting and holding it firmly-part also of the lever presses at the same time on the
first stamp in the second row binding it firmly on the arm 0;-the seperator K now
coming down on the two connected edges of the stamp, and passing closely to the
edge of the frame P, and arm O at acute angles to the plane of the stamp, presses the
free corner of it on the envelope, holding it firmly while the seperator tears or cuts off
the stamp, and the spring L then yielding lets the seperator lic flat against the piece J,
and the spring N on the rest M being depressed into its groove, the seperator lying
flat on the stamp affixes it properly. The same course is pursued with the next stamp,
and so on till the last stamp in the row is brought under the seperator; but in moving
the slider along the bar to the last notch, a small bent arm m, attached to the bar F,
presses on the spring S, that supports the box Q, depressing the wet pad below the
level of the frame P, preventing the face of the stamp-presser U from being wet. The
slider is then pulled back to its starting point on the bar-another row of stamps is
shifted forward as described-and so on till the last row of the sheet is brought forward,
the selvage at the end serving the purpose of bringing the stamps sufficiently forward.
n is a wire hinged to the chamber D, to keep the stamps flat on the plate E, lest the
shifting-bar should displace them when being pulled back.
EXPLANATION OF DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1. is a perspective drawing of the Invention. Fig. 2. is a cross section drawing
of the metal plate E, wire n, and shifting and binding bars W and X, also of springs Y.
The fine shading of W showing position of the rubber. Fig. 3. shows the position of
the troughs, and arms g, for damping wrappers. Fig. 4. shows the arrangement of
the stamp-presser and frame, the pliers and box being removed.
Fig. 5. gives a perspective and edge view of the simpler form of the seperator.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, 1 declare that what 1 claim is :
1. The combination of parts constituting an apparatus for damping and closing the
envelopes of letters, damping and closing the wrappers of circulars, damping the
wrappers of newspapers, damping, seperating, and affixing postage stamps on letters,
circulars and newspapers, constructed, arranged and operating substantially as herein-
before described in the specification and illustrated by my drawings.
2. The peculiar combination of parts with pliers forming the apparatus sliding on
the notched bar F, whereby one stamp is damped, another seperated and affixed
simultaneously and in a moment substantially as hereinbefore described in my
specification and shown in the drawings.
3. The employment of two bars parallel to each other joined by hinged arms, one
working on pivots, the other free to swing the length of a postage stamp substantially
as described in the specification shown in the drawings and for the purposes set forth.
4. The combination forming an apparatus for effecting the damping and closing of
envelopes and wrappers substantially as hereinbefore described in my specification and
explained in the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 17th day of March 1887
DAVID GILMORE.