Improvements in Files for Receipted Accounts, Vouchers, and other Papers.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 6th Sept., 1890
Complete Specification Left, 21st Apr., 1891-Accepted, 23rd May, 1891
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Files for Receipted Accounts, Vouchers, and
other Papers.
I GEORGE SPRANGE of 29 Wemyss Road, Blackheath in the County of Kent,
Gentleman do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to that class of files for accounts and other papers which
consists of a backing piece, usually a wooden block, and a metal stem or standard
fitted therein, which pierces the papers to be retained.
It is usually necessary, from time to time, to remove from such files the papers, or
the oldest of them, to be put away, and to make room for fresh ones as business
goes on. In thus removing the papers, even when the stems of the files are
detachable, they are apt to become disarranged, and out of their order of date, so
that if a subsequent reference is necessary, some trouble may be experienced in
turning to the paper sought.
The object of the present invention is to provide for the transfer of papers from
the temporary, or working file, to a permanent one, on which they are intended to
remain, without danger of disarranging the said papers, or changing the order in
which they lay upon the working filc.
In carrying out my invention, I form, in the stem of the file, an eye like the eye
of a needle, which eye may be placed near that end of the stem which is inserted
into the backing piece. In that case, the stem is made detachable from the backing.
Where, however, the stem is fixed, the eye is made in the end of the stem near the
point.
When it is desired to remove the papers from the file, the stem, if detachable,
is disconnected from the backing, keeping all the papers thereon, and a string or
cord is threaded through the eye. The cord is then drawn after the stem through
the papers to be removed, and the ends thereof tied together, or otherwise secured,
to form a permanent file, which can be hung up or stored away, keeping the papers
in the exact order which they originally occupied upon the working file. The
working file, after the papers are transferred to the string or flexible file, and the
stem, if detached, returned to its backing piece, is then again ready for use.
Dated this 6th day of September 1890.
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Files for Receipted Accounts, Vouchers, and
other Papers.
I GEORGE SPRANGE of 29, Wemyss Road, Blackheath, in the County of Kent,
Gentleman, 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 :—
In many businesses, and particularly in that of auctioneers, it is a matter of
considerable importance that the vouchers representing the business transacted in
days, weeks, or months, should, when accumulated, retain their proper numerical and
chronological order upon the permanent file, which is in general a cord threaded
through the vouchers.

page_text: Hitherto it has been impracticable to arrange for future easy reference the batches
of vouchers accumulated on the temporary files now in vogue, according to their
number and date. Thus, if vouchers from 1 to 100 were deposited onto an eye-
pointed file. as now constructed, and these vouchers were drawn off onto a cord, the
next batch would be added to the first in an inverted order, and thereby produce
confusion in the permanently filed group of vouchers, embracing, say, one, two, or
three months of business transactions.
Now the object of the present invention is to avoid this inconvenience, and to
arrange the vouchers on the permanent file (say, a cord or its equivalent), both in
the order of their numbers and in the order of their dates.
To this end I construct my file with a detachable foot or base, securing the stem
thereto by sorewing it into a metal socket in the base, or providing a bayonet or
equivalent fastener.
The stem pierce with an eye near the base for the reception of a cord which is
to receive an accumulation of days, weeks, or months of vouchers, in the order
corresponding to the sequence of transactions or sales which they severally
represent.
In the accompany drawing,
Fig. 1 shews in side elevation a file constructed according to my invention.
A is the base or foot of the file, fitted with a metallic socket u, threaded to receive
the screwed end of a stem B, which is pointed at its upper end. is an eye pierced
through the stem, near the screwed end thereof, for the reception of a cord which is
to receive upon it the accumulations cf vouchers placed on the file.
Fig. 2 represents in elevation another form of the improved file. The stem is in
this case crooked at its pointed extremity, and it is grooved at foot longitudinally
and transversely to receive a stud which projects inwards from the metal socket a of
the base or foot A, and constitutes, with the slot, a bayonet joint. A slight turn
of the stem admits of its disengagement from the base, instead of the three or four
turns required to disengage the base of Fig. 1 from the screwed stem. (Fig. 2)
is the eye near the base of the file for receiving the cord on which the accumulations
of vouchers are to be permanently strung for reference.
Fig. 3 represents a hooked file stem detached from its base, threaded with a cord,
onto which an accumulation of vouchers has been strung, representing, say, a day's
or a week's transactions.
In Fig. 4. I have indicated the way in which the collected vouchers, representing
an accumulation of weeks or months, is collected onto a cord, and secured for
permanent reference.
The following is the manner of using the improved file -1 place on the pointed
stem the vouchers one by one in their proper order, until the file is filled; I then
thread a cord through the eye b, and detaching the stem from the base, push the
vouchers onto the cord, having first secured one end of the cord to a suitable
stop (Fig. 3) made of wood or paper. I then draw the free end of the cord clear
of the stem, and replace the stem on its base.
In like manner, proceed to refill the file with vouchers, and when this is done,
I again thread the free end of the cord thro' the eye of the stem, detach the base,
and push the vouchers off the stem onto the cord as before.
In this way secure the proper sequence of the vouchers; thus, for example, if
the last voncher of the first batch was numbered 100, the first voucher of the second
batch, numbering 101, would rest upon that which carried No. 100.
In this way, therefore, the proper sequence of the vouchers, whether numbered
or not, would be preserved for future reference, without the trouble of sorting or
arranging before permanently filing them.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what 1
claim is
Constructing files for the receipt of accounts, vouchers, and other papers, as

page_text: above described and shewn in the drawings, whereby I am enabled to combine with
facility the accumulated papers from repeatedly filled files in numerical or
chronological order.
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.