THE LETTER ANNOUNCER
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Green, of No. 1, Ebury Street, Pimlico, .in
the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of "THE LETTER
ANNOUNCER."
Sealed the 22nd December 1857, and dated the 25th June 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION 'left by the said William Green, :at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
25th June 1857.
I, WILLIAM GREEN, of No. 1, Ebury Street, Pimlico, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "THE LETTER ANNOUNCER," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of a mechanical application for announcing the
delivery of letters in letter boxes, by the sound of a gong, bell, or other object,
effected by means of a flap of a letter-box plate or other flap in connection
with an internal mechanical application on a plate, and on the back of flap,
which strikes on a gong, bell, or other sonorific body when a letter is put
through the latter into the letter box.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William, Green, in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
23rd December 1857:
TO ALL TO WHOM. THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
GREEN, of No. 1, Ebury Street, Pimlico, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria; by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Green, Her special licence that I, the said William Green,
my executors, administrators,. and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Green, 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 "THE LETTER
ANNOUNCER," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William
Green, 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 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 William Green, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, that is to say:-
My Invention consists of the two following mechanical contrivances for
affixing on street or other doors, or other objects in connection with the
openings made on the latter, for passing letters through into letter boxes or
other receptacles for such purpose. One of which contrivances causes a gong?
to sound and the other a bell to ring, viz. :-
For sounding a gong.-In constructing a letter-box plate and flap with an
upright plate behind, having a foot plate of such depth as may be required for
the thickness of a door or other object the latter plates are to be passed
through, and affixed upon which foot plate forms also part of the upper
back part of the above letter-box plate, and constructing on the upright plate

page_text: a gong, a standard, a striker, a main spring, and a minor spring, with the
requisite screws, nuts, &c., for fastening them on the above plates; likewise
constructing on the back of the above letter-box plate flap a grooved standard
for an escapement lever to act in on a screw, the whole of which mechanical
apparatus in size, shape, and mode of adaptation may be varied. . The result
of which combined system is that in opening the flap to deposit letters in
letter-boxes or elsewhere, the escapement lever lifts back the striker on the
upright plate and then escapes from it, when the main spring forces back the
striker against the gong, having the minor spring to reinstate the escapement
lever in its former place and to re-shut the flap.
For ringing a bell.-Constructing a grooved standard on the back of a
letter-box plate flap or other flap otherwise applicable for a crank to act in on
a screw, or a crank to act on the back of a flap without a groove, for acting
combinedly with other cranks (if required), in connection, by wire or other
substitute, with a bell, a bell carriage, a spring, and the other usual present
requirements for hanging bells, &c., which united system being acted upon by
opening the letter-box flap for depositing letters causes the bell to ring.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Green, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-third day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
WILLIAM GREEN. (L.S.)
1, Ebury St., Pimlico, London.
WILLIAM GREEN. (L.S.)
1, Ebury St., Pimlico, London.