IMPROVED MEANS OF BUNDLING AND FASTENING LETTERS AND OTHER DOCUMENTS " PROVISIONAL
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Francis Albert Rollo Russell of Down Street Piccadilly
in the County of Middlesex, for an Invention of "IMPROVED MEANS OF
BUNDLING AND FASTENING LETTERS AND OTHER DOCUMENTS
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Francis Albert Rollo Russell
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 7th July 1882.
FRANCIS ALBERT ROLLO RUSSELL of Down Street, Piccadilly, in the County
of Middlesex, IMPROVED MEANS OF BUNDLING AND FASTENING LETTERS AND
OTHER DOCUMENTS."
The object of my Invention is to provide a ready and convenient means of
binding or bundling, fastening, and keeping in order letters, papers, and other loose
documents, and for this purpose I employ ligatures constructed in the following
ways.
•
1st. Lengths of copper wire preferably about No. 26 B.W.G. either bare or
covered with guttapercha or indiarubber or with cotton or other yarn or thread,
are furnished at each end with small knobs of metal or guttapercha and are flattened
about midway between the ends into a wire band to serve for the inscription of
names, dates, and other endorsements or references, etc, upon it. The wire binders
may be made also with bone or parchment labels attached or passed over the wire,
and instead of being flattened in the middle, a bone or other label with a hole at
each end through which the wire may be passed, might be used with the same
object. The ends of the wires are secured by interlocking with one another, or by
being engaged in the holes of the label as the case may be.
2nd. Strips or bands of copper having a row of holes at about a quarter of an inch
apart throughout their length and terminating at one or both ends in lengths of
copper wire to be passed through the holes when the bands are used for bundling
and fastening papers, etc, and then bent so as to prevent the wire from slipping out
of the hole and retain the ligature or band securely in place.
Copper is eminently suited for the purposes of my Invention on account of its
pliability and the consequent ease with which it may be bent, and its quality of
retaining any form given to it without being rendered liable to break by frequent
bendings to and fro

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the Conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Francis Albert Rollo Russell in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 6th January 1883.
FRANCIS ALBERT ROLLO RUSSELL of Down Street, Piccadilly, in the County
of Middlesex. "IMPROVED MEANS OF BUNDLING AND FASTENING LETTERS AND
OTHER DOCUMENTS.”
プラ
The object of my Invention is to provide a ready and convenient means of
binding or bundling, fastening, and keeping in order, letters, papers, books, music
and other loose documents, and for this purpose I employ metallic ligatures
constructed in the various ways bereinafter described and illustrated in the
accompanying drawings to which I will now refer in order that the Invention may
be more readily understood.
1st. Lengths of wire (preferably copper or an alloy of copper) either bare or
covered with gutta percha or with cotton or other yarn or thread are furnished at
.one or both ends with a small knob of metal or other hard substance as represented in
Figure 1 and carry labels which are attached to them in one of the ways hereafter
described. The pieces of wire are of a length suited to the size of the bundle they
are intended to bind and the wire is preferably of a size between Nos 16 and 26
B.W.G.
If the wire has a knob at one end only the label is made as represented in
Figure 2 that is to say it is pierced with two or more holes one near each end of
it and the length of wire is drawn through the hole at one end of the label until
the knob stops it from passing further. Or the wire might be passed through
two holes before encircling the bundle. Then in binding or fastening a bundle
of documents the free end of the wire is carried round so as to encircle the
bundle and afterwards passed through an unoccupied hole of the label and then
bent sharply back, when sufficiently drawn through the hole to keep the papers
tight.
The knobs are not necessary with covered wire, nor even with bare copper, and
if the end of a wire is drawn through two holes of a label and the label placed
about midway between the ends of the wire as in figure 8 it will sit properly on
the bundle and the two ends of the wire may then be interlocked on the other
side of the bundle. This is perhaps the most convenient way of using the wires
and labels, which latter if of soft material, should be furnished with eyelets at the
holes.
•
If the wire has a knob at each end one end of the label may have a rectangular
or other shaped slit opening out at the side or end of the label (one form of
which is represented in Figure 3) so as to admit of the ready insertion and removal
of the wire and at the same time allow it to be drawn tight and secured from
slipping.
The labels may be made of cardboard wood ivory, bone metal parchment
leather papier maché or other suitable material such as earthenware porcelain or
slate and are intended to receive the titles, dates, and other references relating to
the papers enclosed, which may be written or otherwise applied upon them.
Instead of attaching a label to the wire as above described the wire itself may be
flattened in the middle as shown in Figure 4 so as to serve as a label the ends of
the wire being in this case secured by interlocking them with one another after
encircling the bundle of papers as shown in figure 9.
The label may in any case be painted or enamelled if necessary to make its surface
more suitable for the reception of inscriptions.

page_text: 2nd Strips of copper or of an alloy of copper about 1/4 or 1½ of an inch (more or
less) in breadth of convenient lengths, and of such a thickness that they may be
easily bent into the required form and will retain that form, having preferably
rounded ends and pierced with a hole or holes near each end as represented in
Figure 5 may be used in any of the following ways.
(a). The strip may be bent or lapped round the bundle so that its ends approach
each other and a piece of copper wire which may be covered with gutta percha, or
cotton, is passed through the holes of the strip and the ends of the wire interlocked
or secured from slipping by bending at the holes. The one end of the wire may
be bent or carry a knob and the other end may after being passed through the hole
at the other end of the strip be similarly bent to prevent slipping, thus keeping the
papers tight.
(b) Or one end of the metal strip may be passed through a slit near one end of a
label of card board wood, ivory, bone, metal, parchment, porcelain, earthenware,
paper or other suitable material, represented in Figure 6 and bent sharply back
so as to keep it from slipping, the other end of the metal strip after encircling the
bundle of papers being similarly passed through a slit at the other end of the label
and similarly bent back as shown in Figure 10.
The letters or documents will thus be very securely, compactly, and con-
veniently fastened. Figures 7 to 11 represent the ligatures in perspective and
show the form they take when encircling the bundles, which are however not
represented.
Another way of using the strips and labels is to pass one end of the strip through
the two slits of the label and draw the strips through till the label is conveniently
situated upon it, and then to bend the strip round the bundle, and then from
the peculiar nature of copper, it will keep the papers firm, whether the ends
meet or not, provided the strip is bent round at the right positions as shown in
figure 11.
The strips may in all cases be covered with gutta percha or india rubber or with
cotton or silk thread, or fine covered wire.
Copper and certain of its alloys is eminently suited for the purposes of my
Invention on account of its pliability and the consequent ease with which it
may be bent and its quality of retaining any form given to it without being liable
to break by frequent bending to and fro.
Having described the nature of my Invention and the manner of performing
the same I declare that what I claim as the Invention to be protected by the
herein before in part recited Letters Patent is:—
The respective construction and combination of wires or strips of copper (or
alloy) and labels constituting the respective arrangements of ligatures for bundling
papers and the mode of applying and fastening or securing the same substantially
as herein described and represented in the drawings.
In witness whereof I the said Francis Albert Rollo Russell have hereunto set
my hand and seal this thirtieth day of December in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty two.