US1058118A - Touch-system index. - Google Patents

Description

H. A. WARDY. TOUGH SYSTEM INDEX.

APPLICATION FILED, JUNE 19, 1911.

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H. A. WARDY.

TOUGH SYSTEM INDEX.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 19, 1911.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HARRY A. WARDY, OFST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

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Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed June 19, 1911. Serial No. 634,163.

. Patented Apr. 8,1913.

index for use in filing cases or cabinets; and

it consists essentially of a series of aphabeti cally indexed guides, in the form of cards,

, partitions or wrappers, of approximately equal height, the index of each guide being cut away so that the user by placin his fin:

ger on the upper edges of the gu1des will engage the ones in front of the desired index, but will leave the latter undisturbed when the ones in front are moved away.

I prefer. to place on each guide all index letters used in that particular compartment of the cabinet, except'the very letters for which any particular guide is the index; in other words the letters to be indexed by each guide are cut away and do not appear thereon, but appear on all other guides in the compartment, particularly on the guides behind the cut away guides. Folders or cards may-be located, between the guides, and these would contain the name so indexed, with other appropriate data, and, also, might contain the index letters.

There are other features in my invention, and objects to be attained thereby, all of which will appear from the following detailed description, reference bein made to the accompanying drawings in which I have illustrated a preferred embodiment of the invention, and in which Figure-1 is a perspective view of one compartment of a filing cabinet or case illustrating a complete index; Fig. 2 is a view of one of the cut away index guides, showing the index letters on the guide behind and a folder or card corresponding to the cut away index guide, the said folder or card being located in front of the cut away guide; Fig. 3 is a side or edge View of a group of index guides in the form of folders with a number of cards or folders between the.several guides; Fig. 4 is a" view similar to Fig. 3 showing how the finger fails to engage the cut awa guides while drawing forwardly'the i e or guides in front, so as to disclose t e folders or cards in front of the index guide.

The guide 1 may be in' single sheet or upon which said letters filed in any position,

folder form, and of any suitable size and shape, so as to be adapted for use under various conditions. In-Fig. l I have illustrated a complete set of guides, and a'number of intervening cards or folders 2, as they appear when arranged in a compartment-A of a case or cabinet. "In the embodiment shown the guides 1 are in the form of stiff cardboard, and have folder leaves 3 connected to the lower edges thereof. The leaves 3 terminate below the upper edges of the guides so as not to conceal the indexes upon the guides.

The front guide 1 is formed preferably with a straight or uncut upper edge, as plainly shown'in Fig. 1. The upper edge of the folder leaf 3 is straight or uncut upper edge and this is true of all of said folder leaves in whatever position they may be. As shown in Fig. 1 the front guide 1' constitutes an index for the letter A and one or more additional letters if desired. The alphabetical index4 is printed upon or otherwise aflixed also provided with a to the front side of each of the guides 1 and the letters may be arranged in groups, each group containing two or more letters in alphabetical order. The guide at the front is preferably the index for the first letter or group of letters, the second guide constituting an index for" the second letter or group of letters, and the third guide constituting an index for the third letter or group of letters and so on in sequential order to the end of the alphabet. The letter or let-. ters for .which each guide is an index behind the guide in front are cut away on the respective guides as shown at 5. That is to say in the embodiment shown the letters are grouped on the various guides, and the second guide constitutes an index,f0r the second group of letters which, in the present instance, comprises the letters 0 D. The letters C D appear in alinement on all the guides, except the second guide. which constitutes an index for the said letters 0 D, and said second ide is cut away -as indicated at 5 removing the art of said guide D would appear. The index letters on each succeeding guide are also removed by a cut away portion 5 as illustrated in Fig. 1.

When the user desires to inspect any paper or under any letter or group of letters, he engages the finger with. the edge of the guide in front of the proper cut away portion 5, and draws forwardly all of the guides in front of said cut away guide which is the index to the place or papers desired. The cut away portions 5 in addition to constituting spaces for free movement of the fingers also render visible the index letters on the next adjacent guide at the rear so that the user will have no ditliculty in locating the index letters desired. Each guide will have aflixed thereon in some convenient position the letter or letters indexed thereby as shown at 6 in Fig. 2.

-The cards or folders 2,are provided with a space .7 to receive the name and a space 8 to receive the addresses or other data, and also has aflixed thereon the index letters 9 corresponding to the letters removed from the'uppe-r edge of the guide by the cut away portion 5.

I have shown the index arranged for use as an index to the first name, instead of to the last or surname, but it may be used for any other purpose, and I do not restrict myself to its use for any particular purpose. The guides are devoid of any projecting tabs, which are condemned in many places because of the fact that they frequently become broken or detached, thereby totally destdroying the utility of theguide so damage The present arrangement constitutes an index usable by the touch system, well known in the typewriter art, since all that is necessary to find .any particular place or paper is a stroke or pressure of the finger at the required place or position and a forward movement or pressure of the finger effectively to move the obstructing guide,

etc., from the place to which access is desired. In these and other particulars my index possesses superior advantages over any others of which I am aware.

I do not restrict myself to specific features, but am aware that there may be various modifications in arrangement and construction from that herein shown, without departure from the spirit arid scope of the invention.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is- 1. An index comprising a case; a series of uniform guide cards adapted to be arranged therein, said cards being provided with a series, of groups of alphabetical index characters which extend across the upper exposed edge of each card and all the cards having the index characters uniformly arranged, so that when placed in said case the index characters will be in alinement, and

vided with a series of groups of 1 nocaiie all of the cards having semicircular depressions constituting finger spaces in their up per edge which remove the groups of index characters in sequence, thereby exposing the index group on the rearwardly' acent guide; and folders provided with alphabetical index characters corresponding to the several groups of index characters carried 5 on the said guides, said folders being arranged in said case intermedlate of said guides, respectively, in the manner and for the purposes set forth.

2. A filing system comprising a case; a series of folders arranged in said case, said folders being provided each with a space for receiving the name and address identifying the contents of said folder, and also with varying groups of alphabetical index characters corresponding to the names under which said several folders are indexed; and guide cards separating said folders into groups each of said gulde cards being proalphabetical index characters across their upper front face adjacent to their upper edge, all of said index characters being positioned uniformly on all of the said guide cards except that the group of index characters corresponding to the group carried by the forwardlyadjacent folders is removed by cutting a semicircular depression in the upper edge of the guide card at the point where said group of index characters was positioned, substantially as described.

3. An index system comprising a case; a series of folders distinguished one from the others by alphabetical index characters carried thereon and being an'a'n'ged in said case in sequential alphabetical order; and partition guide cards separating said folders into groups, said cards each having alphabetical index characters divided *into separated groups, each group containing two or more letters in alphabetical order, said characters beinguniformly printed on said guides across the front face thereof adjacent to the upper edge, and each card being provided with a cut. away finger space which removes the index characters which correspond to the index characters carried by the folders in front of each guide card, respectively, substantially as described.

In Witness whereof,l have signed this Specification in the presence of two subscrib-

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