US1349555A - System for indicating and recording orders - Google Patents

Description

w. H. BELL. SYSTEM FOR INDICATING AND RECORDING ORDERS.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 17, 1919.

Patented Aug. 17,1920.

INVENTOR 7 AT 0 NEY UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM H. BELL, OF MOUNT VERNON, NEW YORK.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Aug. 17, 1920;

Application filed December 17, 1919. Serial No. 345,468.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, \VILLIAM H. BELL, a citizen of the United States, and resident of the city of Mount Vernon, in the county of Westchester and State of New York,have invented a certain new and useful System for Indicating and Recording Orders, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a system for indieating and recording orders.

A certain class of merchants,such-as milk dealers, grocers, bakers,'ice dealers, etc, are required to deliver their goods in the early morning hours, while their customers are still asleep, or are absent for some other reason. Orders for such goods .areusually arranged the evening before; and it has been customary to write ,down the same on slips of paper, one of which was placed in one of the empty returned bottles for the milk dealers attention, and the other slips were left in receptacles for the other dealers. Said dealers filled the orders accordingly while making their rounds of delivery, leaving goods at the customers premises, as stated on the slips found. Considerable discomfort and loss of time was caused to the deliverers of the goods in this way, as they had to hunt for the order slips, and particularly to the milk dealers who had to reach within one ofthe bottles to extractthe slip, sometimes cutting their hands in this way, and by the dim light of their lamps had to decipher the matter on such slips, which matter was often poorly written and unintelligible. At times, discrepancies occurred between the customers and merchants claims as to goods ordered and delivered, due to misunderstandings or fraudulent in tention 'on the part of the merchant, his agent, or the customer; thereby causing friction between them, mixed up accounts, and loss of trade, payment of bills, time, etc. Many other objections are found at present in the ways of indicating orders and accounting deliveries in this class of business, but which are thought too numerous to mention. I

The principalobject of my, invention is toprovide a system that will avoid the aforesaid objectionable difficulties and losses.

Another object of my invention is to provide improved means WhereWith the customer may indicateand record the items of goods and amountsthereof ordered.

Other objects and advantages will hereinafter appear.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a general front elevation of the indicating and recording device.

'Fig. 2 is a sectional side elevation of the device shown in Fig. 1. j

A board 1 constituting the frame of the device is provided with a hanger 2, wherewith it may be suspended upon any wall at some convenient place ,of the customers premises, so as to be accessible to deliverers of goods at the early morning hours or in the absence of the customer. Upon the board 1 is stretched a sheet of printed paper which is held in place by means of a metal strip 4 hinged at 5to the board andhaving, a thumb-screw ,6 that passes therethrough and through the edge of the sheet and threads into the board, whereby upon tightening the thumb-screw 6 it forces the strip l against the sheet and secures it to the board. Said sheet is perforated at 7 and has printed at either side of the perforation duplicate columns 8 of items of goods, and preferably it provided with several sets of printed eohimns, such as an upper duplicate pair of columns 9 for the dairy merchant, as shown, and a lower pair of columns 10 for the baker. If desired, any additional number of similar columns may be provided upon the same sheet to indicate orders for grocers, ice

dealers, etc, while only the upper right hand column 9 is here shown completely lined and lettered it will be obvious that the left hand column 9 is precisely similar thereto and the lower columns 10 are likewise duplicates and lined and lettered suitably for bakers orders, but for convenience and clearness of illustration the indication of complete printing of all the columns has been omitted. The upper columns 9 are separated from the lower columns 10 by a perforated line 11. Midway between the columns 8 is located a vertical bar 12 having a slot 13 through which passes a square shank 14: of a horizontal stamp or marker 14. The Sllitllkll is capped by a button 1.5 between which and the bar 12 it is surrounded by a coiled spring 16, Fig. 2, that normally bears against said button and bar and draws the stamp 14 toward the bar 12 and thereby maintains said stamp and the parts connectedthereto in place upon said bar while at the same time rendering it vertically slidable along the'bar 12. Upon pressing the button 15 toward the bar 12 it causes the stamp 14 to bear against the sheet and mark thereon an impression or a heavy line 17 that extends horizontally from one-column to the other. The bar 12 is maintained in place by means'of horizontal rods 18, secured to the board 1 as shown, that pass through its extremities 19, whereby the bar is slidable horizontally along said rods and may be therefore shifted toward the left away from its operative position between the column items when not in use, so as to leave this space with the markings 17 entirely clear and unobstructed. When the bar 12 is in the operative position shown it may be pressed toward the extremities 20 of the rods 19 and in this manner alined in this position. The sheet 3 and the several above mentioned parts that cooperate therewith are all inclosed by a cover 21 that comprises a frame 22 in which is mounted a glass frame 23. Said cover is hinged to the board 1 at 24 and may be locked to the cover at 25 against being opened about its hinges.

. WVhen it is desired to indicate the orders for the following day, a sheet 3 bearing the date 26 of'such day is inserted and secured in place as shown, and then the stamp 14 may be slid along the bar. 12 and pressed against the sheet to therewith mark out lines 17 opposite the duplicate items indicating the quantity and kind of goods required. The bar 12 may be then shifted aside to clear the space between the columns, and the cover 21 may be locked to the board 1 at 25. vl/Vhen the deliverer, which we will assume to be the dairyman, arrives the following morning he reads the orders indi- 40 cated by the heavy stamped lines 17 and fills the order accordingly by leaving such goods at the place. He then grasps the edge 2i" of the? sheet 3 which protrudes through the cover 21 and tears away the right hand sec tion of the sheet 3 which bears the printing and marked orders of his delivered goods, leaving an exact marked duplicate of the same order locked within the casing cover 21; When the baker comes along he may carry out the very same operations and tear out his duplicate of the recorded order, and if there are sections provided upon the sheet for other mechants deliveries they may do the same thing, these operations being repeated day by day. At the end of the month, therefore,both the customer and the merchant gather up their respective daily duplicates of the orders and calculate precisely the status of the transactions between them, and as the duplicates in their respective hands are boundto conform there cannot arise'any differences or disputes about the settlement of accruing bills, it being evident that because of the locking up of the sheet and entire device'with the cover 21 the record cannot in any way be tampered with by the deliverer to produce a false entry upon the sheet. All frauds and irregulari ties of charges are thereby prevented and friction between customers and merchants precluded. Should the stamp 1t require inking the same may be replenished by pressing it against an ink-pad 28 located in arecess 29 of the board 1. A rack or stand 31 is preferably fixed to board 1, whereon may be left all empty bottles, jars, and receptacles to be returned to the dealer, so that same may be found readily when he makes deliveries. A knife 30 fixed to the underside of frame 22 bears upon the perforation-line 11 of the sheet and thereby facilitates the severing of each individual section of the sheet by the deliverer when he draws it at its edge 27.

Variations may be resorted to within the scope of the invention.

Having described my invention. 1 claim:

1. A device of the class described having a frame adapted to receive a sheet carrying duplicate item columns, and means to secure said sheet in place, of a bar mounted upon said frame extending vertically over said sheet, guiding means on said frame for sliding said bar therealong horizontally. means to station said bar at a position between said columns, a marking device mounted upon said bar to slide vertimllly therealong for therewith marking any pair of duplicate items in said columns, a device on said frame for inking said marking device therewith, a transparent cover inelosing said sheet, and said sheet protruding beyond said cover and being perforated whereby one of said sections may be removed and the other left in secured state.

2. A device of the class described having a frame adapted to reeeive a sheet carrying duplicate item columns, and means to secure said sheet in place, of a bar mounted upon said frame extending vertically over said sheet, guiding means on said frame for sliding said bar therealong horizontally, means to station said bar at a position between said columns, a marking device mounted upon said bar to slide vertically therealong for therewith marking any pair of duplicate items in said columns. a device on said frame for inking said marking device therewith, and a transparent cover iiiclosing said sheet.

3. A device of the class described having a frame adapted to receive a sheet carrying duplicate item columns, and means to secure said sheet in place, of a bar mounted upon said frame extending vertically over said sheet, guiding means on said frame for sliding said bar therealong horizontally, means to station said bar at a position between said columns, a marking device mounted upon said bar to slide vertically therealong for therewith marking any pair of duplicate items in said columns, and a device on said duplicate item columns, and means to secure said sheet in place, of a bar mounted upon said frame extending vertically over said sheet, guiding means on said frame for sliding said bar therealong horizontally, means to station said bar at a position between said columns, and a marking device mounted upon said bar to slide vertically therealong for therewith marking any pair of duplicate items in said columns.

5. A device of the class described having a frame adapted to receive a sheet carrying duplicate item columns, and means to secure said sheet in place, of a bar mounted upon said frame extending vertically over said sheet, and a marking device mounted upon said bar to slide vertically therealong for therewith marking any pair of duplicate items in said columns.

6. A device of the class described having a frame adapted to receive a sheet carrying duplicate item columns, and means to secure said sheet in place, of a bar mounted. upon said frame extending vertically over said sheet, a marking device mounted upon said bar to slide vertically therealon for therewith marking any pairof duplicate items in said columns, and a device on said frame for inking said marking devicetherewith.

7. A device of the class described having a frame adapted to receive a sheet carrying duplicate item columns, and means to secure said sheet in place, of a bar mounted upon said frame extending vertically over said sheet, a marking device mounted upon said bar to slide vertically therealong for therewith marking any pair of duplicate items in said columns, a device on said frame forinking said marking device therewith, and a transparent cover inclosing said sheet.

8. A device of the class described having a frame adapted to receive a sheet carrying duplicate item columns, and means to secure said sheet in place, of a bar mounted upon said frame extending vertically over said sheet, a marking device mounted upon said bar to slide vertically therealong for therewith marking any pair of duplicate items in said columns, a device on said frame for inking said marking device theiewith, a

transparent cover inclosing said sheet, and said sheet protruding beyond-said cover and being perforated whereby one of said sections may be removed and the other left in secured state.

9. A device of the class described having a frame adapted to receive a sheet carrying duplicate item columns, and means to secure said sheet in place, of a bar mounted upon said frame extending vertically over said sheet, a marking devlce mounted upon said bar to slide vertically therealong for therewith marking any pair of duplicate items in said columns, and a transparent cover inclosing said sheet.

10. A device of the class described having a frame adapted to receive a sheet carrying duplicate item columns, and means to secure said sheet in place, of a bar mounted upon said frame extending vertically over said sheet, a marking device mounted upon said bar to slide vertically therealong for therewith marking any pair of duplicate items in said columns, a t 'ansparent cover inclosing said sheet, and said sheet protruding beyond said cover and being perforated whereby one of said sections maybe removed and the other left in secured state.

11. A device of the class described having a frame adapted to receive a sheet carrying duplicate item columns, and means to secure said sheet in place, of a bar mounted upon said frame extending vertically over said sheet, a marking device mounted upon said bar to slide vertically therealong for therewith marking any pair of duplicate items in said columns, and said sheet protruding beyond said cover and being perforated whereby one of said sections may be removed and the other left in secured state.

12. A device of the class described having means adapted to receive a sheet carrying duplicate item columns, of a marking device mounted between said columns and adapted to move between and along said columns for therewith marking any pair of duplicate items in said columns.

13. A device of the class described having a frame adapted to receive a sheet carrying duplicate item columns, and means to secure said sheet in place, of a bar mounted upon said frame extending vertically over said sheet, a marking device mounted upon said bar to slide vertically therealong for therewith marking any pair of duplicate items in said columns, said sheet protruding beyond said cover and being perforated whereby one of said sections may be removed and the other left in secured state, and means cooperating with the perforations of said sheet to facilitate the severance of said sections.

Signed at the city of New York, in the county of Bronx, and State of New York, this 15th day of December, D. 1919.

WILLIAM H. BELL.

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