US1351372A - General-delivery post-office cabinet - Google Patents

Description

JJB. CONINE.

GENERAL DELIVERY POST OFFICE CABiNET.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 3. 1919- 3 SHEETS-SHEET l.'

J .B. Goad/w.

ATTORNEYI Y J. B. CONINE.

GENERAL DELIVERY POST OFFICE CABINET.

APPLICATION map was. 1919. 1,351,372.

F Y I.

BDllc D||c 01 minus l1:

INVENTOR. 17. B. Coil/0 118, BY

A TTORNEYJ J. B. CONINE. GENERAL DELIVERY POST OFFlCE CABINET.

APPLI CATION FILED FEB- 3, I919.

Patented Aug. 31, 1920.

i To all whom it may comm;

i I GENERAL-DELIVERY. POST-OFFIGE CABINET.

' 'Be it known that I, AMns CoNrnE ia citizen of the United States, residing at Fort-l/vorth, in the'county of Tarrant and.

State of Texas, have invented-certain new and useful Improvements in General-Delivery Post-Office Cabinets,;;o f which: the

following is aspecificatiOm a This invention relates to post-office furni-' ture and moreparticularly to an improvement in cabinets for the distribution and delivery of mail and especially for general de livery. purposes. I embody a number of compartmentsto re-.

ceive the mail matter,. these compartments" being usually equal in number to the number ofletters in the alphabet so that allmai'l matterbearing a surname beginning; with a given letter of the alphabet will be placed in a single compartment, indistributing the mail matter, and regardless of given names. Thus the compartments which are to receive pieces of mail matter bearing numerous sur names beginningwith the more frequently occurring letters ,of the-alphabet, become over-crowded, interfering with the distribution of the mail and rendering it laborious to search through the pieces of mail matter contained in these compartments to locate thepieces directed to any one individual, an pa i u ly i h ctruef the re on that it is from these compartmentsithat the ce nt ust be? t e most quee yr moved'and perused in delivering the mail,

I In the use of such cabinetstherefore much time must be spent'and even wastedin performingthe task of distrlbut ng and de- I livering the mail, and alsoconsiderable confusion frequently results ,from the crowded condition of the compartments. The pr1- mary object of .the present invention is therefore to provide apost-oflice cabinet for the purpose stated in whichthecompartments will beso arranged and designated as to greatly'facilit ate the work of distributing and delivering the mail so thatlconsiderable 1 time willbe saved and annoyance-avoided and'theiliabilityof making mistakes will be redu edtqa mi im a I; have found that where-mail distrib-- uted and delivered by arranging the pieces of ,mail matter not only according tosurname initials but also according to given name initials, all ofthe desired results above mentioned may be obtained; and therefore Il'l' o de -a pect, the P e e in n ion V Specificationbf retters rga t. mputation m -Fa e 3,: ,ieiafiseiaal'releases; l j

distribution aif d delivery; of the mail ac 'Q u. i6, Wif hfthis "System." i D struction; which" will materially assi atta nment-ofithe-desirediresults' Ordinarily such cabinets;

CQ L QPEPI PQS 'ffi aiarrangementandedesigna' I calving cempartm nts lsoxas. t provide for i v fAnqther obiect of'the inventionf is to A ba y lli fiw lnet Certain detailsiofzlcon the v accompanying drawings c figure 1 is ac-front elevation of the the or major portion of .agcab-i-nfetconstmicted in accordance with the. presentinvent-ion; the I view illustrating the arrangement Off ithe ma l receiving.Lcompartments and the man ner. .111 which they are designatedjgj Fig. 2; is; a detail view in front elevatio ofea portion ofthe cabinet illustrating-more I 1 in. detail: the: system H of designating the-sevenal; compartments; o

- Fig.3 is'a pe'rspective-vieiw i ."Fig; 4 is a, perspective view of the; forward 1 portion of the bottomiofLone ofthe coinapartments;-

The uppe vportionof the cabinet sembodyi ing the present-'inventionris tobe devoted' v v. V tojthe;receptionigof.first and' second class mail matter .or, s other words, letter'l mail I and card mail, and the lower portion of the cabinet is toibe devoted to. the receptionu'of packages, newspapers, and the like; III-1'9 saidupperuportion ofathe'icabin'et embodies sides top iz. and ai b-oaom 3', and isyofj s rectangnlar form and of 'a heightgand width commensurate with the-compartments into which the interior lSlt'Q be'divided. In iClividing the, compartments, vertical partition 1 pieces 4and horizontal partition .piecesoare 'bodyof. the 'cabinetj'soaas' tolform the said arranged and built into' the interior ofthe compartments, which latter are indicated by the numeral 6. and: each of which is mam 'gular and of sufficientlylarge capacity to mum volume-of mailzwhichiwilli at any time a receive what is calculated to be the .maxiaccumulate bearingany particularcombina-v tion of surname and given; nameinitials.

In the specific embodiment of the invention illustrated in Fig, 1 of the drawings, there will be approximately seven-hundred and.

two of the compartments 6., The division pieces 5, of course, constitute the, bottoms of the' compartments 6 and, it ispreferable that these pieces, asclearly shown in Fig. 43

of. the drawings, have their forward edges bulged outwardly along a curve as indicated the (i-n, U-V, W-ii, and Y-Z initials.

by the numeral and that the said edge of each piece be formed at an intermediate point with alfinger notch 8. As a resultof this construction the removal of mailmatter 1 from any compartment is greatly facilitated,

and also the notch serves also as a visible spacing device so that the letters indicating I the surname and givennameinitials combibe brought into more prominent new and will notbe liable'to hoover-shadowed or nations and which letters are printed or otherwise-depicted upon the said edge, will hiddenzbythe projecting ends of envelops,

cards, or. other pieces of mail matter." Of

course, theintersecting division pieces 4 and 5, forming the-compartments 6, locate these compartments in'horizontal rows and vertical columns, and-upon the forward edge of :each side 1 of the body of the cabinet there letter is printedor otherwise depicted the letters of the alphabet beginning with the letter A at-the top and "extending in alphabetical order to the letter Z at the bottom- These columns of index letters of the alphabet are indicated by the numeral 9 and each letter -t0 -:the columns is arranged opposite, a row of .com )artments between them. Thus the of thecabinet and also opposite the compartment. at the extreme upper right hand cornerwof the cabinet. In other words, the

- horizontal rows of compartments will be designated in descendingorder, by an index column comprising the letters of the alphabet arranged in alphabeticalorden Theletv ters 9 index the surname initials. I :T is vertical columns of compartments are similarlydesignated by index letters of the 40 alphabet arranged from left to right in alphabetical order and as indicatedby the numeral 10, these letters appearing in rows along theiorward edge oi -the top2 and bottom Ziof the compartment and being 'irr dlcatlve or given name lIlltlttlSV However,

due to the frequency of occurrence of given names having some initials, 'particularly' C, 1-1, and J andfthe infrequent occurrenceoi given names-havingother initials such as Q, R, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z, certain columns are repeated and letters in other columns doubled up. As shown herewith, there are provided'two C columns, two columns, and three 1J columns for the first mentioned initials and but'a sin le'column' each for I Not only are the index letters '9 and 10 respectively indicative of surname and given name initials, but they-willalso be indicative respectively or" the-first and "last names of a company, firm,corporation, or the like.

Thus in the instance of, for examplefthe Union Transfer Company, the letter U of the series 9 would be indicative of the first name of this company (Union) and the list will appear opposite the compartment at the extreme upper left hand corner tor T of the series 10 would be indicative of the last'nanie of this company (Transfer) As before stated there are two vertical C columns two ifl'rclu'mns and three J col- .umns, and the left hand one of each of the C and columnsis sub-indexedinaddition to themajor letter C, by the vowels A, E aiid I, the right hand G and H columns being sub-indexed, in "addition to the respective major or key letters, by the vowels O, U and Y. Similarly the left hand J column is subindexed additionally by the vowels A and'E,

the middle J column by the vowels I and O,

and the right hand J columnby the-vowels U and Y. Thusallcommon given names such as JamesandJohn are thrown into different columns and congestion "is avoided. i might add thatwith large cabinets and especially in use in city post oitices,,other columns than C, H and J could be repeated or duplicated with advantage. I

Also, the preferred construction of-my improved cabinet, each compartment G'is designated upon the forward edge of its bot tom 5 with letters corresponding to the index letters designating the row and column at'the intersection of which the particular compartment is located, the letter corresponding to the letter designating the row of compartments appearing at one side of the notch Sand the letter corresponding to the letter designating the vertical column of the intersection of the D column of comp artments and the B row ofcompartments as shown in the said Fig. '2. -Thus letters addressed, for example, to David Brown, Daniel Boone, 'andall other persons, firms, corporations, companies or the like having these first and "last name initials will be placed in thecompartment 6", and so with all of the other first and last name initial combinations as regards the respective compartments. Of course, as concerns the'c'ompartments 1n the C, H and J columns, these pieces of mail matter bearing" given names beginning with the corresponding majoror key letter followed by--any of the vowels which follow this key. letter where itoc'curs at the head of the column and thus the given names are indexed and sub-indexed, and tengestion of these compartments is greatlyrelieved. It will also be understood 'fromgthe foregoingthat any compartment desired compartments will be designed to-receive 1 i0 .net there are providedtwoor more rows of compartments indicated by the numeral 1 1 maybe as convenientlyffound it is po-.

sitioned'ne'ar the lower "and righthand side oi the cabinet'as here it is :POSltlOIlGCl 111 the upperand left hand side of the cabinet" due to the fact that the series of letters 9 is appears upon the forward edge of both sides i 1 of thecabinet and the series. of letters 10.

appears upon the forwardfedge of both the top 2 and bottom 37st the cabinet.- c

1 In the lower portion or base ofthe cabiand which are designed particularly to receive small packages, newspapers, and other I 15' more bulky pieces or" mail matter." Also if I desired a number of slides 12 may be positinned beneath: the bottom 3 of theupper portion of the cabinet and the top of the base portion in which the compartments 11 are located, these slidesb'eing adapted to be drawn out so as to provide: supportsupon which the mail matter may be placed' and conveniently reached while distributing and delivering the same.

It will be understood, of course, that in- 'the vertical column 9 there may be combl'nations of initial letters as in? the 1 horizontal '.t' o'p row 10. Itwill' also be'understood that v the proportions of the cabinet may be varled 7 from those shown in Fig.1 and in 'fact it will no doubt be preferable to form each compartment of less depth than Width so that the completed cabinet will be of less height than Width 'so that persons of me -f dium statur'e may experience nodiflicult'y in distributing mail matter to the Various com-r partments. I that ifdesired the series of initial letters 9 and 10 may be transposed so that the vertical rows will be designated byv'letters'repres'enting theinitials ot-surnames and the horizonwhat isclai-med as new is:

In amail cabinet, indexing means di'vid It will ler be understood l i ,tal rows icy-lettersrepresentinggiven names.

Havmg thus described the invent on, l

, v lng the cabinet into cooperating compartments al'ining in vertical and horizontal 5 face oithe cabinet-and 'havinga finger designations for each horizontal row, the malnindlcla of the Vertical and horizontal of each com artment ro' ressin in alhap o b c betical iorderl ..-With]respeet; to' succeeding a compartments oi the same row to form 1 a f cabinet or having alining ,vertical and 'jhorizontal rows ofcompartments'indexed alphabetical order.

In testimony whereof IafiiX rny signature. 7

JA Es B. ooNiNE. as f if '55" rows being' jdupli'cated on the promontories 7 of each compartment, the respeetlve indicia;

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