US324388A - Baggage-check - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

A. D. JOSLIN. BAGGAGB CHECK.

No. 324,888. Patented Aug. 18, 1885 Ina/@nior- Mumf.

.N -..-.M Naam? CHECK 1400.l

I.C.R.R. BAGGAGE V'Vnesses UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

. ALEXANDERD. JOSLIN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

BAGGAGE-CHECK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 324,388, dated August 18, 1885.

Application filed December 13, 1882.

.To all whom it may concern.-

Beit known that I, ALEXANDER D. J osLIN, of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Baggage-Checks, of which the following is a specification.

In the common practice of giving the pas senger a separate ticket or receipt referring only to excess baggage, it is found that a large proportion of such tickets or receipts are never returned to the company issuing the same, whereby the means afforded by such receipts of verifying the agents returns is lost, it not being absolutely necessary for the passenger to deliver up a ticket or receipt of this kind in order to obtain his baggage; and again, when the particulars of the excess-baggage collections, whether the same are returned to the company by the lpassenger in the form of a separate receipt or are in the form of a simple memorandum attached to the trunk by the dispatching agent, and taken up by the receiving agent at the destination, the company has no assurance that the particulars given are correct, because the dispatching agent may, if so disposed, enter a less amount than is or should be collected, and make his returns to agree with such false entries.

To place in the companys hands means for verifying its agents returns of excess-baggage collections, and also for preventing fraud and carelessness in weighing by the dispatching agents, as well as to obviate further objections to any system of separate tickets or checks, I have devised the present invention,the nature whereof fully appears from the subjoined description and the accompanying drawings.

Figure l shows one side of my improved check, and Fig. 2 the reverse side thereof.

My check is made of some material capable of being written upon-such as card-board, or it is made to hold material which may be written upon. As it is intended to be given to the passenger, it should be of such nature as to prevent changes therein by the passenger. Itis provided with an opening by which it may be strung upon the strap of the metal check with which it is to be used. (See Fig. 2,where the metal check and strap are shown.) It bears all necessary identifying-marks, such as the name of the railroad company, and a (No model.)

It also contains blanks for the.

cess baggage-such as its weight, number of trunks, amount of charge collected, 8mo. the reverse side or upon the same side with the above, are other blanks for the insertion of the Weight and any other particulars desired.

The operation ofthe invention is as follows: Vhen a passenger presents overweight baggage, the agent weighs it and collects the eX- cess charge, noting the weight and collection and other facts desired in the blanks upon the face side of my newly-devised check, and delivers such check to the passenger, and at the same time attaches the metal check, Fig. 2, to the trunk. The passenger thus receives a combined identifying-check and excess-charge re# ceipt, and as he has n0 other means of identifying his baggage, he is apt to take good care of it. When he calls for his trunk at his destination, he delivers up his combined check and receipt, so that the receipt necessarily finds its way back to the company. The nature of the check is such as to be notice to the agent at the destination that the baggage is overweight, and hence such agent is not likely to overlook his duty to reweigh it. This he does, and notes the result upon the back of the check in the blanks provided for the purpose. The check now becomes a combined check, re ceipt, and terminal or receiving agents memorandum, and in this shape is returned to the company as separate excessbaggage receipts or memoranda are returned.

By means of this combined check, receipt, and memorandum, the companyis enabled not only to keep a record independent of the returns of its agents and returns of all their collections from this source, but also, by means ofthe notation thereon of the weight by the agents at both ends ofthe route, to detect frauds upon the company and carelessness by the dispatching agents.

The check is also capable of use in the ordinary manner where there are noV excess collections, and it may be printed with a stub to be detached and retained by the dispatching agent.

I do not claim a combined check and excess- Upon IOO

baggage receipt,broad1 y, nor a terminal agents memorandum-blank when detached from the other parts of the check; but

I do claiml. In combination with a baggage-cheek adapted to be attached to the trunk, an identifying-cheek to be delivered to the passenger, capable of being written upon, and provided with blanks for the entry of memoranda as to excess baggage by the dispatching agent, and other blanks for the entry of like memoranda by the receiving agent, both baggage and identifying cheek having the same serial number, substantially as specified.

2. The combination of a numbered metal cheek to be attached to the trunk with a passengers identifyingcheck, having a corresponding number, made of material adapted entry of particulars of excess-baggage collections, and the certiiicate as to weight to be made by the agent at the destinationpoint, substantially as specified.

ALEXANDER D. JOSLIN.

Vtnesses:

NORMAN B. Looms, GI-Iiis. F. ROBINSON.

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