US471856A - Prescription-file - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

G. L. GOODMAN. PRESCRIPTION FILE.

No. 471,856. Patented Mar} 29, 1892.

WWW

NrrEn STATES ATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE L. GOODMAN, or SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

PRESCRIPTION-FILE.

$PECIFICATION'forming part'of Letters Patent No. 471,856, dated March 29, 1892. Application filed January 26, 1892. Serial No. 419,305. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE L. GOODMAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at San Francisco, in the county of San Francisco and State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Prescription- Files; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

My invention relates to boxes or cases for filing papers for safe keeping, and is intended more especially for the preservation of physicians prescriptions in drug-stores. The filing of this last-named class of documents has always been a matterof some difficulty. The requirements are, first, accuracy in filing; second, accessibility, so that a prescription to be refilled may be readily found; third, economy in space, and, fourth, economy in time. The usual custom is to paste the prescription in large books, the papers being numbered consecutively. This method meets the'first, and possibly the second, requirement; but evidently 'neither the third nor fourth.

The object of my invention is to provide a box or case to receive these papers, which will be both a temporary and a permanent receptacle for them, and which in its construction and the manner of using it will meet all the requirements above mentioned.

My invention is fully described in this specification, and is shown in the accompanying drawings, in connection with which the specification should be read.

Figure l is a perspective view of my prescription-file. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the box with the cover removed. Fig. 3 is a cross-section. Fig. 4 is also a cross-section with the cover removed and with the sides of the box folded under the bottom.

The box is constructed of thin wood, stiff card-board, or any other suitable material, and its dimensions are proportionate to the size of the papers it is intended to hold. To the bottom A are attached the side and end pieces B O, the connection being made by a flexible binding 1, preferably of cloth or thin leather. This permits the sides and ends to fall outward when the cover D is removed, and also to be folded under the box, as shown in Fig. 4, in order to economize space in the gradual filling of case with prescriptions.

V The depth of the box is such as to accommodate a certain number of prescriptionssay, five hundred or one thousand-which, numbered consecutively, are impaled upon the pointed rod 2. This rod has its lower end threaded, and is secured to the bottom of the the file, a heavy piece of cardboard 6, having a hole which permits it to be slipped onto the rod 2, is placed upon the top of the series of papers, making the case firm and campact.

The cover D is made, preferably, from the same material as the box, and fits the latter when its side and endppieces are vertical. The cover is provided with cleats 7, which may be rectangular blocks, as shown in the drawings, and situated near the edges of the cover, or may be pieces of Wood or other material of right angle in cross-section. When the cover is placed upon the box, the upper edges of the sides and ends of the latter project upwardly between the cleats and the cover. These cleats prevent the side and end pieces of the box from falling inward and keep them in their' proper positions. The strip of card-board 6, as shown 1n Fig. 3, 1s of the same length and Width as the 1nter1or of the box and is so placed as to fit beneath the cleats 7. The elastic bands 5 may, if desired, be passed over this strip 6 in order to hold the mass of papers more securely, and, indeed, this is the preferable way of securing-them. The advantages of my invention'are obvious. Each box contains a series of prescrip tions numbered in order. When it is desired to find a certain paper, the cover is removed andthe sides and ends fall outward, leaving the papers impaled upon the file and upon a flat surface, so that they maybe turned upon the file in any direction, thus materially assisting the search, the prescriptions being'so arranged on the file as to permit 1ts contents to be read as if it werelying fiat upon a table. Space is also economized by folding the sldes or ends of the box underneath until the case is filled with prescriptions. At the same time the filled boxes may be stowed'away in order, properly labeled, so that the box containing the desired prescription may be readily ascertained at a glance.

What I claim is 1. A filing-case for prescriptions and other papers, consisting of a box having side and end pieces flexibly attached and adapted to be folded under the bottom, a filing-rod secured to the bottom of the box, and a cover to engage the upper edges of the flexible pieces and hold them vertically against inward and outward movement, substantially as set forth.

2. A filing-case for prescriptions or other documents, consisting of a box having side and end pieces flexibly connected to the bottom, a filing-rod also connected to said bottom, and a cover for the box having cleats so arranged as to permit the side and end pieces of the box to extend upward between said cleats and the cover and thus secure them, substantially as set forth.

3. In a filing case or box, the combination of a bottom having flexibly attached side and end pieces, a filing-rod secured to the bottom, a removable top board, and a cover pressing the same down, substantially as set forth.

4. In a filing-case, the combination of abox having side and end pieces flexibly connected to its bottom, a filing-rod secured to said bottom, a top board adapted to beimpaled upon said filing-rod above the papers in the box, elastic bands or loops secured to the bottom, and a cover for the box, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature, in presence of two witnesses, this 18th day of January, 1892.

GEORGE L. GOODMAN.

VVituesse-s:

L. W. SEELY, JOHN COFFEE.

Images