US508699A - Record and index book - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

RGRUBER. REGORD AND INDEX BOOK.

Patented Nov; 14,1898.

ma NAYIONAL Lmqusmpnmmcomnuv.

WASHINGTGN. n. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT FFICE.

PAUL GRUBER, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

RECORD AND lNDEX BOOK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 508,699, dated November 14, 1893.

Application filed September 21, 1892. Serial No. 446,361. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PAUL GRUBER, of the city of St. Louis and State of Missouri,'have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Combined Record-Book and Index, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof.

My invention relates to'improvements in a combined record book and index, and consists in the peculiar arrangement of numerical figures upon the pages of a book and which in combination with an alphabetical index, complete the device more fully hereinafter described and set forth in the claims.

The improvement is designed for the purpose of recording the movement of railroad cars, claims, vouchers, tracers, reports, investigation papers and other documents which by reason of their purpose and text necessitate more or less constant movement at irregular periods between different points and whose record is kept and identity preserved by the means of numerals and which always arrive at their temporary destination in un- -numerical order. It is necessary in the daily routine of business to refer to any of the above named documents, to determine their whereabouts either upon that date or a previous one.

The improvement implies brevity, simplicity, and improved efficiency of record, the

fundamental principle lying in the recording 'ional spaces provided.

Theconstruction and operation of the improved record book will be more fully de scribed in the following specification, but before proceeding therewith, I will explain the basis upon which I have attained the desired ends. I first begin by placing the digits from naught to nine and placing a naught in front of each and they would read as follows: -OO 01 O2 03 O4 O5 O6- O7O8-O9 and then continuing the order up to 99, as 10,- 11,-12. Thus itwill be seen that we have one hundred numbers which if placed into spaces provided for that purpose give a similar number of headings under which numbers can be added. The one hundred spaces can be increased ten told by the placing of a inclusive of 099.

naught in front of each of the above named constructions, and which would read as follows:

OO8-009010O11O12 and so on up to and This arrangement can be redivided by using the digits in the place 300, &c. The digit arrangement in units and tens is also includedin this and reads, -101- 1022l8753 and so on the arrangement being in numerical order from 0 to 999. The subdivision of divisional spaces could be continued to as high a number as desirable, but in my description I will only make mention of one thousand spaces reading from three naughts to 999.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a book constructed after the method of my invention and shown as open at the alphabetical index, and also shows its divisional spacing. Fig. 2 is a plan view of my improved record book showing a part of the same broken away, and the book open at one cessitated thereby and the arrangement of numerical figures thereon, and a Roman alphabetical index therein, lies the method of 'my'invention.

2 indicates one of the pages of the book showing the arrangement of the index thereon.

While I do not wish to confine myself to the arrangement of the pages as herein shown, still for the sake of arriving at a better understanding as to the operation of the book, I believe it necessary to show the pages in operative form.

The alphabetical index pages 2 are preferably located in the front of the book and as shown in the drawings, each page has a projecting tab 4 upon which the letters are impressed. In the illustrations I have shown the index page 2 divided into two spaces 5 and 6 which are similarly ruled into columns. In the manufacture of the improved record book it would depend upon the size of the book as to the numberof index columns such as 5 and 6,whicl1 would appear upon a single page. The index space is divided as followsz-The first column 7 is for the date, the next column 8 for the number which the receiving party desires to place upon the document to be recorded, and the next column 9 for the number already appearing upon the document and by means of which its identity is preserved.

Before proceeding farther I had best state that the ruling as herein shown, is that adapted for the recording of claims for damages, lost freight, &o., a large numberof which are received each day by a railroad. The fourth column 10 is devoted to the claimants name by means of which the claims are alphabetically indexed, the first letter in the last name being used as the basis. The next column 11 records the amount of the claim, while the last column 12 shown is used to trace the movement of the claim when sent to some temporary destination. These columns are headed respectively, Date, No,

Freight claim, agents No, Claimants, Amount, Movement.

Having described the ruling of the index pages, I will now proceed to detail the spacing of the record pages.

In Fig. 2 the book is shown with the first record page 13 exposed for examination. Near its upper right hand corner it has a projecting indicating tab 14 upon which three naughts appear upon both of its sides. In the illustrations the record page 13 is shown as having three complete and distinct record columns 15, 10 and 17, each of which is divided into the following columns, in the ar rangement of which I have tried to embody simplicity as wellas completeness. As is well known in the recording of claims, railroad companies generally arrange the same in series, that is, the claims as received are numbered in numerical order until the numbers reach a certain limit, say one hundred thousand. The first hundred thousand is called series A and the next lot would be called series B, and so on. Therefore, I have devoted the first column 18 to the registration of the series, the next column 19 to the numher, the third column 20 to the railroad from which the claim is received, and the last column 21 to the disposition of the documents. These columns are headed respectively Series, No, Railroad, Disposition. Upon the first line 22 under the heading Na, in column 19 and at the right hand side of said col u mn,are placed three naughts 000. In the next column and in the same relative position under the same heading, are placed the numerals 100. The next column is headed 200,and so on through 900. After 900 and in the next column is placed 001, then -101, and so on through the digits.

The book as herein shown is divided into ten divisional sections, each section having a tab projecting from its first page and each section including one hundred numbers ranging from and including the numbers -O0O 909. The next section is inclusive of -010- 919, the next section O20--929, then throughout the book as follows: O30-939 0409 t9- 050-959- 060969 --070979080989 -090-099, each section being as before stated, indicated by tabs such as 14 which read downwardly as follows: O00 O10020030O40050 060-070080090-.

In Figs. 1 and 2 under the proper headings, I have filled out the blank spaces and will explain the application and use of the index and record.

In railway offices there is a department, generally known as the claim department, and has persons in charge, whose specific dutyis the care and disposition of the claims as they are received and sent out each day. WVe will premise that the clerk finds a claim from a certain John Allen, the amount of damages of which is thirty-five dollars. If it has been received upon September 16 it is so entered. As each road has its individual numbers, for agents, &c., the individual identity is preserved by means of numerical combinations, the agent forwarding such claims indorsing certain numbers upon the papers. Supposing the number upon said John Allens claim to be 7,000, it is so entered in the column 9 upon the index page. Each company also desires to place its individual numbers upon such documents and this number is entered in column 8. The amount of the claim thirty-five dollars is entered in column 11 and the movement of the document if forwarded is entered in column 12. This stated entry would then read as follows: September 16th, No. 27, (the number given by the receiving company) 7,000, (the identification number) John Allen,$35.00, A. T. D., 9/17) the last indicating the initials of a certain party to whom the document has been sent, and the date of forwarding). The number of the claim 7,000, is then taken as as a basis for further entry. As the number ends with three naughts, We refer to the first tab 14 upon which three naughts appear. As three naughts is the first entry made in the book, consequently we have but little trouble in finding the same. As the three naughts already appear upon the page, and as this is the first made upon the same, it is only necessary to prefix the numeral 7. If the claims are numbered in serial order, aserial letter would be placed in the column 18 upon the page 13, and in column 20 under the heading Railroadl will enter the name of the road from which the claim was received, such as M. K. & T. and in column 21 under the heading Disposition I would enter certain initials or names by means of which the temporary resting place of the document would be known, such as W. O. S. 9/20. This entry would then read as follower-E,

7 ,000, M. K. '&'T., W. C. S., 9/ 20, which would indicate that the claim was No. 7,000, series E, was received from the M. K. 86 T. By. and sent to W.O. S., September 20. If the number of the claim were 32,621, I refer to the tab upon which appear the numerals 020, and other numbers are referred to by the last figures in the combination; for example, if the number were simply 8 I wouldturn to the page upon which appeared OO8, and draw a red line through the two naughts, as %%8. 1f the claim were No. 70, I-would turn to the page upon which appeared the numerals 070-,and.draw a red line through the first naught, as %70-.-

At the right hand of Fig. 2 in column 1'71 have shown the combination of numerals 200 continued down the page upon every line. This arrangement of the figures, whether with one combination of numerals at the top or the same continued on every line, is left to the discrimination of the manufacturer and user.

It will be seen from the above described arrangement of numerical combinations, that the original one hundred divisional spaces follow each other in numerical order every ten spaces, the intervening spaces being utilized for the prefixed units, 1234= 678-9 and so on. I can also increase the number of indicating tabs 14: which mark the divisional spaces, to twenty or more and they would read respectively 00O-005 010O15-020025030 035 040 045 050O 060 O OO75080085 090095-. This above described arrangement would enable the person using the book to find a desired number or entry much quicker than with the tabs '0l0-020, &c.

The advantages of this improved method of recording documents, are apparent and in its efiectiveness, efficiency, and particularly its adaptation for ready reference, lie its principal features. It greatly reduces the clerical labor, does away with ordinary indexing, and involves much less time for reference to any particular entry, especially. where the volumes are numerous and are necessarily daily referred to.

The improved record does not become complex and crowded by numerous and continued entries and does not lose its efficiency for ready and absolute certainty of reference at any time. To give a fair idea of its time-saving properties, I will give the following example: An average claim entry book of the present style is probably adapted for the entry of say twenty-five thousand different documents. A clerk is given a number, 16,789, and is instructed to find what disposition has been made of the documents. He refers to the alphabetical index, ascertains the number of the document and then startsin to look through the twenty-five thousand entries for the number he desires. This may be found upon the first page in the book,but the probabilities-are that he will find it upon the last page of the book. By actual tests I have found that on an average, a desired number may be found within several hundred numbers, this depending of course upon the numbers of entries under a given combination of numerical figures. To further illustrate this principle, suppose the clerk was called upon to search the record of a railroad freight car at a certain time in the past, that was entered or recorded in a book containing twentyfive thousand entries of a similar character. Under my system the clerk would first ascertain the number of the document from the alphabetical index, then refer to the basis numbers and in a book of twenty-five thousand spaces, this particular combination of terminal figures would only have fifty divisional spaces for entries. Thus instead of the clerk having to search through the entire book for the desired information, he would only have to refer to the fifty entries, in case the record was a complete one.

As before stated, I do not wish to necessarily confine myself to the number of record columns upon a single page or the manner of ruling the same into record columns, the necessities of different lines of business determining the headings and definitions of the columns.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim is 1 An improved record book having a numerical index consisting of certain numerical figures arranged in numerical order, index tabs with the last three numerals of a greater number imprinted thereon, and an alphabetical index consisting of Roman signs alphabetically arranged, substantially as set forth.

2. An improved record book having numerals arranged upon its pages in predetermined order, said numerals consisting in the combinations of numerals from 00 to 99 and having prefixed thereto in numerical order the digits from naught to nine, inclusive; substantially as set forth.

3. An improved record book divided into sections, the pages of each section having thereon a successive series of numerals having the same terminal numbers, and a projecting tab for each section carrying the terminal numbers of its respective sections; substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

PAUL GRUBER.

, Witnesses:

HERBERT S. ROBINSON, ART. D. GREENE.

Images