US701839A - Envelop. - Google Patents

Description

v Patented' .PM l0, |992.-

A. F. CALLAHAN.

ENVELUP.

Y' (Application med nec. 9, `1901.) (No Model.)

InvEnrz Ameruzus F Callahan.

A omega.

UNITED STA'TES ENvELoP.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 701,839, vdated June 10, 1902.

Y VApplicationfiled December 9. 1901. Serial No. 85.117. (No model.)

To all whom may concern'.-

Be it known that 1, AMERICUs F. CALLA- HAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county` of ',Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Envelops, (Case No. 1,) of which the following isa full, clear, conoise, and exact descriptiom reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification.

My inventionrelates to envelops, and has for its object the provisionof means whereby labor and expense in addressing envelops and placing other insignia thereupon may be avoided.

I have devised an improved envelop or inclosing device which is adapted to act in its primary capacity of securely inclosing and sealing the contents of the envelop and in the added capacity of revealing so much of the inclosure as may enable the observer to ascertain the destination of the same.

Generally speaking,my invention comprises a composite envelop made up in greater part of material that is preferably so thick or opaque as to prevent an inspection of the en= velops contents and completed by transparent material so located as to reveal inscriptions upon the inclosure. To this end the obverse side of the envelop is provided with a section of transparent material-as, for eX- ample, very thin rice-paper-through which the sending address upon the inclosure may be readily observed, the address being so placed upon the inclosure as to register With this transparent section of the envelop.- The corner portion of the obverse side of the envelop where the return address and the like usually appear may also be formed of thin transparent material, so that the return address may be printed upon the letter-head and shovvr through the envelop to thus take the place of the return address usually printed upon the outside of the envelop. By the term sending address I mean the address to which the envelop, with its inclosure, is to be delivered. By the term return address I mean the address of the sender that has usually been printed heretofore on the corner of the envelop. The balance of the obverse side of the envelop is preferably made of the same substance as the reverse or back side of the envelop, so that none of the inclosure may be observed except that Which appears at the transparent sections. Thus am I enabled to produce an envelop which serves in its primary capacity of securely containing an inclosure and concealing those parts of the inclosure that it is not desirable to have accessible to the general public, While at the same time the inclosure may be so disposed as to reveal to the eye of, for example, the postal officials the address that may be properly located upon the inclosure to appear through the transparent address-section. In other Words, the address occurring upon the letter, telegram, or other communication is the identical inscription that is presented through the transparent section in the envelop. another aspect of my invention, therefore, it may be considered as comprising in its preferred embodiment the combination, with an inclosure bearing a communication having a sending address upon the same side of the paper Where the communication appears, of an envelop provided With a transparent sendin g-address section, the sending address upon the communication and the sendingaddress transparent section of the envelop being both so relatively placed and proportioned that the sending address only will appear through the sending-address section of the envelop, While the communication proper will be concealed 'by the more opaque portion of the envelop. It Will be seen that by means of my invention the grade of material of the envelop is not of importance as far as utility is concerned. Paper Which is not adapted for penmanship or inscription of other kinds may be used for envelops, as the addresses do not have to be inscribed on the paper thereof. Very thin colored paper, as Manila paper, might thus be advantageously used for the comparatively opaque portions of my envelop, as the color will prevent inspection of the envelops contents. Very cheap Manila paper, in fact, is of special utility in the practice of my invention. Other colored papers than Manila may be employed, or even black paper may be employed for the envelops, black paper, in fact, presenting an advantage over papers of i other colors in that a striking contrast may PATENT OFFICE.

IOO

be provided between the address appearing through the envelop and the of the envelop. or

The many advantages oi vm f rmps constructedim accordance with n 'y Vb ion will ne Very apparent. ln additi., lord-"ng the great expense in addressing large quantities of envelops, as in large business houses, absolute accuracy is assured, as the sending address upon the inclosure and that appearing through the envelop obviously must be identical.

Many other advantages will present themselves to those acquainted with the invention-as, for example, correspondence that may accumulate late in the evening of a business day may be rapidly mailed, the time and labor ot' especially addressing envelops beingdispensed with, the inclosures only having to be placed in the envelops insuch a manner that the addresses will appear through the transparent sections. The device of my invention, of course, is not intended to be restricted to use in the mails. For example, a very wide application of the invention can be made with'great advantage to the telegraphservice, where the greatest accuracy in correspondence between the address upon the telegram and that upon the envelop is essential. As is well known, in large telegraph-offices a corps of envelop-add'ressers is employed for sending out telegrams, necessitating considerable delay in transmission. By forming the envelops in composite sections of opaque and transparent material the address upon the telegram may appear through the transparent section, while the balance of the telegram that should remain secret is thoroughly concealed.

I will explain my invention more fully by reference to the accompanying drawings,illus trating the preferred embodiment thereof, in which- Figure l is a view of the reverse or back portion of the envelop. Fig. 2 is a view of the obverse side or front of the envelop. Fig. 3 indicates the envelop shown in Fig. 2 with an inclosure. Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional view onv line 4 4 of Fig. l. Fig. .5 is a view showing the inclosure unfolded, but with the folding-lines indicated. Fig. 6 is a view of the inclosure folded, ready for insertion within the envelop. Fig. 7 is an end view of the inclosure shown in Fig. 6, the folds being slightly separated more clearly to illustrate the same. Fig. 8 is aside or lengthwise view of the inclosure as it appears in Fig. 6, the folds being slightly separated more clearly to indicate their relation.

Like parts are indicated by similar characters of reference throughout the different figures.

The envelop a is formed of a material which is preferably largely opaque, being preferably provided with aflap b, formed integrally with the balance of the main envelop strucl' ture, whicl nap may be 'summed where the inclosure ik t0 be Saale@ The main structure of the .uvelop may be provided with a slot, as indi(V ted at C, vfhifh slot is located at the usual. .platee where 15b@ sending address is to appear. '.Ihe inclosure.-as, for example, the letter-head Z-g S0 -addressed, folded, and inclosed as to have the selldillg address 3D- pear where tlae address-Blouin the main structure of the envelop is loctfd- Ill Oldl t0 prevent the envelop from being torn at this slot and for the purpose of preventing impairment of the Original functions of the envelop, the slot in the main body Portion 0f the envelop'is covered by a Section e of transparent material, as rice -papeig which may be found upon the market. Other material obviously might be used in this same connection.

In order` that the d e'yi of my invention may be adaptable to enivelapl constructed of different thicknesses' r and in order that the transparent materid may lie as close to the inclosure as possi le more clearly reveal the sending addre tenth, this transparent substance is disuod uponthe interior of the envelop, as i ustrated in Figs l to 4. I do not wish to be limited, however, in all embodiments of the invention to this characteristic. Where the invention is also employed for the purpose of avoiding the necessity of printing return addresses and the like upon the exterior' of the envelop, the envelop is also provided with a slot in the return-address corner or portion of the envelop, as indicated at f. The return address that is to appear' through the envelop may be printed upon the upper left-hand corner of the inclosure, so that it may register with the transparent material appearing at the upper lefthand corner of the envelop, the two addresses appearing upon the inclosure being so relatively placed that they will both properly register with the transparent material located at c andf.

The envelop inclosure d contains a communication that is suitably and regularly addressed, the communication being in the form of a letter, telegram, rbc. Fig. 5 of the drawings illustrates the body of the communication by short dotted lines. It will be observed from the drawings that the address upon the inclosure bearing the communication is so disposed with reference to the communication and that the sending-address slot is s0 disposed and proportioned with respect both to the sending address upon the communication and the body of the communication that nothing but the sending address appears through the transparent section of the envelop, the communication proper being concealed by the more opaque portions of the envelop.

Where two openings or slots are provided in the main body portion of the envelop, I preferably place a single sheet of transpar- IOO IIO

ent material within the envelop, pasting the same closely upon the back surface of the front envelop-section rather than provide separate sections of transparent material for each of these openings in the main body portion of the envelop. Where, however, but the one slot is provided in the main body portion of the envelop, the size of the trans'- parent material may be correspondingly reduced.

While I have herein shown and particularly described the preferred embodiment of my invention, it is obvious that changes may be made Without departing from the spirit thereof, and I do not,therefore,wish to be limited to the precise construction herein set forth; but,

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- AMERICUS F. CALLAHAN.

Witnesses:

HARVEY L. I-IANsoN, GEORGE L. CRAGG.

Images