US932851A - Statement-delivery roll. - Google Patents

Description

R. W. GALLAGHER. STATEMENT DELIVERY ROLL. APPLIGATION FILED Nov. zo, 1907.

Patented Aug. 31, 1909.

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a noon W I TNESSES INVENTOR, MM .fa/@74M BY ATTORNEY.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

RICHARD W. GALLAGHEVR, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR T AUTOMATIC BILLING COMBANY', OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, A CORPORATION OF CALIFORNIA.

`S'IATEIVIIEJBT'ILDELIVERY ROLL.

To all whom it may concern: Beit known that I, Rit/imno YV. GALLA- unEn, a citizen of the United States, residing at Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in Statement-Delivery Rolls, of which the following is a specification.

This invention consists of a continuous roll or strip of paper, solformed and printed, that, in conjunction with a suitable apparatus for advancing the roll. in unison with a meter mechanism of any character, and for marking and severing the same, it can be used at anytime to record the quantity measured since the last previous record was taken, and the cost'of the same to the consumer. It is especially adapted for use with gas meters, electric meters, or the like, to furnish to the consumer, at any time, a

bill or statement of the amount of gas, electricity, or the like, which has been furnished. The advantages of this paper used in Conjunction with such a machine are its accuracy, since it avoids the mistakes lliable to occur in reading from a omy and convenience, iirst, in the saving the time of making a written statement or bill after reading the meter; second, due to the fact that by the use of a plurality of such rolls or strips used simultaneously with the same statement-delivery mechanism, as large a number of records as may be desired may, be` taken at the same time, and distributed 5,5 to different officials or employees or filed away in diiferent departments of vthe gas or electric or other company; third, by avoiding the necessity of making various entries in the different books of the company; and

fourth, the fact that the record gives the amount of the commodity furnished since the last reading without the necessity of hav-v ing to subtract said reading from the present reading.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is a perspective view of my improved statement delivery roll, partly extended; Fig. 2

is a perspective view of a section of the roll which has been perforated and severed from 5,0 the remainder.

Referring to the drawing, l indicates a roll of paper which is divided along its whole length at equal intervalsby transverse lines 2 f perforations,

is readily severed at such lines.

The paper meter; and its econso that the paper-y l Specification of Letters Patent. Patent/9d Allg. 3 l', 1909. Application filed November 20, 1907.

Serial No. 402,951.

between any two successive lines of perforations forms a complete section, statement or bill, and the printing of each section is uni# form through the whole length of the roll. For clearness of explanation the roll shown in the accompanying drawing is supposed to be one employed for use with a gas meter, and there are printed thereon lines 3 forming spaces within which are printed numerals 13 indicating successively increasing hundreds of cubic feet, and the numerals 14 indicating the corresponding costs of said amounts at a given rice. For instance, supposing that the gas is sold at-eighty cents per thousand cubic feet, the lines 3 contain the statements of the 200, 300, cubic feet and so on 8 cents, 16 cents, 24 cents', and

amounts of gas 1n amounts, 100, and the costs,

so on. The number of such lines 3 and the in general it will be found t i l length of the section or bill, will depend upon the maximum amount of gas that could be consumed by the burners connected with that particular meter, so that by no possibility couldthe amount of gas consumed exceed the amount of the bill that could be rendered by the statement.

The .apparatus vtobe used in conjunction with this roll forms nopart of the present invention, and is the subject of an application for U. S. patent filed of even date herewith, Serial Number 403,102 which resulted in Reissue Patent 12,892. It will be sufficient herein to say that thisapparatus comprisesv means for vadvancing thepaper in unison with the movement of the gas or other meter and at such rate that the paper afdvances the distance between two successive lines with the movement of the meter corresponding to a consumption of 10.0 cubic here stated that desirable to advance in unison a plurality of such rolls of paper, as four or five inthe case of a gas meter. The said machine is so constructed that the rst effect of the opening of the '100 door for the purpose of extracting the statement causes a line of punctures 4 to be punched in one of the lines 3 lindicatingthe amount of gas consumed and the cost of the same. Immediately thereafter the operator 105 'draws out from the machine the paper or papers from the roll or rolls thereof. As he so withdraws said paper, certain devices automatically engage the paper at the next transverse line 2 of perforations so that his'c'on- 110 feet of gas. And it may be tinued pull upon the paper, vwhen it is so' engaged by said devices,se ers the part of the roll or rolls .so drawn out from the remainder of the rolls. The operator then has in his possession a statement, or a plurality of statements, one of which he, can immediately hand to the consumer. The line 4 of punctures indicates t-he amount of bill and gas consumed. -The bill thus presented tothe consumer will contain suitable directions 5 for reading the same. Suitable printing is also provided indicating that the bill has been paid, and a blank space 6 for signing the name of the payee. Each such payment is of course independentof that preceding and following since the readings always' begin at zero and increase continuously .according to the amount'of the commodity consumed. In this respect it differs as a register from the ordinary gas meter, which continues to register the amount of gas consumed from the time the meter was originally started, and gives no indication what is the cost to the consumer,

unless the consumer also possesses the lastv previous reading the amount of which can then be subtracted from the meter register.

l The two rows of round holes 7, one at each side of the paper, are the means used for advancing the paper by means of pins ina feed roller in the mechanism heretofore spoken of. The several sections are consecutively numbered, as shown at 8. M

The. important features of this invention are, first, the uniformity of the successive sections of the sheet, so that, when operated upon by a suitable machine, the location of the mark will indicate accurately the quantitymeasured by the machine; second, the arrangement of the numerals, both those 13 indicatingthe amounts, and those 14 indieating the costs, these numerals indicating magnitudes, increasing in correspondence with their respective distances from the beginning of the series ofnumerals, whereby, since the paper is advanced in proportion to theamount measured, so also the indication of any numeral of the series, by means of a mark made `by the machine opposite thereto, will ygive accurate information as to the magnitudes measured by the machine; third, the arrangement of said series of numerals in columns parallel with the longitudinal edge of the sheet, whereby a` mark made by the machine at any longitudinal posit-ion of thesheet will have always the same relative transverse location to the proper numeral of the series, and therefore the proper amount and cost can be ascertained with speed and certainty; fourth, the longitudinal series of perforations in the section, whereby a plurality of such sheets can be advanced accurately and precisely in unison with each other.

Av statement sheet consisting kof a long strip of paper divided by equi'- distant transverse lines of perforations into successive uniform sections, each section having uniformly printed thereon a bill statement, including the name of the creditor, a space suitably marked to indicate that it is` for the insertion of the nam-e of the debtor, a space suitably marked to indicate that it is for the receipting signature, and two columns, substantially parallel with a longitudinal edge of the paper, and extending continuously between points adjacent to the ends of said section, of numerals indicating magnitudes increasingk in proportion to their respective distances from the beginning of the series, the numerals of one column being suitably designated to indicate the amountl of the commodity furnished,and the numerals of the other column being suitablydesignated; to indicate the amount of the corresponding price, substantially as described.

` In testimony my `hand in the witnesses.

RICHARD w. GALLAGHER. i

vWitnesses: f FRANCIS M. WRIGHT, D. B. RICHARDS.

whereof I have hereunto set presence of two subscribing

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