Envelope

Oct. 31, 1939.

V. J. SAWDON

ENVELOPE Filed Dec. 9, 1935

2,178,084

Sheets-Sheet I

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Oct. 31, 1939.

V. J. SAWDON

ENVELOPE

2,178,084

Filed Dec. 9, 1935

Sheets-Sheet 2

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/7^.3.

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ATTORNEYS.

Patented Oct. 31, 1939

2,178,084

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE

2,178,084 ENVELOPE Victor J. Sawdon, Tuckahoe, N. V. ~ Application December 9, 1935, Serial No. 53,495

Claims. (Cl. 281—3)

This invention relates to the incorporation of envelopes in publications, especially in periodical publications of the class having leaves with printed matter thereon, including also, for example, 5 illustrations and advertisements, the leaves being secured together along their margins by binding means, as in a book, a magazine or a mail order catalog.

An object of the invention is to provide such 10 a bound periodical publication with a complete envelope, secured between adjacent leaves by the same binding means which fasten the leaves together, and to provide such an envelope which can be readily torn out, sealed and mailed.

It is proposed, for example, to include in a mail order catalog a combination order blank which constitutes a leaf of the catalog and embodies a complete envelope, including an open pocket for the matter to be mailed, the pocket 20 being supported by a body-portion which is formed integrally with cover flaps and sealing flaps, and with an extension adapted to be bound in With the leaves, the boundary between the extension and the envelope-forming parts being 25 defined by an easy tear line, upon rupture of which the envelope is readily removable from the publication.

The pocket is designed to receive a remittance and the other envelope-forming parts of the 30 detached leaf are so formed as to be readily folded over the pocket, serving as a closure to be sealed and thereby to prevent access to the enclosed matter until the envelope is opened by the addressee. One side of such an envelope-leaf may 35 be used to receive a printed mailing address, for example, that of the mail-order house issuing the catalog, and to whom an order is to be sent, with a legend informing the prospective customer that “Postage will be paid by Addressee” and other 40 informative matter, and other portions of the available surfaces of such an envelope-leaf may be occupied by an order blank to be filled in by the customer, and by directions for filling-in the order blank, for enclosing the remittance, and 45 for folding and sealing the envelope, and mailing the same.

Similarly, such envelope-leaves may be bound in to the copies of a periodical going to subscribers whose subscriptions are about to expire, the 50 envelope-bearing leaf containing on an initially unfolded portion a printed form directing the renewal of the subscription, and providing spaces to be filled in with the name and address of the subscriber, suitable informative matter being also 55 associated therewith, as already mentioned.

Preferably this envelope will likewise bear upon its face the address of the publisher, and a guarantee under the postal regulations that the publisher will pay the postage,..so that the subscriber is in no way deterred from acting upon an incli- 5 nation to renew the subscription, by the necessity for providing an envelope or a stamp, or for writing out an order, or for looking up the correct name and address of the publisher in order to address his communication properly. 10

The present application is a continuation in part of my application Serial No. 984 filed January 9, 1935, in which various forms of envelopes of the above general type are disclosed and claimed, and as set forth in that application more 16 in detail, it is proposed to embody the idea of means hereinafter disclosed both in publications such as magazines and catalogs of the side-stitch type, and in publications in which the binding is of the saddle-stitch type. 20

In a magazine of the side-stitch type the envelope-leaf is assembled with signatures collated in known fashion, and with the folded margins of which the extension of the envelope is bound in registry, being there secured by the same 25 stitching means, by which term, as hereinafter used, it is intended to include staples and all other available stitching materials.

In a magazine of the saddle-stitch type, an extension is provided as before, but it is extended 30 much farther so as to cross the saddle of the stitching machine and balance the envelope structure. The extension is, in this case also, stitched to the pages of the publication by the same stitching means which bind the pages together. In 35 each instance, the binding extension of the envelope is provided with a line of perforations or otherwise treated to form an easy tear line to facilitate ready removal of the envelope, and in certain embodiments of the invention the ar- 40 rangement is such that the binding extension is co-extensive in length with the length of the other leaves, or at least long enough to be engaged and bound by a plurality of the staples.

A particular object of the present invention 45 is to provide for the preformation of a pocket as part of an envelope-leaf of the above described “bind-in” type by means of improved and simpler structure, in pursuance of the underlying idea of means which characterizes the particular 50 embodiments of the generic invention both in my aforesaid application Serial No. 984, and in the present application.

Another object is. to provide means by which the pocket is doubly protected by a folding of 55

2,178,084 the circumjacent material of the body on three sides thereof, and, as a corollary, to provide by such folding a structure that will be firmly and snugly held by a single gummed flap against cas5 ual displacement of the folds.

Another object of the invention is to provide a modified type of envelope embodying the invention in which one wall of the pocket is formed by a patch secured at three sides to the body por10 tion of the envelope-leaf, the other side of the pocket being left free, to be closed by the operation of folding and sealing the flaps.

Other objects and advantages will hereinafter appear.

In the drawings forming part of this specification,

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a bound periodical publication of the saddle-stitch type having one form of envelope suitable for practising the in20 vention incorporated therein;

Fig. 2 is a view of an envelope like that of Fig. 1, but of modified structure, having a plurality of sealing flaps;

Fig. 3 is a similar view of an envelope em23 bodying a modification in the structure of which one wall of the envelope pocket is formed by a separately formed patch secured adhesively at three of its edges to the underlying body portion of the envelope.

L disclosure is made of a bound period- ical of the saddle-stitch type, such for example as a catalog of the kind issued from time to time by “mail order” houses, comprising a cover I and signatures 2. An envelope 3 is incorporated in the periodical. This envelope comprises a body portion designated generally by the reference character B and includes a portion 4 which constitutes a panel forming what will be the front wall of the closed envelope, and which consti₄θ tutes what will be hereinafter designated as the inner wall of a pocket adapted to receive a remittance, such as a check, a money order, or a banknote, with or without any communication that may be desirably enclosed.

The front or outer wall 5 of this pocket may ⁴⁵ be formed in different ways. In that of the structure illustrated in Fig. 1, this front wall is formed by folding over a flap made integrally with the panel 4, and securing it adhesively along its lateral margins, as by areas 6 and 7 of paste ⁵⁰ or adhesive applied between the flap and the underlying contiguous body areas.

This leaves the upper edge 8 of the pocket open to receive any suitable enclosure.

The body portion is extended beyond the area occupied by the panel 4, the latter being rectangular, in the instance illustrated, to form three panels II, 12, 13, defined by the fold-lines 9 and 10, which may be creased, merely printed, or 0_O imaginary, as they are intended for convenience only, and are not essential to the successful practise of the invention. They are desirably of equal area, but this is not essential .

A further extension, 14, of the body B oc55 cupies a lateral position which may extend along any desired portion of the inner edge (5 of the panels 12 and 13, the latter edge being shown with a line of perforations 15, which forms an easy tear line upon rupture of which the en70 yelope-forming parts of the body B may be readily removed from the binding extension 14, leaving the latter bound-in by the stitches 16 which are desirably the same that fasten the signatures 2 together.

jg At the edge remote from the binding extension,

I have provided a gummed sealing flap 17 of known form.

The panels II, 12, 13 and the exposed surface of the pocket wall 5 may be printed with any desired legend of an informative character or 5 may be used for blank spaces to be filled in by a customer, subscriber or other user of the envelope, somewhat as illustrated in Fig. 1, the printed matter there shown being merely illustrative, of course.

When these blanks have been filled in, and the ¹remittance inserted within the pocket P, at its open edge 8, and the complete envelope B removed by rupturing the tear line 15, the user can readily close the envelope, without special .instructions, by simply folding down the upper ¹⁰half along the horizontal fold-line 9, or, in the absence of any crease or fold-line, by simply “doubling” the envelope at its mid-horizontal region, being reasonably careful that the upper „n edge 18 registers with the lower edge 19; then ^ζυfolding the doubled parts again upon themselves along their mid-vertical region, indicated in the drawing by the line 16, this again being a mere doubling operation, after which the flap „17 is folded over and sealed in known fashion, the envelope being then ready to mail, if, as contemplated, the front face of panel 4 be printed with the address of the publisher, or other addressee, and with a legend indicating that the 9n addressee will pay the postage upon delivery, in ⁸⁰accordance with the postal rules.

In rig. 2 is illustrated a modified form of envelope which is identical with the form shown in Fig. 1 and already described, so far as structural components and their general arrangement are concerned, except that the flap 17 is sealed down over the adjacent edge 70, before the closing operations of folding on vertical line 10 and horizontal line 9 have been performed, and a sealing flap 20 is provided foldable over the mar- ⁴θ ginal line 21 of the panel 4.

It will be noted that the step of folding on vertical line 10 is the first to be performed in the sequence of closing operations with the modification of Fig. 2, and that the flap 20 therefore ⁴⁵closes the folds at the bottom edge of the completed envelope in this instance, which has the advantage of providing for a seal along the edge of the longer dimension in the type of envelope shown in Fig. 2. 50

In Fig. 3 I have shown another modification in which the body panel 24 of the envelope B³has its greater dimension in a horizontal direction, this being the panel which serves the double purpose of a front panel for the completed envelope, and an outer wall for the pocket P³, the other or inner wall for this pocket being formed of a separately formed patch 25 of suitable material, either opaque or transparent, secured adhesively to the body portion 24 as by marginal ⁶⁰regions of paste extending around three edges of the pocket, as indicated at 27 in Fig. 3.

The edge 28 is left open for insertion of an enclosure, and eventually a gummed sealing flap 37 is folded over this open edge to close the ⁶⁵same.

In pursuance of this feature of the invention, the body B³ of this type of envelope-leaf is so extended as to form desirably five auxiliary panels, 31, 32, 33, 34 and 35, of which the panel 70 33 is preferably of about the same dimensions as the panel 24, the edge 36 reaching approximately to the fold-line of flap 37.

The side flaps 31, 32, 34, 35 may be of any desired extent, preferably about one-half the 75

2,178,084 width of flap 33, so that they may be folded in on the vertical fold-lines 39 and then the bottom portions 32 and 34 thereof folded up with the flap 33 on horizontal fold-line 40 to cover the pocket P³, after which the sealing of the envelope is completed by folding down the sealing flap 37 into adhesive contact with the underlying face of flap 33, as will be readily understood.

This form of envelope is relatively inexpensive to fabricate, is easy to bind in, by its binding extension 44, in the manner already described with respect to the extension 14 in the other figures, and can be torn off on the easy tear line 45. It is held in place by the same stitches which fasten the signatures 43 .together within the cover 42.

When folded, the pocket P³ is surrounded on three sides by closed edge folds, and on the fourth side by the fold of seal flap 37, so that it constitutes ah unusually well-protected enclosing structure.

When open, it presents very large areas available for purposes of information, both of a directive and an advertising character.

It presents features of novelty which are useful in envelopes other than those intended to be bound in to a publication, and such features are generically covered by my claims where the latter are not limited to the binding-in feature.