Untitled record

Application filed December 22,1891. Serial No. 415,872. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Luther C. Crowell, a citizen of the United States, residing at Brooklyn, county of Kings, and State of New York, 5 have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Preventing Fraud in the Sale of Newspapersand other Publications, fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanyio ing drawings, forming a part of the same.

It is customary at the present time for publishers of newspapers to furnish them to newsdealers and agents in large quantities upon the condition that such as remain unsold shall 15 be returnable. This affords an opportunity for fraud upon publishers, which news-dealers, agents, and others have availed themselves of to such an extent that it is recognized as a serious objection to this method of selling 20 newspapers, and many attempts have been made to provide some simple and effective means for preventing this.

The opportunity for fraud is largely afforded through the practice of a large class of 25 persons who purchase daily newspapers of throwing them aside as soon as read, so that the paper is usually in a nearly perfect condition. Thus large quantities of papers accumulate in public conveyances, hotels, club30 rooms, and similar places. These papers are frequently collected by newsboys and others and sold to dealers and agents at a low price, who in turn return them to the publishers as unsold papers. Among the methods of pre35 venting this fraud that have been suggested and tested is that of sealing the paper, so that the breaking of the seal is necessary in order to allow access to the reading matter inside the folded sheet. Numerous methods of sealing 4° have been suggested, such as riveting or pasting the edges of the paper together or applying a small seal of paper or other suitable material, which embraces the edges of the sheet and is pasted to opposite sides thereof, so as 45 to inclose the sheet and prevent access to the reading matter except by breaking the seal. Such a seal and an apparatus for applying the same is shown in my prior Letters Patent, No. 419,833. Serious practical objections, however, have been found to all the methods 50 thus far suggested. The riveting or pasting the edges mutilates the paper when unsealed, aud care is necessary in unsealing the paper in order to fully open the sheet and not tear the part of the page containing the reading 55 matter. The paper seal applied to bind the edges of the sheet together is objected to by news-dealers and agents on the ground that the seals become broken accidentally in handling the papers, the edges being exposed, 60 and this results in loss to them. Moreover such a seal leaves a large part of a paper exposed to the reader without breaking the seal, if the sheet have but a few folds, and in the present development of the newspaper with 65 papers of a very large number of pages it is difficult to apply a seal to the completelyfolded paper which shall be sufficient to hold it and still be readily broken by the purchaser.

In solving this difficulty it seems to be nec- 70 essary that some act should be performed by the purchaser in order that the paper may be marked as a sold paper, and it is evidently necessary that this act should be such as to be compulsory if the paper is to be read, or 75 so desirable to the purchaser that he may be depended upon to perform it. All previous efforts have been directed toward a solution by which it should be compulsory upon the purchaser to perform the act marking the pa- 80 per as sold. I attain the desired object by a very simple, cheap, and convenient method, which involves but the slightest labor on the part of the purchaser, by which practically all danger of accidentally marking the paper as 85 sold is avoided and by which the marking cannot deface the paper, but may render the paper more attractive, my method depending upon rendering it desirable for rather than absolutely compulsory on the purchaser to 90 mark the paper as sold.

My improved method consists of detachably securing to one of the pages of the papers a small slip or sheet which for convenience may be called a “seal,” this seal having 95 matter on its under side and being so secured that it may readily be removed or broken to

I gain access to such matter. The matter on

480,424 the under side of the seal will preferably be matter of especial interest.to the buyer—such as important or late news or a comic picture— and this may be indicated on the outer side 5 of the seal, thus rendering the removal or breaking of the seal by the buyer more certain. The seal may also be made of use or rendered an attraction to the paper. Thus in the present development of voting contests in io newspapers the removable seal may be a vote.

The seals maj⁷ be used, also, for advertising purposes, this affording a very prominent advertising-space. The seal may be of different-colored paper from that of which the main 15 paper is composed, or embossed, printed in colors, or rendered attractive in any other manner, as printing upon it a comic or other picture. Many other uses will readily suggest themselves, the above being but illustra20 tions.

It will be understood that the form and size of the seal, as well as its location upon the page, may be varied in any manner desired, and that it may be applied by hand, if de25 sired, although it will preferably be applied by an attachment connected with the delivery mechanism of the printing-machine or with a folding-machine. The seal maj⁷ be applied to any of the pages of the paper or other pub30 lication. In the case of newspapers it will preferably be applied to one of the outside pages, and the last page may be found practically the best, as the seal will then be folded inside the last fold and all possible ground 35 for claiming accidental breakage removed. The news-dealers and agents may then be required to refold returned papers with the seal outside for the convenience of the publisher.

In the accompanying drawings, forming 40 part of this specification, I have shown the preferred form of seal by which my invention iscarried outand several modifications thereof as applied to newspapers.

Figure 1 is a face view of a folded sheet, 45 showing the preferred form of the seal; and Figs. 2, 3, and 4 show modifications.

In all the figures the paste-lines are shown by light dotted lines.

In Fig. 1, A is the paper to which the seal 50 a is applied. The seal in its preferred form, as shown, consists of the two end portions 1, which are secured permanently to the paper, preferably by pasting, and the central portion 2, which is formed of the same slip as 55 the smaller end portions, but is perforated, as shown at 3, so as to be readily detached therefrom. As the central portion 2, forming the seal proper, is loose, it is evident that it may be removed readily by a side movement of the 60 fingers.

The seal is shown as applied to the first page of the paper and at the middle of the side margin, so as to be folded with the paperin the usual central cross-fold. This, posi65 tion is very convenient for the clerk in examing returned papers, as the edges of the pa pers show immediately as he runs over them with his hand whether the seals have been removed. With the seal constructed and secured as shown, there is little danger of its 70 being broken or removed accidentally; but, if preferred, the seal may be putin the same position on the last page, so as to be folded inside the sheet. In this case the agents may be required to refold returned papers with the 75 seals on the outside, when they may be handled by the clerk as above described.

When the seal is applied over the reading matter on a page, the matter in the column on which the seal is applied is preferably so 80 arranged that the pasted portions of the seal will lie upon the blank spaces between articles, so that none of the reading matter is covered by the permanent portions of the seal. An important piece of news or other matter 85 will be placed on the under side of the seal and the seal may be marked, as shown, “ See other side,” or with any other suitable legend, and, as above explained, the seal may be made ornamental or an illustration, an advertise- 90 ment or other matter placed thereon. For further protection the parts of the seal may be numbered, as shown, so that it will be necessary for one reattaching removed seals to papers to secure the seals originally attached 95 thereto, or the matter upon the seal may be arranged so as to extend over both the permanent and detachable parts of the seal, so as to be broken by the removal of the latter. While this construction of the seal made in 100 three parts is preferred, as there is no danger of tearing the paper by its removal, this is not essential to my method.

In Fig. 2 I have shown the seal as applied to the upper corner of the page and pasted at 105 an end and side edge to the margin of the page, so that no paste is applied upon the portion of the paper containing the reading matter. This seal may readily be removed by the loose portion and will preferably be no put on the last page, so as to be inclosed within the folded paper, the loose corner rendering it more liable to accidental removal than the seal of Fig. 1.

In Fig. 3 I have shown a seal applied to the 115 corner of the paper and pasted only at its two end edges, no paste being applied upon the printed part of the page and the seal being readily removed by passing the finger under the loose middle portion. 120

In the constructions thus far described the seal has been pasted at two edges, so that the loose portion is held closely upon the face of the paper. It may be found, however, that this is not necessary, and that pasting at a 125 single edge is sufficient. Thus in Fig. 4 I have shown a seal pasted only at one end and lying loose over the reading matter upon the page. The reading matter upon the under side of the seal in this construction will pref- 130 erably read downward of the page in the normal position of the seal, so that on turn

480,424 ing the seal over it will be upside down to the reader, rendering it necessary or much preferable for the seal to be torn off for convenience in reading.

It will be understood that other modifications may be made in the special means for carrying out my inven tion, and that the forms shown are selected only as the preferred forms and for the purpose of illustration.

io While I have described my method as applied to newspapers, and this is its most important application, it will be understood that its use is not limited to newspapers, but that it is applicable, also, to other publications.

I do not claim herein the method of preventing fraud in the sale of newspapers and other publications which consists in applying to a page of the publication a seal partly attached to the page, so as to cover and conceal a part of the matter on the page until the seal is broken or detached, nor a paper having such a seal, as this forms the subject-mat ter of another application, Serial No. 380,324, filed February 5,1891.