US2114130A - Stationery - Google Patents

Description

April 12 1,938a c. BRATE ZJMJSG STATIONERY Filed Jan. 25, 1936 @i.-9, lNvEN-roR 0 2e\ man M Patented Apr. 12, 1938 UNITED STATES PAT-ENT OFFlCE 3 Claims.

This invention relates to mailable items of the nature of letter sheets combined with means by which the letter sheet may be sealed in such fashion as to keep its contents secret during transmission to the addressee, the sheet being so folded as to cause parts thereof to enclose or envelope other parts, so that for the sake of brevity an item of this character when made according to the present invention is referred to herein as an Envel-letter, or more simply an envelletter.

An object of the invention is to provide an article of the above character comprising an envelletter fold or sheet element of any suitable size and material adapted to receive on a substantial part of its area a Written or printed communication and the article includes also an envelletter seal element made of separately formed strip material adapted to be folded over the edges of two or more adjacent plies, of the folded sheet element, being secured thereto in embracing relation and thus constituting a seal co-extensive with said edges, or at least such a substantial portion of their length as to render the contents of the communication secret.

A cognate object of my invention is to provide supply of the envelletter seal element in the form of a roll of suitable strip material, such as paper, thin linen fabric, or a material of the group including cellophane, cellulose-acetate and glassine, having on one of its faces gurnmed areas, preferably extending lengthwise of the supply strip, along each margin thereof, and spaced from each other to leave a gum-free area lengthwise of the strip.

The purpose of this provision is to make it possible for users of the envelletters to obtain a supply roll of the sealing strip ready to be used, so that the individual user can, with any available household or office implement, sever from the roll a sealing element of the right length to i'lt over the edge of any selected size of folded envelletter sheet and can assemble the sealing element with the folded sheet adhesively, after first moistening the gummed areas of the sealing element.

Another object of the invention is to provide a mailable object of the class described with a gummed marginal sealing strip element having a gum-free fold along the extremities of the underlying sheet-edges, embraced by the sealing strip, so that any tendency to cause adherence of the edges to each other will be obviated, by reason of the absence of gum at that region.

As a corollary, the gum-free condition provides for the easy opening of the seal by the ad- (Cl. 22B-92.1)

dressee, Who can accomplish the opening operation by simply slitting the sealing strip from end to end with a letter-opener, without marring the edges of the sheet but maintaining the sealing strip in place in the form of two moieties of strip material, one along each of the parted edges, each moiety having a clean-cut edge.

Another object of the invention is to provide a stock strip of sealing material adapted to be severed either manually or by suitable mechanism into a multiplicity of individual envelletter sealing elements to be applied as above described. This stock strip will make a convenient means for applying a return address to each envelletter, by printing along the length of the gummed stock strip the address of the sender, repeated with such frequency that the strip can be severed at any desired regions in cutting off the seals for any given number of envelletters,

thus providing seals of exactly the right length without regardl to the position of the address or other legend.

Still another object is to provide such a sealing strip of suitable size to permit the printing of inscription thereon of the addressees name and post cnice address, in such relationship with the postage stamp applied to the envelletter that when the stamp is cancelled by the postal authorities With any of the conventional dated cancelling devices, the strip will serve as a record of the mailing of the communication to which it is permanently attached, and will thereby constitute provable evidence of its transmission through the mails.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear as the description of the particular physical embodiment of the invention selected for illustration progresses.

In the accompanying drawing, like characters of reference have been applied to corresponding parts throughout the several views included in the drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a plan view in perspective of a sheet of paper adapted for use in carrying the invention into effect; 2 shows said sheet partly folded; Fig'. 3 shows the same in a further stage of folding; Fig. 4 shows the folded sheet in readiness to be sealed; Fig. 5 is a view in perspective upon an enlarged scale of the complete envelletter, provided with a sealing strip element bearing a return address and stamp, and with the name and postoflice address of the addressee duly inscribed; Fig. 6 is a View in end elevation of an envelletter after its sealing element has been parted by slitting it to permit the envelletter to be opened out; Fig. '7 is a View in plan, on a reduced scale, of the envelletter, opened out after the seal has been slitted; Fig. 8 is a schematic View in perspective of a supply roll of stock envelletter sealing strip, comprising a multiplicity of sealing elements, ready to be severed into individual seals so that each will bear one or more return addresses; Fig. 9 is a View in plan of a section of strip showing a modification in the form of the sealing elements. I

In a now-preferred embodiment of the invention selected for illustration and description, the part designated by the reference character Il is a sheet of paper which constitutes the body of an envelletter made in accordance with the present invention having printed or inscribed upon at least one surface thereof, as indicated schematically by the lines I2, any desired communication, such as a personal or business letter, an advertisement, or any other desired legend or illustrative or informative matter.

For the sake of convenience, Fig. 1 is furnished with dot-dash lines I3, I4, I5, I6 although these need not be present upon the actual letter sheet,

- as they merely indicate where the sheet is to be folded.

In Fig. 2, the sheet has been doubled along the line IS and then again on the lines I4 and I5 so that when pressed together, these in-folded portions occupy the relative positions indicated in Fig. 3.

So, in Fig. 4, the sheet is shown after a transverse folding of the already infolded parts on the line I6 and now all of the original longitudinal margins or edges represented by the reference numerals I'I and I8 are brought together along what has now become the upper edge I9 of the envelletter, although the designation upper" is not used in a limitative sense.

In pursuance of the invention, the user now applies to the edge I9 an envelletter seal element 28 as shown in Fig. 5, and which may desirably be one of a series severed from a strip Y2| kept in stock in the form of a supply roll 22 of such elements (see Fig. 8). This strip is made in continuous form having on the reverse side gummed areas 23 and 24, extending along its lower margins, a lengthwise gum-free area 25 being left therebetween.

When so applied to the envelletter fold the gum-free region 25 is contiguous to the edge I9 forming a fold binding the same, but not secured adhesively to the extreme edges I'I, I8, so that the edges Il and I8 are gum-free and do not adhere to each other, although they are so closely united that the communication represented by the lines I2 is completely sealed-in and is therefore kept secret, until the recipient slits the sealing strip along the region 25, using a sharp paper cutter or knife preferably or shearing the same in such a way that clean edges are left, as shown in Figs. 6 and '7, at 2G and 3U respectively.

In pursuance of another feature of the invention, already set forth with some detail, the strip 2l illustrated in the present instance has been imprinted, as at 25, with the name and address of the sender, repetitively along its length, so that the individual seal element designated 28 in the drawing is shown as having several of the return addresses so imprinted.

It is to be noted, accordingly, that the user can be supplied with a roll, so printed, embodying say a thousand or more envelletter seal elements, for indiscriminate combination with a correspondingly proportionate number of envelletter folds, the latter being of convenient dimensions and material to serve the varying requirements of correspondence.

If desired, the stock seal strip may have the return addresses so spaced as to leave room for inscription of the name and post-office address of the addressee as at 2'1, in Fig. 9 and it may be found desirable in many instances to apply thereto the postage stamp, or permit as at 28, in prepayment of the postal rate appropriate for the class of mail matter to which the item belongs. W'hen so stamped, the cancelling of the postage stamp with any conventional dated canceller will provide the addressee with a suitable official indication of the transmission of the article through the mails.

While I have illustrated and described a physical embodiment of the invention I Wish it to be understood that such illustrative embodiment does not exhaust the possibilities of physical embodiments of the idea of means underlying this invention.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is:

l. A mailing piece comprising a sheet of adhesive-free material bearing upon a suitable portion of its surface a communication to be transmitted, said sheet being folded upon itself to form a polygonal folder closed along all of its edges but one against inspection of said communication, and having the several free marginal portions of the folded plies of said sheet brought into juxtaposition along the remaining open edge; and a separately formed seal element combined with said folded sheet being secured adhesively in folded relation over said open edge substantially throughout the extent thereof, and which constitutes the exclusive sealing means for said mailing piece, said seal element being characterized by a strip of sheet material having gummed areas parallel with and secured adhesively to the contiguous faces of said marginal portions of said sheet, and having a gum-free area constituting a fold embracing the adjacent sheet margins along said initially open edge, whereby Said folder is completely sealed against inspection of said communication, said folded sealing element presenting an imperforate area at each margin of the enfolded edges to which it is attached, and being so disposed that it can be slitted evenly by an instrument inserted between said edges, and thereby each moiety of the sealing element will remain in place as a smooth selvage along the divided edges of the letter sheet.

2. As an article of manufacture, a stock sealing strip comprising an imperforate strip of flexible material of indefinite length formed with gummed marginal Zones and a medial longitudinal gum-free zone, said strip bearing on its other face a series of legends or imprints such as mailing return addresses, the strip being designed to be severed into a multiplicity of sealing elements of desired length, each having a suitable quantum of adhesive on one side and a legible quantum of the legend on the other side, said legends being disposed in repetition indiscriminately of the regions at which said strip may be severed to form individual sealing elements.

3. As an article of manufacture, a stock sealing strip in the form of a roll comprising a strip of flexible material having the features claimed in claim 6.

CHARLOTTE BRATE.

' CERTIFICATE opi coRREcTIoN.

`Apri1-1i2g V'19553.

Patent No. 2,11LL,1O.

l v CHARLOTTE BRATE.

v11; is. herebyleergtifiedthat Jeri-or appears 1n' 'the printed specifiatih V'of the above'umlberedvpatln-t requrin'gborrebtn as fllws: Page 2,' second column, vline 75; claim 5, forth 1'am"referca *numeral* 6,5' read 2l;- and that the Said Letters Patent 'shuldb read irvichfthis4 c'orrectionitherein that the Sgmefzgy' 'c onf'orn'ift th'e'r'ecbrd-'Ofth'e caseinxth'e Patnt Office,V

' signed and Sealed-this 51st day bf may; A.D. 1958.

Henry V'an Arsd'ale

Images