US408361A - In d ex - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) 2 sheets-sheet 1. H. A. STEPHENSON.

INDEX. No. 408,361. Patented Aug. 6, 1889..

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' H. A. STEPHBNSON.

INDEX.

No. 408,361. Patented Aug.. 6, 1889.'

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

I-IAEVEY A; sTEPI-IENsoN, or ALLEeI-IENY, PENNSYLVANIA.

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SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 408,361, dated August 6, 1889.

Application iiled April 2, 1888. Serial No. 269,278. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, HARVEY A. STEPHEN- SON, of Allegheny, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Indexes; and I do hereby declare the following` to be a full,clear, and exact description thereof.

My invention relates to an improvement in indexes for dictionaries, directories, an d other books of reference, and the Bible, its object being to save time and labor in referring to them, and thereby to make their use Inore convenient and less laborious. It is illustrated in the accompanying drawings,y in which-` Figure l shows Iny improved index system applied to the page of a dictionary. Fig. 2 shows it applied to the page of a book of a Inercantile agency. Fig. 3 shows it applied to a page of the Bible.

The Inain feature of my invention is to provide a dictionary or other work on `each page or on a convenient number of pages with an abbreviated tabulated reference-index arranged on the margin, so that a person glancing at it may be able to tell approximately on what page of the book he may find any given word, name, division, or subject.

Referring to Fig. l, the margin of the page is shown provided with four lines of characters and with the capital letter 0. This illustration is designed for a page of a dictionary on which are words whose initial letter is C. all the letters of the alphabet arranged in order, and on the first line above these letters are arranged numbers 1, 30, 52, dce., indicating the pages on which begin words whose initial letters are stated in the second line immediately below. Thus a reference to this index shows that words beginning with the letter Il begin on page 193 of the dictionary, that words beginning with the letter S begin on page 373, &c. These two lines are preferably,therefore, printed on the Inargin of each page in the book. The third and fourth lines vary according to the place in the book. The case illustrated is when the index is on pages containing words whose initial letter is 0. Lines two and three show that the words whose first two letters vare F Ga On the second line of characters arebegin on page 52, that the words whose first two letters are Cu begin 0n page 100, &c. The fourth line is designed to indicate words whose first two initial letters are f Co, because such words are more frequent than any others among the Cs. It shows, for example, that words beginning Cob commence on page 74, words beginning Com commence on page 77, (inc. By adding other lines the index may be carried out to indicate the first four or five letters of words or names, if desired.

By arranging the index as I have stated, the work of referring to the dictionary or any alphabetically-arranged book is very much shortened, because wherever the book is opened the first two lines will show to the reader on what page to find words of that initial letter which he is' seeking, and on turning to that page the index on it, which indicates by the second and third lines the place of words having the first two letters of the desired word, will show in nearly every instance the exact page on which the desired word may be found.

My invention is susceptible of many modiiications both of mechanical arrangement and adaptation, to suit reference-books of various classes. Thus, instead of printing the index horizontally at the top of the page, it may be arranged vertically along the side.

In adapting the invention to directories the arrangement is the same practically as that in dictionaries; but in its application to the books of mercantile agencies and the like it is somewhat modified in form, the principle remaining the same. In such cases the words in the book are arranged in classes under the names of States and 'Territories Thus under the title of Pennsylvania are arranged alphabetically sub-titles of cities and towns in that State, under which are arranged in alphabetical order the names of the business firms domiciled in those places, and so with the other States and Territories. In order, therefore, to apply the marginal index to such a book, as shown in Fig. 2, I arrange the first two lines of the index vertically along the margin at the side of the page. On the first line of the index I place the abbreviated names of the States in alphabetical order,

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and on the second line, immediately next and opposite to the names of the States, are placed the numbers indicating the pages on which begin the names of towns alphabetically classified under the respective States. Thus a reference to these first and second lines, which may be the same on every page, shows that the names under the head of Pennsylvania begin on page 1294, that the names under the head California begin on page 46, 85o. For convenience in arrangement I print the other lines of the index horizontally along the top or bottom of the page, and these lines vary according to the place in the book. The illustration given in the drawings shows a page taken from the classification under the head of the State of Pennsylvania. The second horizontal line shows letters of the alphabet in order, which are designed to indicate the initial letters of the towns and villages in the State. Thus to find the page of the book on which begin the names of firms doing business in Pittsburg I refer to the letter P on the second line, and by looking at the number on the first line immediately above the letter P I find that the first page of the Ps is page 1374. These first two lines are the same on every page in the book under the head of Pennsylvania As a further subdivision of this index, I may add two or more lines, of which the third (supposing the page to be among those which contain the names of places in Pennsylvania beginning with the letter P) has arranged in order under the letters ofthe second line the figures indicating the numbers of the pages on. which are classified places whose names begin with P and whose second letters are indicated by the second line. Thus a reference to this line shows that names of places in Pennsylvania whose first two initial letters are Pa begin on page 1374, that names of places whose initial letters are Ph (Philadelphia, for example) begin on page 1376, &c. The third line is the same on every page under the head Pennsylvania containing the subdivisions of places beginning with the letter P, and it varies according to the initial letters'of the subdivisions.

The fourth line indicates the subdivisions of business firms under the names of large cities whose initial letter is indicated by the capital letter at the left of the series. In the example shown in the drawings I have taken the city of Philadelphia. A reference to this line shows that the list of business firms in that city the initial letter of whose names or styles is B begins on page 1378, those whose names begin with the letter S begin on page 1407, &c. Suppose now that itis desired to ascertain the standing of the firm of Smith & Jones, a firm doing business in the city of Philadelphia. By opening the book at any page and glancing at the vertical lines on the side margin of thepage it will be seen that the general divisions of Pennsylvania begin on page 1294. Turning now to page 1294, the horizontal lines at the top show that the subdivision of places whose initial letter is P begins on page 1374. Turning to page 1374, the third horizontal line indicates that the subdivision of places whose initial letters are Ph begins on page 137 6, and on referring to this page and finding any of the pages containing the classification of Philadelphia the fourth line shows that the list of firms in Philadelphia whose initial letter is S begins on page 1407.

The principle of my invention may be further carried out in cases of large cities by adding other lines giving the second letter of the firm-names; but I deem the examples which I have shown and described to be sufficient to make clear the nature of the invention. In case of the smaller or less thickly populated States or Territories (for example, Texas, New Mexico, &c.,) it is not necessary to carry out the index as fully as I have shown it. In such cases the-first two of the horizontal lines of the index would be sufficient. The fourth line is only used to indicate the subdivisions in large cities.

For convenience sake I arrange the first two lines vertically on the vertical margin of the book and the other lines horizontally on the upper margin of the book; but they may be otherwise arranged to suit the conditions of the particular case to which the index is applied.

In Fig. 3 I show the application of the system to the Bible. The number of books in the Bible is so large that they cannot be conveniently arranged in a single column. I therefore divide them into two vertical columns, one of which, containing in alphabetical order the books of the Old Testament, is

placed on the outer margin of the left-hand page, and the other, containing in alphabetical order the books of the New Testament, is placed on the outer margin of the right-hand page. Beside each of these vertical columns is a second column indicating the page of the Bible on which begin the books indicated in the first column. These vertical columns are the same throughout the Bible. Thus a reference to the margin at any place at which the Bible may be opened shows that the book of Amos begins on page 564, the book o f vI Kings on page 231, the book of Matthew on page 597, the book of Acts on page 683, &c. The other lines, which are preferably printed horizontally, vary with the particular book of the Bible.

The case illustrated is taken from a page in the book of Matthew, and the two horizontal lines which I have shown are printed on every page in that book. In the first lineare arranged in order the numbers of the chapters, and on the second line, immediately below, are the numbers indicating the pages on which begin the chapters indicated in the line above. Thus, having found the book of Matthew on page 597, we find that chapter 14 begins on page 606.

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By obvious modiiications, such as will suggest themselves, the marginal index may be applied to encyclopedias, lexicons of all languages, and generally to books of reference of every kind. Its utility is manifest, and Will be appreciated by those having occasion to use such books frequently. It is si1nple,'easy to use, and as it is printed with the rest of the book, it can be applied Without materiallyincreasing the cost of the book and Without disiguring it. If desired, the index which I have shown may be used in part by using on each page of a dictionary or other book the first two lines shown in Fig. l Without more; or the second and third, or the second, third, and fourth, lines may be used alone on the margins to indicate the second and third letters of Words under the general alphabetical divisions, and in such cases the first line indieating these 'general alphabetical divisions may be omitted altogether, or it may bc arranged once at the beginning of the book or in a number of places in the book, as may be desirable. This ,same modification may be applied to the books of mercantile agencies and other books Where the divisions and subdivisions are so numerous as to make it difiicult to arrange them all on one page.

Another` feature of my invention consists in placing at the upper corner of the page of a book the Words or book divisions, beginning and ending on the page or abbreviations thereof, together with the number of the page, arranged vertically one over the other. This aords a very ready Way of nding a desired place in a'book, and is of great convenience. I show it in Fig. l.

I claim- 1. A book having on one or more of its pages a marginal index comprising, iirst, an initial character or characters; second, a line of letters alphabetically arranged; third, a line of number characters arranged with relation to the letters in the rst-named line to indicate the pageon which the combination of the initial character and the letter of the first line appear, and, fourth, a line of number characters arranged With relation to the alphabetline to indicate the page Where each alphabet letter becomes an initial letter, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. A book having on one or more of its pages a marginal index comprising, -first, an initial character or characters; second, a line of letters alphabetically arranged; third, a line of number characters arranged With relation to the letters in the iirst-named line to indicate the page on which the combination of the initial character and the letter of the first line appear; fourth, a line of number characters arranged With relation to the alphabet-line to indicate the page where each alphabet letter becomes an initial letter, and, fifth, a line of numerals arranged in relation to the alphabet-line to indicate in succession the pages Where combinations of the initial letter and tWo or more letters of the alphabet-line will appear, substantially as and for the purposes described.

` In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 2d day of March, A. D. 1888.

HARVEY A. STEPHENSON.

Vitnesses:

W. B. ConvviN, I. K. SMITH.

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