US43904A - Jambs faye - Google Patents

Description

" UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

JAMES FAYE, OF PHILADELPHIA,

PENNSYLVANIA.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 43,904, dated August 23, 1864.

To a/ZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, J AMES FAYE, of Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful improvement on the method heretofore in use for the purpose of displaying bills of fare, which I term the Rotary Bill;77 and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description ofthe same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view; Fig. 2, a vertical section, the slats being removed for the purpose of showing the grooves; Fig. 3, a perspective view of one of the slats.

Like letters refer to like parts.

Letter a denotes the slats, letter b the grooves, and letter c the axes of the slats.

I provide slats a, of wood or other firm material, each of sufiicient length and breadth to bear the name of one dish, in such letters and style as the host may prefer, and having a rectangular axis, c, at each end. I next provide a frame consisting of head-piece d, footpiece e, and two uprights,f, joined at the four corners by any convenient means. Into the inward sides of the uprightsf, I cut corresponding grooves or bearings, b, for the axes c of the slats a. The grooves may be cut into the upright, or formed on a distinct piece and then attached to the inward side of the upright. Each axes c coincides on two of its faces with the corresponding faces ofthe slat a, and its two other sides are at right angles to these. The grooves b must be sufficiently wide to permit the quick and easy insertion, extraction, and revolution of the slats a, and should be so spaced as to allow the latter to revolve without danger of mutual contact. In other respects the spacing conforms to taste and convenience. v.I make the lower end of each groove b or bearing horizontal, in order that the slats a', when mounted, may stand at rest on either edge or on either side, at the option of the host. There should be one slat for each dish likely to be, from time to time, presented. The length of upright f should be sufficient to mount all the slats a required for any one meal. The head-piece d should be wide enough to give stability to the uprightsf or sides, and to the frame gener. ally; but the foot-piece e needs only sufiicient strength to hold firmly the lower ends of the uprights f.

Operation: Prior to each meal the caterer hangs in the frame one slat ot foreach dish that he intends to present, (each slat, of course, being lettered so as to represent a given dish.) rPhe whole is then put in a conspicuous position, on the wall or elsewhere, that the guests on entering may see it.

Thus we have a true and complete bill of fare adjusted in a few minutes to the supplies on hand at any time. With this programme before him the guest orders advisedly without any doubts or queries as to what can and cannot be had, while the host and help get relief from the burden of erasures, interlineations, and the successive repetition of the list of edibles to every inquirer.

Should any item in the bill give out in the course of the meal, the host puts his finger to the proper slat a, turns it one hundred and eighty degrees, and thus withdraws from view the name of the exhausted dish, presenting in lieu thereof a bare board; or he may, at his option, turn the slat only ninety degrees, putting it on the side, and not on the edge. The rectangular axes c and the horizontal bottoms of the grooves at rest in either position.

Should the missing item be replenished before the close of the sitting, a touch of the finger turns the slat a, and brings the name again to view. No words are spoken in either ease, yet the guests comprehend the significance of both moves, and modify their orders accordingly. The saving of speech, and consequently of time, at a critical moment, is here too manifest for argument.

When the items are few, the host may obviate unsightly vacancy by omitting a slat a between different classes of items, or by a general spreading out and tasteful spacing off; but should the items be too numerous for the frame, then a particular class-dessert, for examplemay be mounted in a secondary frame and hung alongside, under an appropriate heading, or appended below.

Slats c not in actual use-. e., not in the b will hold the slat a frameshould be kept in some convenient place, alphabetically arranged, and secured by a band to prevent displacement.

What I claim, therefore, as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, vis- A bill of fare whose lines shall be movable, rotary, and mutually independent, maintaining, at the'option of the caterer, a position on either edge or on either side by means of the axes and bearings above described, or by other adjuncts essentially the same, he Whole being constructed and operated substantially in the manner and for the purpose set forth.

JAMES FAYE.

Vitnesses:

EDMUND WILeoX, W. G. OARRICK.

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