US1478876A - Sorting table or file-distributing device - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 25. 1923. 1,478,876 D. G. MCCARTY SORTING TABLE 0R FILE DISTRIBUTING DEVICE Filed June 8. 1920 Fig.1.

Min 88- ?J In Us nt or.

Q? Dwight w carty. .By, Attorneys. v

Patented Dec. 25, 1923. I i

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DWIGHT G. MCGARTY, F EMMETSBURGr/IOWA.

SORC EING TABLE OR FILE-DISTRIBUTING DEVICE.

Application filed June 8, 1920. Serial No. 387,449.

To all whom it may concern: partments 'C and D will conveniently re- Be it known that I, DWIGHT G. MoCARTY, ceive letter size papers.

a citizen of the United States, and resi- The ends of the box have their upper dent of Emmetsburg, in the county of Palo surfaces inclined from their front portions Alto and State of Iowzuhave invented a rearwardly and upwardly, as shown in Fig- 00 certain new and useful Sorting Tableor ure 2, and the back of the box is higher File-Distributing Device, of which the fol-, than the front of the box. The compartlowing is a specification. ments B and D have a false bottom 16, The object of my invention is to prowhich is so arranged that thefiles or papers vide a device of simple. and inexpensive in the rear compartments will project above as construction, for distributing correspondthose in the front compartments. ence for convenience and economy of time For each of the compartments I provide in filing. a. series of separator sheets E, comprising With this and other objects in View, my separate sheets 17 each preferably being invention consists in the construction, arprovided with an indicating tab. 18 on its rangement and combination of the various upper edge. These tabs, 18 may have 011- parts of my device, whereby the objects conthem the' letters of the alphabet, or any templated are attained, as hereinafter more other indexing indices or legends.

fully set forth, pointed out in my claim and The sheets 17 are provided near their 20 illustrated in the accompanying drawings, lower edges withregistering openings 19,

' in which: I and, spaced therefrom, with registering Figure 1 shows ,a front elevation of a Openings 20. I preferably extend a cord correspondence distributing device embody 21 through all of the openings, 19, and v in r my invention. then back through all of the openings 20,

25 *igure 2 shows a perspective view of a and theends of the cord may be tied into receiving cabinet or box forming part of a knot 22. It will be seenthat the knot-'22 my invention. i may be so adjusted as to allow more or Figure 3 shows a front elevation of the less slack in the cord, as may be desir dcorrespondence separating sheets; and In the practical use of my improved sort- 30 Figure 4 shows a side elevation of the ingtable or file distributing device, letdevice shown in Figure 3. ters, documents and papers of'all kinds can In the accompanying drawings I have be quickly and efficiently filed. All papers used the reference numeral 10 to indicate to be filed are first placed in a file tray or generally a supporting stand or table. The basket, ready 1 g. e papers are table 10 preferably has the two drop leaves thrown in the basket during theday as they so 11 and 12, at opposite sides, which leaves come, without any regard to the file in may be raised when the device is being which they are ultimately to be placed. used, for furnishing space upon which letl/Vhen the time for filing arrives,the letters ters and papers may be laid out for conand papers are taken from this tray or 40 venience in handling. basket and placed on the sorting table (Fig- Resting on the table 10 is a case 13, which ure 1) before the operat r. h omparthas the form of a box or the like, of greater Inent box (Figure l 2) is divided into comlength than width, which box is provided partments, each compartment correspond- With a vertical partition 14: running from ing to a file in the office system. The box end to end, and preferably with a transcontains one compartment for each office verse partition 15 extending from front to file, and these compartments are of legal rear and located nearer one end than the cap size or, letter size, dependingupon other. I whether the papers to be filed are to be These partitions divide the box into four filed in a cap size file or a letter size file.

50 compartments, A, B, C and D. The com- The separator sheets or guide cards (Fig- 05 partments A and B are longer than the ure also correspond to the guide cards compartments 0 and D, and the compartin the respective office files, whether alphaments are preferably of such size that the betioal, numerical, geographical or any compartments A and B will conveniently other classification. Each compartment of 56 receive legal cap size papers, and the comthe box is labeled to correspond to the file 11o which it represents in the ofice filing system. Y

The operator having before her the letters and papers to be filed, takes the letters or papers from the .topvo't' the file in the order in which they come, anddistributes them behind the properguidesin the proper compartments of the sorting table. The

place where each is distributed, corresponds I therefore with the folder or guide in which it willultimately be filed in the proper oifice file. After all the letters and papers have been sorted into the proper compartments on the sorting table, the sorting table is rolled to the ofiice files, and theseparator sheets or guides are taken from the first compartment corresponding to thefirstfile, and laid on the sorting table at the left side of the operator in the position as shown in" Figure l. The operator then turns down the separator sheets or guides asv in Figure l, turning-them the same as the leaves of a book. As the-- first sheet is turned 1 down any letters or papers in that compartment are filed by the operator pulling outthe drawer of thefile and placing those letters or papers in the proper place in the file. The operator proceeds turning down the leaves and filing the papers straight on through the file in the order in which they come. is completed, the separator sheets are returned to the compartment, and the separator sheets taken from another compartment and the papers therein-filedin another file in the same way. This oper'ation'is continued until the filing is complete.

By this method, and with the aid of this novel and improved device, for sorting and distributing the papers to be filed, the routine task of filing is accomplished, 'expeditiously and etliciently, This method avoids going back and forth through the ofiice files,

-pu'lling out drawers again and again and cries-crossing back and forth with' -consequent loss of time and energy, asis the case Byunder the ordinary method o'f' filing. this'device, all papers to be filed in one place are brought together so that they are all filed with one operation at one time. f This device is adaptable to any filing system whether for just ordinary correspondence tfiled alphabetically, or. a large filing system containing many difierent files or departments. By the use of this improved and novel device, thessorting of the letters or papers is rendered simple, accurate and speedy, and when once sorted, the filing goes progressively, straight through the files,

without confusion, delay or wasteful hunting to enable the principles of efficiency to be applied to the routine work of filingand by its convenience, simplicity and novel use oi improved appliances 1t eliminates waste time and energy andcontmbutes materially to thesolving of the'practical problems of Office filing.

Some changes may be made 111 the-construction and arrangement of my 1mproved device Without departing from the real'spirit and purpose of my lnvention, and it is my intention to cover by my claim anymodified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents which may be reasonably included within its scope.

I claim as my invention:

In a sorting device of the class described, a container having a plurality of rear compartments of different sizes as to width, a plur'alityof similar forward compartments,

a group of separator sheets for each compartment, each group being freely removable I from its compartment, a flexible member extended through eachgroup of sheets in the form of a loop, whereby the sheets of each group are freely slidable upon two stretches of each flexible member, each rearward compa rtment having a higher bot-tom than each forward compartment.

Des Moines, Iowa, February 16, 1920, DWIGHT G. MCC'ARTY.

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