TWAIN-L Archives

Mark Twain Forum

TWAIN-L@YORKU.CA

Options: Use Classic View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Condense Mail Headers

Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2017 13:38:58 -0600
MIME-version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 7.3 \(1878.6\))
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
From: Robert M Ellsworth <[log in to unmask]>
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable
Parts/Attachments: text/plain (7 lines)
Here is a direct link to the Google Patents page for the ‘Improvements in Scrap-books’ patent, from which you can download a PDF copy if the online documentation is too hard to read (as it very often is!)

https://www.google.com/patents/US140245

The idea is rather interesting: he covers the whole page with water-soluble glue or mucilage, and a user moistens just the area where something is to go, presumably most easily with a small brush or blot of paper.  Contemporary ads appear to show something between the treated gummed pages, perhaps material to which the gum left exposed between pasted items won’t self-stick in humid locations.  Presumably there is some care to provide ‘adhesive’ that will not stick until desired, perhaps dusting with (dyed) cornstarch or similar material to form what parents with diapered children might know as ‘a barrier layer’.

The accounts I’ve read say that he made ample profit from this invention, and my guess is that the name recognition was a large part of the attractiveness.  Perhaps it would still be, if anyone decided to “re-introduce” these with modern materials … I can think of a few improvements just looking at the patent drawings.

ATOM RSS1 RSS2