ENVELOPE, a paper case, sealable by means of an adhesive flap or other means, and used for enclosing letters or other matter. It has not been established definitely by whom and where envelopes were invented, but they seem to have been used first in France, possibly as early as the middle of the 17th century, though in very limited quantities. They were not in general use in any country prior to 1839-40, when, after the passage of the penny postage bill, they became common in England. Until about 1845 nearly all letters in this coun try were folded so that an unwritten portion came on the outside, and the address was placed there, though even then there was a certain de mand for envelopes, all of which, however, were made entirely by hand. Gradually the use of envelopes spread and by 1850 practically all letters were enclosed in them. The first maker of envelopes in New York is believed to have been a Mr. Pierson who, as early as 1843, made envelopes by hand in his store on Fulton street. In 1846 he sold his business to an Englishman named Dangerfield who was soon succeeded, first by Jacob Berlin, and then by W. G. West. At that time only 2,000 or 3,000 could be made in a day, as machinery was not yet used. The blanks were cut out by means of a sheet of metal, placed on top of a pile of paper, around the edges of which a sharp knife was run. They were then folded and pasted by hand. Machines were invented in England, probably as early as 1840, though they were not patented until 1849, by Warren de la Rue and Edwin Hill, the latter a brother of Sir Rowland Hill (q.v.), the father of the penny post. These machines were one of the chief attractions of the Hyde Park Exposition, held in London in 1851. The first machine used in this country was a French model. It had been purchased in 1847 for $600 by H. C. Ber lin, son of Jacob Berlin, who had gone into the envelope business with his father's suc cessor, W. G. West. This machine, however, was not very successful. The first patent for an envelope-folding machine was issued in the United States 23 Jan. 1849 to J. K. Park and C. S. Watson of New York, the second on 26 April 1853 to E. Coleman, Philadelphia. Neither of these was accompanied by commercial suc cess. The third patent was issued to Dr. Russel L. Hawes, a physician of Worcester, Mass., in 1853. This machine was quite successful, but was used exclusively by the concern founded by its inventor, which, after many changes in ownership, is still in existence as the W. H. Hill Envelope Company, Division of the United States Envelope Company. Not until just be fore the outbreak of the Civil War was a ma chine patented and placed on the open market. The inventor was George H. Reay, and his machine was for many years one of the most successful. It gave a tremendous impetus to the envelope industry. At this period many
others invented envelope machines or attach ments to them none of which, however, could be purchased in the open market From then on the development of envelope machinery made rapid strides. Improvements gradually pro vided for self-feeding, gumming, automatic counting, etc. The men chiefly responsible for these improvements were J. M. D. Keating, T. V. Waymouth, H. D. and D. W. Swift, J. G. Arnold, D. Whitcomb, and others. Many of these early inventors went into business for themselves and quite a number of these com paratively old concerns were included in the consolidation of the 10 leading envelope com panies accomplished in August 1898, and there after known as the United States Envelope Company, Inc. Modern machines have been irnproved to a point where it is possible for one machine to turn out as many as 55,000 en velopes.a day. The variety of envelopes, too, has rapidly increased. They are used now not only to enclose letters, but a great deal of printed matter and for many other purposes. Recent innovations are especially the so-called window-envelope, with a transparent front through which the address at the head of a letter can be read, saving thereby the separate addressing of the envelope; envelopes with special sealing devices, such as metal hooks and eyes, threads, etc.; and the envelooe with a wire or thread attached to its inner edge, facilitating its opening. Since 1853 the govern ment supplies stamped envelopes, which are purchased in ever increasing quantities, the total issue to postmasters in 1916 amounting to 1,853, 791,461 of a gross selling value of $36,875,445. About two-thirds of these are issued with printed return cards in the upper left hand corner. Practically every government, having a postal service, issues stamped envelopes. The remarkable growth of the envelope industry can be seen from the following figures, based on (The United States Census of Manufactures of 1914) (Washington 1917) : In 1849, the first year for which figures are available, the total value of products in the envelope industry was $45,000. In 1914 there were 90 establishments with 6,970 operatives, capitalized at $15,&30,000 and producing goods valued at $18,481,000. These figures indicate increases during the 10-year period, 1904-14, of 25 per cent, 62 per cent, 110 per cent and 77 per cent, respectively. Envelope factories were located in 1914 in 15 States of the Union, especially in Massachusetts, Illinois, Ohio, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Missouri. Consult Logan, J., 'The Story of the Envelope) (in The Red Envelope, Hartford 1915-17) ; House of Representatives, Committee on United States Post Office and Post Roads, 'Stamped Envelopes' (Hearings during April 1910, Washington 1910).