A Blog of Bosh

In 1909 Peter Newell filed an application for a patent on books with leaves “having designs thereon, and having corresponding portions of said designs cut away to provide sight openings.” The drawings used to illustrate it are sketches of the pictures published that same year under the title of Jungle-Jangle, a mild satire of Theodore Roosevelt’s hunting expedition to Africa.

While the patent for the Slant Book was granted within months of the filing, this one took until 1911 to receive approval, perhaps because instances of “peep shows” or “tunnels” had already appeared at least since the 1850s, according to the Popup Lady’s “History of Movable Books” (also see “Exploring Tunnel Books” at artistbooks.org and Patrizia Ghirardelli’s “Glossario“). Peter Newell’s slim volume, however, differs from the traditional tunnel book for its use of the cut-out shapes as a narrative device which prepares the final revelation; the old peep shows aimed at showing a surprising but static scene.

Interestingly, an incredibly similar design had been filed in 1908 by one Frank U. Wagner but it did not receive approval until 1912: in this case the lady’s face showing through the hole was to be in relief, a variation on S. and J. Fuller’s early-19th century doll-books such as The history of little Fanny, exemplified in a series of figures and Frank Feignwell’s attempts to amuse his friends on Twelfth Night. Exhibited in a series of characters.

Peter Newell’s innovations in book technology, while mostly not very radical, induced him to patent the designs he created, below is the first page of his patent for the Slant Book:

In the specification he writes:

… I, Peter S. Newell of Leonia, in the State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Illustrated Books and Pamphlets …
As such books have been heretofore made it has been usual to form or shape them in rectangular configuration, with the result that no, or but little, variety in the form of the books could be obtained, and the constant uniformity of such books in such forms, fails to meet the desire for change and variety which is strong in many persons, especially in children and young people. In addition to that, such monotonous form of book does not lend itself to impart any suggestion of action or motion to the design or pictorial representations which may be shown therein, so that whether the pictures represent flying or climbing upward, or sliding down hill, it is always the same rectangular form of book and page on which such motion is to be suggested or delineated.
In books made according to my invention the shape of the book itself and of the pages therein suggests the action or motion which is intended to characterize the illustration contained therein.

The pictures above show that Newell was thinking of using the peculiar shape for more varied effects, though in the end he exploited only the downhill rush in the Slant Book.

The patent for the Slant Book, along with those for a couple of 1920 figure toys (1, 2), one of which is reproduced above, is available thanks to Google Patent Search, where the full description can be read.