The Glass Botanical Label: The Name Sealed Between Two Panes

"My invention relates to the construction of that class of articles known as 'labels' used for indicating the botanical names of plants, &c." "The designating-marks, which may be the name of the plant or a representation of it or its flower, or both, having been placed on the inner face of one or both panels c b or inclosed between the same, the frame is closed and the parts cemented together so as effectually to exclude moisture."

Cut a card 70 × 20 mm, a little smaller than a 75 × 25 mm glass slide. Write the plant's name on it in pencil with letters 5 mm tall. Lay it on one slide, lay a second slide on top and run a bead of silicone sealant round all four edges with no gap. Leave it a day to cure. Saw two cuts 25 mm deep side by side down the middle of the top of a wooden stake and file between them until the sealed label slides in snugly: this is Schultz's stake-socket. Cut a second card the same size and write the same name on it. Stand the sealed label and the bare card in a glass jar with 3 cm of water for three days, then compare the two cards. Push the stake into a pot and walk back until you can no longer read the name; measure that distance with the tape and compare it with the notebook. Do the same with a plain plant label.

**Charles J. Schultz** of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, filed US 227,658 on 9 February 1880; it is dated 18 May 1880. His panels could be glass or mica, the name "etching, engraving, molding, or painting" on the glass or written on a card between the panels, and the two framed halves were counterparts united by cement. The eye at the top hung the label on a tree or shrub; the socket at the bottom took a stem for seeds. **Honest limits.** Microscope slides and silicone stand in for Schultz's framed panels and cement, and the suspension eye is not built. The notebook's letter heights are the 20/20 threshold, not a comfortable size, and its refractive indices are typical values. Your soak and your reading distance are the result.