Numbering Machines
A numbering machine is a machine used for printing consecutive numbers, as on tickets, bank bills, request forms, and other items. Numbering machines can reduce the amount of paperwork by sequentially numbering forms. Many of them can also automatically mark other variables such as date and time and can be used for applications such as time clocks.
Numbering machines are used in the legal field to number and date legal documents. During the discovery phase of litigation, there are a large number of documents, so a unique identifier, called a Bates Number after the Bates Automatic Numbering Machine, is identified to each document. Numbering machines are also frequently used in banks, governmental facilities, and hospital laboratories.