13.2

//Source(s): MENLO PARK REMINISCENCES. Volume One by Francis Jehl// Dover Publications Inc 1990, originally published by the Edison Institute, 1937 ISBN 0-486-26357-6 page 9 "Edison's electric pen was used almost universally in business and professional offices during the late '70's (((1870s))) and early '80's. He invented it while still in Newark before moving to Menlo Park, and perfected it at the latter place. (...) "In operating the electric pen, I got my current from a Bunsen battery consisting of two glass jars, capped at the top and controlled by a plunger with which I lowered the plates into the acid solution or drew them up when the pen was not in use. Thus the life of the battery was prolonged. "The pen had a needlelike point which darted in and out of the writing end so rapidly that the eye could hardly detect it. This was operated by a miniature electric motor small enough to be attached to the upper end of the pen. The shaft containing the needle was given its motion by cams on the rotating engine shaft so that when the current was turned on, and I wrote with the pen, holding it in a vertical position, it made innumerable tiny punctures on the sheet of paper, tracing the words that comprised the letter. "After the master copy of the stencil had thus been made, I took it to the 'press,' where it had to be spanned in a frame before the copies could be made. A plain sheet of paper was placed on the press, the stencil was laid on top and an ink roller passed over it. The impression of the handwriting was marked on the under sheet by the ink through the holes made by the needle. It was said that 5,000 copies could be made from a single stencil. "Its widespread use is indicated by the fact that, within three years after Edison brought it out, it could be found in the government offices in Washington, D.C., in city and state offices, and in such far-away lands as Australia, New Zealand, China, Brazil, Russia, and elsewhere." page 94 "Edison worked out the principles of the pen while at Newark and took its manufacture with him to Menlo Park. Shortly after I went to to work for him I noticed one day a large frame building not far from the Edison homestead. It stood across the railroad tracks on the way to Newark, and looked considerably dilapidated. Some one told me that this was the building in which the electric pen had been manufactured (...) It became a roosting place for tramps along the railroad, but, eventually, I was to see the same building rebuilt and restored to use as the first commercial factory for making the Edison incandescent light. "To operate his electric pen, Edison used a small electric motor of the impulse type which drew its current from a wet battery of two cells. This was the first electric motor in history to be manufactured commercially and sold in large quantities, and for that reason the device has a peculiar interest to us today." (((Could this assertion be true? Amazing, if so -- bruces))) "The first patent covering it was applied for on March 7, 1876, and was granted August 8 of the same year, after he had settled in Menlo Park. It was Patent No. 180,857. Before that time, however, he had brought out an 'autographic press,' and what at first was called a 'magnetic pen.' (...) "Edison improved this during 1877, bringing out a 'stencil pen,' a pneumatic stencil pen, and a perforating pen. The latter (Patent No. 203,329) was operated by the foot or other convenient power instead of by electric current; the power was conveyed to the pen by a shaft with universal joints. The pneumatic pen (Patent No. 205,370) could be worked by air, gas, or water."
 * Dead medium: the Edison Electric Pen, pneumatic pen, magnetic pen, and foot-powered pen**
 * From: bruces@well.com (Bruce Sterling)**