13.3

//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 pages 96 - 99 "Many advertisements dealing with the pen or some form of it were published in magazines and journals of the time. One told of the 'Woodbury Holder,' designed to keep the electric pen automatically in a vertical position, thus relieving the operator of that necessity. It was, as I well knew, hard on the fingers to keep the pen upright while writing with it. "The Woodbury holder could be attached to any pen and was much liked 'by those who are not expert with it, as it enables anyone to write in their natural handwriting without practice.' Its price was five dollars. (((Illustration: "In this picture the electric pen rests in its holder, which formed part of the outfit and held the pen when it was not in use. The holder was of metal painted black and made an attractive desk ornament."))) "Another device was the so-called 'Reed Pen,' an extremely rapid form of the electric pen devised by Mr. Edison for fast, skillful penmen. Its speed was so great that it sometimes cut the center out of round letters. Then there was the 'Music Ruling Pen,' an electric pen having five needles for the purpose of ruling music. The stencil paper had to be placed on thick, firm cloth or the edges of paper when this particular form of pen was used. Two batteries instead of one were required to supply the current. "After the Western Electric Company acquired the selling rights to the pen, it made quite a business of it. In one of its catalogs there was a full page showing parts prices for the pen from a bottle of ink to the complete unit, which cost twenty-five dollars. "Bought separately, a pen cost eight dollars, a wet battery was five dollars and twenty-five cents, a press ranged from eight to seventeen dollars, and a roller from two dollars and twenty-five cents to three dollars and twenty-five cents. "Perhaps you would be interested in the directions given for preparing a wet battery. (((Why yes! We would! Consider that at this point Thomas Edison has not yet invented the electric light. Without this killer application for electric power, there is no electrical power grid anywhere in the world. Every Edison Electric Pen requires its own, individual power source, a desktop chemical power generator, the "wet battery." It's a fiendish and troublesome device containing zinc, carbon, sulfuric acid and mercury.))) "'Place the porous clay cups or cells in the glass jars, one with the flat side turned from you and the other toward you. Then attach the zincs and carbons to the rubber discs so that one zinc and one carbon will be secured to the brass posts, and one of each to the iron screws. The brass posts always rest on the rubber discs, the iron screw on the little brass strap. "'Fill the porous cups to within three-quarters of an inch from the top with red fluid. "'Fill the glass jars to within three-quarters of an inch of the top of the porous cups with water, into which a tablespoonful of common sulphuric acid is then poured. Move the porous cups backward and forward in the glass jar a few times to thoroughly mix the acid and water together. If this is not done the acid, which is much heavier than the water, settles to the bottom and does not mix. "Slip the battery plates secured to the rubber discs on the upright rod in such a manner that the black plates of carbon shall go into the porous cells, and the zincs into the water. "'It will be noticed that the zinc and carbon plates on one disc are reversed on the other, hence the necessity of placing the porous cells on opposite sides of the glass jars. "'The collar to which the two discs are secured is provided with a screw sliding up and down in the long groove in the rod, which prevents the collar from turning around, and with a catch which drops into a notch on the opposite side when the discs are lifted high enough, and holds the plates out of the liquids. If they are allowed to remain down when the pen is not in use, the sulphuric acid and water would soon eat the zincs away. To prevent this, they should always be lifted out after using. "After considerable use the mercury with which the zincs are amalgamated becomes eaten off, and the action of the acid upon the pure zinc is more intense, causing what is termed 'boiling.' This can be obviated by removing the zincs from the discs, washing off all superfluous matter, and allowing them to remain in the acid and water a few moments; then remove and add a few drops of quicksilver to them, making them good as new. By this precaution, zincs will last a long time. (((Unlike the operator, who will soon the suffering the tremors of "hatter's madness" if he inhales enough of those mercury fumes.))) "'The battery fluid should last from one to two weeks, according to the amount of work it has to perform. When it is in daily use, for an hour or so at a time, it is recommended that it be changed once a week. Operators will have to be guided by experience.'"
 * Dead medium: the Edison Electric Pen, Reed pen, and Music Ruling Pen**
 * From: bruces@well.com (Bruce Sterling)**