AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN METALLIC PENS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Hinks, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Manufacturer, and George Wells, of Birmingham aforesaid,
Manufacturer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN
Sealed the 7th July 1857, and dated the 13th January 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Hinks and George
Wells at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition,
on the 13th January 1857.
We, JOHN HINKS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer,
and GEORGE WELLS, of Birmingham aforesaid, Manufacturer, do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS
IN METALLIC PENS," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists in cutting out two or more tongues in the blank
from which the pen is made, the said tongues being bent at or near to a right
angle to the plane from which they are cut. We prefer to cut two tongues
from the opposite sides of the pen, which said tongues when bent, as described,

page_text: do not interfere with the holding of the pen. When pens constructed according
to our Invention are laid on a table or other surface they are supported on the
said tongues, and thereby prevented from coming in contact with and inking
the said table or surface.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Hinks and George Wells in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 9th July 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM. THESE PRESENTS. SHALL COME, we, Jonn
HINKS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, and
GEORGE WELLS, of Birmingham aforesaid, Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said John Hinks and George Wells, Her special licence that we, the said John
Hinks and George Wells, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said John Hinks and George Wells, our exccutors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN METALLIC PENS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that we, the said John Hinks and George
Wells, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal one of us or them,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to
be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Hinks, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and, ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof; that is to say:-.
Our Invention consists of the improvement or improvements in metallic

page_text: pens, herein-after particularly described, and represented in the accompanying.
Drawing, by which said improvement or improvements the pen when laid on a
table or other surface is prevented from coming in contact with and inking the
said table or surface.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing represents a blank to be made into a
pen according to our Invention, the said blank having four tongues; two short
ones, marked a, a, and two longer ones, marked b, b. The blank, Figure 1,
is bent into the semi-cylindrical form represented in Figures 2 and 3, and the
tongues a, a, and b, b, are bent into the positions represented in the said Figures
2 and 3; Figure 2 representing the finished pen in side view, and Figure 3
representing the under side of the same..
We sometimes make the blank, Figure 1, without the tongues a, a, in which
case the finished pen assumes the form shown in side view in Figure 4,
the tongues b being bent into the same positions as in Figures 2 and 3.
Figure 5 represents a pen constructed according to our Invention, fixed in
a holder and laid upon a table or other surface, the tongues b preventing the
pen from coming in contact with and inking the table or other surface.
With that modification of our Invention represented in Figure 4 we use a
penholder similar to that represented in Figure 5, or some other penholder,
which, when the concave side of the pen is turned towards the table, supports
the said pen at a sufficient height above the table to prevent the pen from
coming in contact with and inking the table.
That modification of our Invention represented in Figures 1, 2, and 3 may
be used with any kind of penholder, for the four tongues a, a, b, b, prevent the
pen from coming in contact with the table, whether the convex or concave
surface of the pen be turned towards the table.
We prefer to bend the tongues a, a, b, l, into positions not quite parallel, the
tongues a, a, b, b, being made somewhat divergent from the pen, by which
arrangement the pen is prevented from coming in contact with the table, in
whatever position the said pen may be laid upon the table.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, we wish it to be understood that we do not limit
ourselves to the precise details herein-before described and represented, as the
same may be varied without departing from the nature of our said Invention;
but we claim as our Invention the improvement or improvements in metallic
pens, herein-before described, and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing,
that is to say, constructing tongues on metallic pens, for the purpose of sup-

page_text: porting the said pens and preventing them from coming in contact with the
table or other article on which they are laid, in the manner herein-before
described, and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Hinks, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
JOHN HINKS. (L.S.)