AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN METALLIC PENS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Josiah Mason, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT OR
IMPROVEMENTS IN METALLIC PENS."-A communication from abroad by
Jean Benoit Mallat and Edme Victor Saglier, both of Paris, in the
Empire of France.
Sealed the 19th September 1861, and dated the 17th July 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Josiah Mason at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 17th
July 1861.
'I, JOSIAH MASON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufac-
turer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVE-
MENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN METALLIC PENS," to be as follows:-
The said Invention consists in making the nibs and side cuts of metallic pens
in the manner herein-after explained, whereby great elasticity is obtained in the
nibs of the pen, and the pen is made to take up a larger amount of ink than
metallic pens s of the ordinary construction. The nibs are angular at their upper
or back part, that is, in cross section through the middle piercing. The pen is
made up of four planes inclined to one another at very obtuse angles; the
two middle planes pass into a curve as they approach the point of the pen,
and the two outer planes may either extend only to about the middle of the

page_text: nibs, or nearly to the point of the pen.
In each of the side planes two or
three side piercings are made in a direction nearly at right angles to the slit
of the pen. By means of the side piercings, the rigidity which would other-
wise exist in the nibs is avoided, and those parts of the said nibs which yield
in writing are very nearly or quite flat. By the general figure of the pen,
it
is enabled to take up a large quantity of ink, while the side piercings described
prevent the rigidity which would otherwise result from its figure, and enable
the nibs to yield readily under pressure.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Josiah Mason in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 14th
January 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSIAH
MASON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Josiah Mason, Her special licence that I, the said Josiah
Mason, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Josiah Mason, my executors, administrators, 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," a communication to
me from abroad by Jean Benoit Mallat and Edme Victor Saglier, both of
Paris, in the Empire of France, upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Josiah Mason, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Josiah Mason, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be

page_text: performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the fol-
lowing statement thereof, that is to say :-
The said Invention consists in making the nibs and side cuts or piercings
of metallic pens in the manner herein-after explained and illustrated in the
accompanying Drawing, whereby great elasticity is obtained in the nibs of the
pen, and the pen is made to take up a larger amount of ink than metallic
pens of the ordinary construction.
The nibs of the pens made according to this Invention are angular at their
upper or back part, that is, in cross section through the middle piercing. The
pen is made up of four planes inclined to one another at obtuse angles; the
two middle planes pass into a curve as they approach the point of the pen,
and the two outer planes may either extend only to about the middle of the
nibs, or nearly to the point of the pen. In each of the side planes two or
three side piercings are made in a direction nearly at right angles to the slit
of the pen. By means of the side piercings, the rigidity which would other-
wise exist in the nibs is avoided, and those parts of the said nibs which yield
in writing are very nearly or quite flat. By the general figure of the pen,
it is enabled to take up a large quantity of ink, while the side piercings
described prevent the rigidity which would otherwise result from its figure, and
enable the nibs to yield readily under pressure.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing represents, in front elevation, a
pen constructed according to the said Invention; Figure 2 is a side elevation
of the same; and Figure 3 is a transverse vertical section of the same taken
through the line a, Figure 1; Figure 4 represents a side elevation of another
pen of the same construction as the pen, Figures 1, 2, and 3, but with a neck
between the nibs and semi-cylindrical part of the pen; and Figure 5 is a side
elevation of the same.
The same letters indicate the same parts in the Figures of the Drawing.
6 is the body or semi-cylindrical part of the pen which is inserted into the
penholder. The nibs or writing parts of the pen at the back part are made
up of four planes c, d, e, f, inclined to one another at obtuse angles, as best
seen in the section, Figure 3. The middle planes d, e, have a piercing g,
made at their junction, which communicates with the central slit of the pen.
As the said middle planes d, e, approach the point of the pen, the said planes
pass into a curve at the part marked h. The two outer planes c, f, in the pens
represented in the Drawing extend nearly to the point of the pen, but the said
side planes may only extend to about the middle of the nibs of the pen; it is,
however, preferred to make them in the way represented. In the side or
outer planes c, f, three piercings are made as represented in a direction nearly

page_text: pen. Two
at right angles or slightly oblique to the central piercing g of the
piercings or more than three piercings may be made in the side planes c, f, of
the nibs, but three piercings are found to give sufficient elasticity to the pen
for all ordinary purposes.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I claim as
the said Invention, the improvement or improvements in metallic pens herein-
before described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing, that is to say,
making two or more side slits or piercings in conjunction with angular nibs,
essentially as described and illustrated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Josiah Mason, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
JOSIAH MASON. (L.S.)