IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF PENS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Bewicke Blackburn, of Clapham Common, in the
County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF PENS."
Sealed the 15th September 1857, and dated the 21st March 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Bewicke Blackburn at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 21st
March 1857.
I, BEWICKE BLACKBURN, of Clapham Common, in the County of Surrey, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF PENS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of pens,
and consists in forming each pen of two pieces of glass or porcelain set in a
frame of metal or other suitable flexible material, which frame is composed of
two parts, capable of separating from each other in such a manner that the
flexibility of the frame will admit of the points of the glass pen separating or
expanding and contracting when writing.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Bewicke Blackburn in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
19th September 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BEWICKE
BLACKBURN, of Clapham Common, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of March, 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 me, the
said Bewicke Blackburn, Her special licence that I, the said Bewicke Blackburn,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Bewicke
Blackburn, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OP PENS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Bewicke Black-
burn, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Bewicke Blackburn, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of pens,
and the Invention consists of forming each pen of two pieces of glass or
porcelain set in a frame of metal or other suitable flexible material in such
manner that the flexibility of the frame will admit of the points of the glass
pen separating or expanding and contracting when writing.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, I will proceed to describe
the manner of performing the same.
The form preferred for the two pieces or limbs of glass is shewn in Figure 1.
In forming them of glass it is preferred to use a hard glass. This glass is to
be pressed or pinched while hot to the required form in moulds, in the ordi-
nary way of pressing or pinching glass. They are afterwards to be annealed,

page_text: and it is preferred to carry on the annealing process till devitrification con-
In forming these limbs of porcelain, the clay is to be moulded in
the way commonly adopted in moulding small porcelain articles, and after-
wards fired in the usual way. The rough edges at the partings of the moulds
are to be ground or rubbed off on a stone, or otherwise. The frame preferred
for holding the limbs is formed of thin sheet steel, in the shape of a fork, each
branch of the fork being a socket into which a limb fits, as shewn in Figure 2.
The limbs are to be set with cement into these sockets, so that the two
points of the two limbs shall meet exactly, and form the point of the pen. The
pen thus formed, see Figure 3, may be mounted on any of the ordinary
penbolders.
In witness whereof, I, the said Bewicke Blackburn, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
5 Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
BEWICKE BLACKBURN. (L.S.)