AN IMPROVED METALLIC PEN, TO BE CALLED THE PATENT FLEXION PEN, AND AN IMPROVED PENHOLDER
Year: 1840

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE. PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
WINTERTON BAYLISS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Accompting.
House Clerk, send greeting.
WHEREAS I did by Petition humbly represent unto Her present most
Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, that,' after considerable application and
expence, I had invented and found out "AN IMPROVED METALLIC PEN, TO BE
CALLED THE PATENT FLEXION PEN, AND AN IMPROVED PENHOLDER;": and Her said
Majesty, being willing to giving encouragement to all arts and inventions
which may be for the public good, was graciously pleased, by Her Royal
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Sixteenth day of December, in
the fourth year of Her reign, fór Herself, Her heirs and successors, to give
and grant unto me, the said Charles Winterton Bayliss, my exors, admors,
and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I or they, by myself or themselves, or by my or their deputies, servants, or
agents, or such others as I or they should. agree with (and no others), .during
the term of fourteen years from the date of the said Letters Patent, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, 'and vend my said Invention within
that part of Her said Majesty's 'Dominions called England, Her Dominion of
Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, 'in such manner as to me, my
exors, admors, and assigns,' should seem meet, and as 'that I or they 'should
enjoy the whole profit and advantage arising by reason of the said Invention
during the said term of fourteen years; and for that, end: Her said Majesty,

page_text: required and strictly commanded all Her subjects whatsoever within England,
Wales, and Berwick-upon-Tweed aforesaid, that they should not, neither
directly nor indirectly, make, use, or put in practice my said Invention or any
part thereof, nor in anywise counterpart, imitate, or resemble the same, nor
make any addition thereto or subtraction therefrom, whereby to pretend him-
self or themselves to be the inventor or inventors thereof: And whereas the
said Letters Patent also contain a proviso obliging me, the said Charles
Winterton Bayliss, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and to cause the same to be
inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same (reference being thereunto had) will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Winterton Bayliss, do hereby declare that my said Invention is
described and ascertained in manner following, and by the aid of the Drawings
hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
My Invention consists of or has reference to "An Improved Metallic Pen,
to be called the Patent Flexion Pen, and an Improved Penholder." The
metallic pens at present in use are deficient in the peculiar elasticity possessed
by the pens made from quills; and though apertures have been introduced
between the shoulders and the points of metallic pins, for the purpose of giving
greater elasticity, there are many persons who cannot write with any of the
metallic pens at present in use. One of the defects of metallic pens is a s
tendency to tear the paper in forming the upstrokes of letters; and this defect,
together with the want of the peculiar elasticity of the quill pen, I remedy by
the peculiar construction of my pen and penholder, described in this my Speci-
fication. In the metallic pens now in use, the slit of the pen, if produced,
would form a line parallel with the axis of the penholder, as in the common
quill pen; but in my improved pen the line of the slit produced would fall
between the axis of the penholder and the surface of the paper written upon...
The effect of which arrangement is to produce greater elasticity, because the
angle formed between the slit of the pen produced, and the surface of the
paper written upon is more acute than can be produced by metallic pens of a
the ordinary construction, as used in the ordinary penholders. The line of the
angle formed by the slit of the pen produced and the surface of the paper
being less when pens or penholders of my construction are used than when
ordinary steel pens and penholders are employed, it follows that by varying the

page_text: angle formed by the slit of the pen produced and the surface of the paper,
without varying the length of the slit, any requisite degree of elasticity can be
obtained without weakness. The same or nearly the same effect may be
obtained by using one of my improved penholders with an ordinary metallic
pen, as shewn at Figure 2, the construction of this penholder being such as
to allow the slit of the pen to form a more acute angle with the surface
written upon than with the penholders in common use; and this acute angle
may be obtained either by the peculiar construction of my improved pen or of
my improved penholder. By my improvements in pens and penholders
persons will be enabled to write with metallic pens who cannot use the
ordinary steel pens, my improvements admitting of that freedom and elasticity
which are possessed by the quill pen. My improvements in pens are shewn
by Figures 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. Figure 4 is an end view of my Patent
flexion pen; Figures 5 and 7 are front and back elevations; and Figure 6 is
a side elevation, shewing that the line of the slit produced is not in the same
plane with the body of the pen. Figures 8, 9, 10, and 11, are side elevations
of my Patent flexion pen, shewing several variations in the form. Figure 12
is a side elevation of an ordinary steel pen, and shewn at Figure 2, in con-
nection with my improved penholder. My improvement in penholders is
shewn at Figure 2; and it will be seen by inspection that it differs from the
ordinary penholder shewn at Figure 1 in having the end which holds the pen
so formed as to allow an ordinary steel pen to be used with nearly the same
freedom and ease as my Patent flexion pen. This effect is produced by
bending the end of the penholder upwards, as shewn at 2, y, Figure 2, by
which contrivance the angle formed by the slit of the pen produced and the
surface written upon is rendered more acute than by the ordinary mode of
using pens. b, a, d, Figure 1, represents what I have called the angle formed
by the slit of the pen produced and the surface written upon. The surface of
the paper is represented by the line a, d, e, c; the angle f, d, c, represents
the angle formed in like manner by the use of the ordinary steel pen combined
with my improved penholder; and the angle g, e, c, shews the angle formed in
like manner by the slit of my Patent flexion pen combined with the ordinary
penholder. It will be observed that the two angles formed as before
described by the slits of the pens and the surface written upon, in Figures 2
and 3, are more acute than the angle formed by the slit of the ordinary pen
(Figure 1) and the surface written upon.
Having described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in which the
same is to be performed, I claim as my Invention the construction of pen
shewn at Figures 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, which I call the Patent flexion

page_text: pen; and I also claim the construction of a penholder shewn at Figure 2,
which I call my improved penholder; the objects of my improvements being
to obtain greater elasticity and freedom in use than belongs to ordinary
metallic pens, which effects are obtained by the methods of constructing pens
and penholders described in this my Specification; which improvements I
claim as mine, together with any variations of construction depending on the
same principles or producing by the same or similar means the same or
'similar results.
In-witness whereof, I, the said Charles Winterton Bayliss, have hereuntó
set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of June, One thousand eight
hundred and forty-one.