AN IMPROVED WRITING MACHINE
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Jacques de Dedulin at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 26th July
1872.
I, JACQUES DE DEDULIN, of St. Petersburg, Russia, now of No. 8,
Southampton Buildings, London, Doctor of Medicine, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED WRITING MACHINE," to
be as follows:-
My Invention relates to a machine with which any person after a
little practice may write with great rapidity. The said machine comprises
mechanism for producing impressions of the letters and other characters,
and mechanism for moving the paper or other material upon which such
impressions are made.
The writing mechanism is constructed as follows:-I arrange a series
of pins or light rods in the arc of a circle, to whose centre all the said
pins converge. Each of these pins consists of a head, an intermediate
portion, and a thin extremity on which is formed the letter or other
character in relief. The intermediate portion of these pins is made
square, and fitted to work through guide bars which also form the arcs

page_text: of circles. Springs applied to the said pins tend to keep them pressed
outward. These springs yield to a gentle pressure upon the pin heads,
but return the pins to their normal position when the pressure ceases.
The said machine may be provided with one, two, or more series of pins
according to the desired number of characters.
The mechanism for supporting and moving the paper or other material
consists of a cylinder or roller mounted on an axis, which is supported in
suitable bearings so arranged that the top surface of the said cylinder
lies in the same plane as the centre to which the aforesaid pins or rods
' converge. On one end of the cylinder shaft I form a worm or screw,
and one of the bearings is provided with an adjustable plate formed to
fit the thread of this screw. When this plate is dropped in the screw
threads of the shaft it will cause the latter and the cylinder when rotated
to advance longitudinally. On the other end of the cylinder shaft I
place a ratchet wheel. This end of the shaft and the hole in the ratchet
wheel are made flat on one side, or otherwise so formed that the shaft
may slide through the said wheel while being so held as to turn with
the same. By turning this ratchet wheel the required rotating movement
is imparted to the cylinder which, as above described, also receives an
endwise movement by means of the screw.
Instead of forming the cylinder shaft with a screw as above described,
I may place thereon a worm fitted to work in a screw rack arranged at
the side of the said cylinder. The said rack is pivotted to a small bracket
on the frame which supports the cylinder, and may be adjusted in or out
of gear with the worm.
The paper or other material is secured to the cylinder, and as the
latter is moved as above described, successive portions of the paper
are brought under the aforesaid central point. In combination with
the pins or rods I arrange a lever with a long and short arm. The
fulcrum of the said lever is between the ratchet wheel and the pins.
The extremity of the long arm of the said lever is curved, and the thin
inner extremities of the pins pass through slots in this curved portion
of the lever, the intermediate part of the pin forming a shoulder above
the slots. The short arm of the said lever is provided with a pawl, which
takes into the teeth of the ratchet wheel.
In using the machine, the impressions are produced upon the paper
or other material by depressing the pins, the heads of the latter being

page_text: conveniently formed for manipulation by the fingers. The heads or
other conspicuous parts of the said pins are marked with letters or other
characters corresponding with those which make the impressions. The
pins are provided with springs which raise them when they are released
from pressure. Each pin when depressed actuates the aforesaid lever,
which through its pawl turns the ratchet wheel and thereby moves the
paper into the proper position to receive the next impression.
Any desired colour may be given to the writing by placing suitably
coloured transfer paper or other material upon the paper upon which
the writing is produced.