CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON- STRUCTION OF WRITING PENS AND PENHOLDERS, AND IN THE METHODS OF USING THEM
Year: 1831

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, SAMPSON
MORDAN, of Castle Street East, Finsbury Square, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, and WILLIAM BROCKEDON, of Devonshire Street, Queen Square, in
the same County, Esquire, send greeting..
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Twentieth day of September, in the second year of Ilis
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Sampson Mordan and William Brockedon, His especial licence, sole
privilege and authority, that we, the said Sampson Mordan and William
Brockedon, our exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Sampson Mordan and William Brockedon, our exors, aditiors, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
timės during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON-
STRUCTION OF WRITING PENS AND PENHOLDERS, AND IN THE METHODS OF USING
THEM;" in which said Letters Patents is contained a proviso that we, the said
Sampson Mordan and William Brockedon, or one of us, shall cause a par-
ticular description of the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within two 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 bad, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Sampson Mordan and William Brockedon, do hereby declare that the nature
of our said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed,
are particularly described and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto
annexed, and in the following description thereof (that is to say):-
We claim, as our Invention and the object of this Patent, the use of
obliquely slit pens made of quills, metals, or any other fit and proper materials,
and also the use of oblique holders for common pens, and whether such pens
are made of quills, metals, or other fit and proper materials, and which said
penholders are constructed by us especially for the purpose of holding the said
common pens in an oblique position, and the advantages of which said oblique
position of the slits of the pens so made or held, will be to enable the
writer to use his pen with greater personal ease and freedom, and that the
pens when so held will be much more durable, and chiefly in consequence of
the equal wear upon both the nibs forming the point of the pen, and which
nibs, from the oblique position in which by our Invention they will be
presented to paper or other materials to be written upon, are both brought
equally to bear upon such paper or other materials. We propose in the
formation of our oblique pens, whether made of quills, metals, or other fit and
proper materials, that the slit shall be made or placed in the direction of the
usual line or slope of the letters, and also that in our penholders the slits of
common pens, whether made of quills, metals, or other fit and proper
materials, shall be held in a similar oblique position, the penholders being
so formed as to enable the writer to fix in the holder a common pen,
with the usual slit, but in which holder it will be used with the slit
held in an oblique position, and thus we are enabled to correct what we
conceive has hitherto been an evil, namely, the faulty direction in which the
points of pens have been commonly presented to the paper or other materials
employed, so that the nibs which form the point have not hitherto been
equally used or acted upon, either in the up or the down stroke in writing.
By our improved modes of forming or holding pens obliquely, the pressure of
the pen being equal on both sides of the slit, the nibs are rendered less liable
to separate, or open on the up stroke of the pen, and thus the spurting of the
ink will be considerably diminished, if not altogether avoided, as well as the
gathering of filaments from the surface of the paper or other materials written
upon, which produces, in the ordinary position of pens, the blotting or smear-
ing of the writing; and we hereby claim as our Invention the oblique direction
or position purposely. given to the slits of all pens, whether made of quills,
metals, or other fit and proper materials, and also the obliquity produced

page_text: in the use of common pens, whether made of quills, metals, or other fit and
proper materials, when held in our oblique penholders.
Having thus described the nature and objects of our said Invention, we shall
proceed to afford some examples of methods of carrying the same into effect
by a reference to, and a description of, the several Figures contained in the
Drawing, which as aforesaid is annexed to this Specification. Not, however,
meaning or intending thereby to limit ourselves to the use of those forms only,
but we hereby claim as our Invention, all pens with oblique slits, and all pen-
holders by which common pens may be held in an oblique position, thus
including all pens in which, or methods of using them by which, the slit may
be held obliquely or in the line or slope of the letters whilst writing with them
in the usual way.
is
In the said Drawing, Figure 1 represents an upper view of part of a
common quill made into one of our improved pens with an oblique slit; Figure 2
being an under view of the same pen; Figure 3, a portable quill pen with an
oblique slit, and Figure 4 a section thereof. This oblique portable pen may
be either held in any of the usual penholders, as well as the steel or other
elastic metal oblique portable pen shewn at Figure 5, or still better in one we
have contrived for the purpose, and which is shewn in an upper view of it in
Figure 6, and in a side view in Figure 7, it being different from the common
well-known penholders of this kind in the shells between which the pen
held, being placed sufficiently on one side to bring the point of our obliquely
nibbed pen in a central line with the handle; Figure 8 is an under view of an
ordinary portable quill pen, and Figure 9 a steel or other metallic ordinary
portable pen. These ordinary portable quill, steel, or other metallic pens with
straight (not oblique) slits, may be held by our holders in our improved obliquo
position in various ways; Figure 10 represents a common portable quill pen
held in one of our oblique penholders, an edge view of which is shewn in
Figure 11, it consisting of two elastic or springing metal limbs united at one
end to a metal socket, into which a handle of hard wood or other fit and
suitable material may be fitted. The front ends or jaws of these limbs are
curved as shewn in Figure 11; so as to receive between them a common
portable quill or metal pen, and which said pen when placed in its proper
position in the penholder, may be held or retained firmly therein by sliding
the double-headed button, which moves in a slit made in both limbs, near to
the said front ends or jaws, so as to close them and bind the pen fast between
them. In order to hold a common quill pen with its barrel and stem entire,
or the common metal pen in an oblique position, we vary the shape of one of

page_text: the limbs of the penholder, so as to make it similar to the opposite one, but
curved in the contrary direction, and as shewn in the edge view thereof in
Figure 12. Another penholder, to retain the ordinary portable quill or
metal pens in an oblique position, is shewn in a top view of it in Figure 13,
and in an edge view thereof in Figure 14, it being formed of a solid metal
stem, having a socket to receive a hard wood or other handle, and of a
moveable limb turning upon a binge or joint at its external end, both parts
being properly curved so as to hold the portable pen between them, and as
shewn in Figure 13. This moveable limb is retained in its closed position by
sliding a metal ring or ferril over its end, as shewn in Figures 13 and 14; and
in order to adjust the best oblique position of the pen, it may be provided with
a joint furnished with a tightening screw, as shewn in Figure 15. It may
likewise be made to hold the common entire quill pens in an oblique position,
by altering the curvature of the moveable limb in the manner shewn in
Figure 16; Figure 17 is another penholder adapted for holding common quill
or metal portable pens in an oblique position; and Figure 18 is an under view
of the same; Figure 19 is a short tubular and tapering plug fitted into the
socket or tube of Figures 17 and 18, and having a projecting stud upon it which
fits into a slit made in the socket or tube of Figure 18, and prevents the plug
from turning round in that socket. A screw is formed upon the stem of the
plug, Figure 19, which passes through a hole made to receive it in the end of
the socket of Figures 17 and 18, and has a female screw or button, Figure 20,
with a milled border to be screwed upon it when the screw is passed through.
the hole in the socket. A portable pen may then be placed between the plug
and the socket, as shewn in Figure 17, and upon binding the female screw
tight the pen will be firmly secured in the penholder. In order to allow.
more motion endways to the adjustment of the pen in the penholder, the
socket of Figure 17 may be made separate or without a handle, as shewn in
Figure 21, and be received into an oblique.springing socket ori clip with a
handle affixed to it, similar to that shewn in the side view of it, Figure 22,.
and in the end view, Figure 23; Figure 24 is a top view, and Figure 25 an
edge view, of one of our oblique pens made of a flat piece of steel or other fit.
and proper material; the nibs A, A, being elastic to the degree required, and
the cheeks B,.B, forming an exterior addition to the surface of the pen to hold
a greater quantity of ink. The edges C, C, as shewn in the separate Figures 26.
and 27, may be bevelled for the greater convenience of placing them in the
penholder, Figures 24' and 25, which has flattened jaws adapted to receive
these pens, but which flattened penholder we do not claim; Figure 27

page_text: shews one of these pens with only one additional check B to it, the left nib
being removed to shew better the point of the pen in use; Figures 28
and 29 are side and top views of metal pens formed by giving to such pens as
are represented in Figures 26 and 27, a convex or arched upper surface for
the purpose of obtaining a greater degree of stiffness in the parts requiring it.
These pens may be used in the common penholders. By a reference to our
Figures it will be seen that the obliquely slit pens and those held in our oblique
penholders, are required to be so fixed as that the points of the pens shall be
placed for convenient use in the central line or axis of the handles of the pen-
holders; we do not mean or intend hereby to claim as our Invention any of
the various parts herein mentioned, or in the Drawing annexed shewn and
described, which are already known, or have been in use, but only oblique
pens, and whether the said obliquity be obtained by holders formed for holding
the common or straight slit pens in an oblique position, or by forming the
pens themselves with oblique slits.
In witness whereof, we, the said Sampson Mordan and William
Brockedon, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Sixteenth
day of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-one.