AN IMPROVE- MENT IN MAKING OR MANUFACTURING TRIPLE-POINTED PENS
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMPSON
MORDAN, of Castle Street, Finsbury Square, in the County of Middlesex,
Mechanist, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom, bearing
dato at Westminster, the Twenty-third day of April, One thousand eight
hundred and thirty-six, in the sixth year of His reign, give and grant unto me,
the said Sampson Mordan, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Sampson Mordan,
my exors, admors, and assigns, during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVE-
MENT IN MAKING OR MANUFACTURING TRIPLE-POINTED PENS;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the said Sampson Mor-
dan, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be enrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said
Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted,

page_text: should utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same,
relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said Sampson Mordan, do hereby declare that my said Invention of an im-
provement in making or manufacturing triple-pointed pens, and the manner
in which the same is to be carried into effect, are clearly set forth and explained
in the following description thereof, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters thereon written, as compared
with the figures and letters herein contained, that is to say:-
In order to facilitate the explanation of my Invention, and to distinguish it
from apparently similar inventions heretofore put into practice, it will be
convenient in the outset to state that triple-pointed quill pens have heretofore
been made by cutting two slits in a quill at such a distance from each other
as to leave a middle nib of proper dimensions between them, and afterwards
forming the two outer nibs by cutting away the superfluous parts in a manner
similar to that of making a quill pen with two nibs and one slit, and that
triple-pointed steel pens have been made by rivetting a piece of steel on to the
back of a double-pointed steel pen, in such a situation that the point of the
piece of steel so rivetted on shall lie upon the back of the two points of the
pen, sometimes extending the same length as the two points, and sometimes
falling short of their length.
Fig. 1 shews the back of a triple-pointed quill pen of the ordinary con-
struction.
Figs. 2 and 3, back views of two triple-pointed steel pens, as heretofore put
into practice.
Fig. 4, a side view of Fig. 2; and Fig. 5, a side view of Fig. 3.
These being the principal features of the triple-pointed pens now in use, others
only being variations of these, I proceed to point out the characteristics of my
Invention as contradistinguished from those just described, by declaring that
my Invention consists in forming the three nibs of a steel or a metal pen out
of one piece of steel or other metal instead of two pieces rivetted together, as
shewn at Figs. 2, 3, 4, and 5, and in forming the three nibs of a quill pen
also out of one piece of quill, by cutting a tongue in a part of the quill at a
distance above the writing point, and in turning that tongue over till its point
lies upon the back of the two nibs of a pen of the ordinary form. Fig. 6
exhibits a back view of a pen of steel or other metal, or a quill, made accord-
ing to my improvement. Fig. 7, side view of the same.
In order that the mind may gain a distinct view of the mode of manufac

page_text: turing pens of this kind, it will be convenient in the first place to describe the
process of making one of my steel pens.
It will be unnecessary for me to describe the mode of proceeding as far as
the production of the piece of steel technically termed "the blank," since I
adopt the ordinary means employed by steel-pen makers in general, for cutting
that piece out of a plate of steel of the proper thickness, and annealed to a
great degree of softness, since I make no claim to any Invention in this part
of the process.
Fig. 8 shews a specimen of the form of blank commonly used in the manu-
facture of steel pens. In proceeding to manufacture a triple-pointed pen from
one of these blanks, or from a blank of any other figure that may be required,
I affix in a screw press, or a press worked by any other application of power,
a pair of tools technically called a male and female tool, with which I make
in the blank two longitudinal cuts, converging towards a point, and a short
transverse cut across the blank, as shewn at, S, Fig. 9, which is an enlarged
plan of a blank, shewn at its proper size in plan at Fig. 10, and by a side
view at Fig. 11. It will be seen by this side view at Fig. 11 that the part of
the blank included between the three cuts, which part I call the tongue, is
raised up at an angle from the body of the blank near the point, but remains
attached to the blank at r.
Fig. 12 represents a side view of the male tool used to cut the tongue; and
Fig. 13, an end view of the same. Fig. 14, the female tool in plan..
It will be observed that the cutting part of the male tool is forined obliquely,
in order that it may cut entirely through the substance of the metal in the,
lines which, form the tongue, but not across the root, a stop being placed in
the press to prevent the descent of the male cutter, lower than sufficient to
complete the longitudinal cuts and transverse cut S.
The formation of the two nibs of the pen is next effected in the ordinary
manner and with the usual apparatus, and the shaft of the pen or the curved
part, by which it is held in the handle or holder in use, is bent into cylindrical
form by the means generally employed; the tongue, while this operation is
proceeding, lying within the aperture from which it was cut.
The tongue is then turned over towards the nib until its point lies upon the
two ordinary points of the pen, and all the three points are held together by a
piece of fine binding wire wrapped around them, and thus bound the pen is
subjected to the usual hardening and tempering processes, after which the
binding wire is removed, and the slit between the two nibs, which had pre-
viously, according to established custom, only been cut partly through the

page_text: thickness of the blank from the inside of the pen, is broken, and thus the pen
is completely formed and ready for the operation of rubbing off the sharpness
of the corners by methods well known to steel-pen makers.
Figs. 6 and 7 exbibit this triple-pointed steel pen complete in two views.
The curve of the third nib, as represented in the Drawing, is so adjusted
that the space betwixt the three nibs shall hold a considerable quantity of ink
taken up at one dip, so as to constitute this pen a semi-fountain pen; if the
curve were much greater there would be too great a risk of the ink dropping
out on the pen receiving such slight shocks as it is liable to in writing.
And I make my triple-pointed quill pen in the same form as the steel pen
just described, by cutting the tongue out of the corresponding part of the quill
with the same male and female tools as before shewn, and then bending the
tongue towards the nib of the pen over a mould or templet of the requisite
dimensions and curvature for the point to lie on the points of two nibs
made in the ordinary manner; the three points are then tied or otherwise held
together while sufficient heat is given to the tongue to cause it to retain its new
figure and position when cold, which degree of heat is well known to manu-
facturers of quill pens as that used in the process of clarifying quills, being
somewhat greater than the heat of boiling water, but not great enough to
scorch the quill.
Figs. 6 and 7 also shew two views of this my triple-pointed quill pen.
And I do finally declare that I lay no claim whatever to the invention of
the triple-pointed quill pen made by cutting two slits side by side at the writing
end of the quill, as shewn at Fig. 1, nor to the invention of triple-pointed
steel pens made of two pieces of steel rivetted together, as shewn at Figs. 2, 3,
4, and 5, nor to the mode or the process of manufacturing either of those pens.
But I do claim to be the first and true inventor of the process of manufac-
turing the triple-pointed pen made of one piece of steel, metal, or quill, with
a tongue cut out of the back part or shaft of the pen, and turned over to meet
the two nibs of a double-pointed pen, as herein-before described, and shewn
at Figs. 6 and 7.
In witness whereof, I, the said Sampson Mordan, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-first day of October, in
the year of our Lord 1836, the aforesaid Sampson Mordan came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-second day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.