IMPROVEMENTS IN INKSTANDS
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Davies at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th November
1866A communication from abroad by Pierre Labat, Mechanic, and
Bassot Brothers, Merchants; of Paris, in the Empire of France..
I, GEORGE DAVIES, of No. 1; Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn, in the County of
Middlesex, and No. 87, St. Vincent Street, in the City of Glasgow, Civil
Engineer and Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN INKSTANDS," (a communication to me from abroad
by. Pierre Labat, Mechanic, and Bassot Brothers, Merchants, of Paris, in the
Empire of France,) to be as follows:-
The improvements which form the subject of the present Invention are
characterized by a kind of inkstand which at the same time that it performs
the same office as the pneumatic or piston inkstand dispenses with the piston
or plunger and its adjuncts. Besides the economy which results from this
arrangement, the trouble and inconvenience experienced in washing and
remounting the parts of the piston are avoided; this result is to be obtained
by placing on the ink reservoir a cover, closing it hermetically by means of a
circle of india-rubber arranged in a peculiar manner as herein-after described;
this cover is provided with a diaphragm of india-rubber, the central part of
which may be moved vertically by means of a screw at the same time that.
its circumference remains permanently fixed by a rim to the cover. The
moving or displacement of the diaphragm compresses the air which is between
the surface of the ink and the cover, and in this manner exactly the same

page_text: effect is produced as by the plunger of the piston inkstands, that is to say,
that the air by exercising more or less pressure upon the ink causes the level
thereof to rise more or less in the part where the pen is dipped, all the success
of this inkstand lies in the perfect hermeticity of the cover, which has not
been hitherto attained, as from the fact of the diaphragm being mounted
independently of the cover, as is the case with what are called atmospheric
iukstands, there is always (after a short time of use) an escape of air, which
thus destroys the effect of the compression. The upper part of the body
of the inkstand which forms the ink reservoir is in the form of an inverted
truncated cone, in order to afford a more secure hold to a ring of india-
rubber, the outer circumference of which is fixed to the lower side of the
metallic cover, whilst the inner circumference thereof (which in its normal
state is smaller in diameter than the inverted conical top) is stretched over the
top of the vessel and by its elasticity forms a perfectly air-tight joint. Between
this ring of india-rubber and the cover is an india-rubber disc or diaphragm, both
the ring and the diaphragm being firmly fixed by their outer circumferences
in the rim of the cover, which is turned over and compressed on to them for
that purpose. In the centre of the cover (which is slightly raised) is fixed a
nut through which works a screw, the lower end of which is provided with a
button for pressing on the diaphragm and its upper end with a milled or
other head for turning the same. It will be evident that on screwing the
button downwards the diaphragm will be extended and will compress the
air on the top of the ink and force it up into that part where the pen is
dipped..