A PEN UPON A NEW CONSTRUCTION
Year: 1808

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BRYAN
DONKIN, of Fort Place, Bermondsey, in the County of Surry, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourteenth day of
March, in the forty-eighth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said Bryan Donkin, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Bryan Donkin, my
exors, adñiors, and assigns, 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, my Invention of "A PEN
UPON A NEW CONSTRUCTION;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained
a proviso obliging me, the said Bryan Donkin, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of
iny said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month
after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Bryan Donkin, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described as

page_text: follows, in which description referenco is had to the Drawings underneath,
that is to say :-
Instead of making my pen with its sides, or those parts which are situated
on each side of the slit, cylindrical. or circular with regard to any section
supposed to be made at right angles to the direction of the length thereof, as
the said sides or parts are formed in all pens hitherto made, whether out of
quils or any other materials, I do make the said sides flat or nearly so, in
order that the same may easily and pleasantly spring back from pressure when
used, and readily return to their first situation, whatever may be the size,
nature, or description of the characters of the writing therewith to be per-
formed. And-I-do-mako-the-said-sides-or-parts_separate_and_distinct from.
each other, as represented in Fig. 1, and do afterwards put the same together
into a tube or pipe or other fit receptacle; and the said sides being applied
to each other in an angular position, as represented in the section at F, do
constituto a pen. as shewn in Fig. 2, where A represents the points, and
C the tube into which the said sides are inserted. Or otherwise I do
make the said sides.or parts of my said pen of one entire piece, as in
Fig. 3 (still preserving the flatness instead of the usual cylindrical form),
where A, A, represent the sides with a slit between the same; and by
bending the said picce to the proper angle, and affixing the same to a tube
or pipe or other fit receptacle, do form a pen of the same shape or form
as represented in Fig. 2. And for the purpose of obtaining a variablo
degree of hardness to my-said-pen when its sides. or. flat parts are made either
of one or two pieces, I do insert the said sides, when affixed to a proper
receptacle, as described above, into a tube or pipe, as represented by Fig. 4;
and in this outer tube the pen may be drawn backward or forward, so as to
_ alter the stiffness of the spring' by suffering a less or greater part of the sides
to protrude beyond the support. The outer tubo at E and F represents an
end section, where the dark-shaded parts denote the aperture through which
the said sides or parts are thrust. Or I obtain a greater or less degree of
elasticity by introducing two pieces of wire, of an appropriato shape, into the
cavity formed between the flat sides of the pen and the outer tube, as is shewni
in the section at G, which give more or less elasticity, or, in other words,
make a softer or harder pen, as they are drawn backward or forward upon the
sides. And I do make those parts of the flat sides opposed to each other, and
forming the slit of the pen, rather thicker towards the points, in order to.
prevent the pen from sputtering. This is shown in Fig. 5, whero A, B;
represents one of the sides laying flat, and C, D, as seen upon its edge, in
cach of which a, b, denote the part which is made thicker. And I do make

page_text: my said pen, according to the construction herein-before described, of steel,
brass, silver, gold, platina, or any other metal or material fit and proper for
making pens.
In witness whereof, I, the said Bryan Donkin, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eight.