IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF METALLIC PENS AND PENHOLDERS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Victor Cassaignes, of 10, Queen Street, Golden
Square, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
METALLIC PENS AND PENHOLDERS."
Sealed the 7th August 1857, and dated the 26th February 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Victor Cassaignes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th February 1857.
I, VICTOR CASSAIGNES, of 10, Queen Street, Golden Square, do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF METALLIC PENS AND PENHOLDERS," to be as follows:-
my
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
metallic pens and penholders. For these purposes the pens may be made
with straight or oblique splits as heretofore, and the peculiarity of Inven-
tion consists in causing each pen or penholder to be formed in such manner
that when a pen is being used, it shall assume a much more acute angle
with the paper than the holder, and yet that the point of the nibs shall be
in or near the line of the axis of tho penholder. In forming a metal pen,
the part above tho shoulders is bent, so as to bring the lower part of the pen
to the angle desired, whilst the upper part or body of the pen (which enters
the holder) is mado at an angle corresponding with the angle at which the
holder is held at the timo of writing; and when making penholders they aro

page_text: made with bends or elbows and holding parts, so as to hold ordinary pens in
similar positions, that is, that the point or nibs.of-the pen (whether having a
straight or oblique split) shall be, when in use, in a line with the penholder,
whilst the pen is much more inclined to the paper than the penholder.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Victor Cassaignes in the Great Scal Patent Office on the
26th August 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, VICTOR
CASSAIGNES, formerly of 10, Queen Street, Golden Square, but now of 6,
Cité Bergère, Paris, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs' and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Victor Cassaignes, Her special licence that I, the said Victor Cassaignes,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Victor
Cassaignes, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF METALLIC PENS AND PENHOLDERS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Victor Cassaignes, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to
be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Victor Cassaignes, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed; to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
The nibs of ordinary pens are placed in a line parallel to the penholder, as
is shown in the Figures A, F, G, H, I, and J. In order to write freely the
nibs of the pen must form a very acute angle with the surface of the paper.
In order to form this acute angle while writing, without stretching or

page_text: fatiguing the fingers, a common pen as A requires simply to be bent back,
and becomes the pen B; thus bent back the pen. slides-better-over the
paper; but this principle taken alone is bad. The flexion being away from
the direction of the penholder the point becomes too distant from the axis,
and the pen loses some of its power, for the power is concentrated at the axis
whilst all the resistance or friction is at the point. Further, if this flexion be
outwards, the point of the pen being thus very far from its axis, the continued
resistance caused by tho roughness of the paper would give to the pen a
continual tendency to turn round between the fingers, thus causing the writer
to press or squeeze the penholder more firmly in order to overcome this
defect.
The object of my Invention is to produce this flexion B without diminishing
the power, but even increasing it if wished. For this purpose the nib must
simply be approached towards the axis, preserving always the same flexion.
This result may be attained in different ways, as for instance, by bending
down the pen between its two extremities, as at Figures C, D, K, L, M, N,
and O, if it is attached to the penholder in the ordinary manner, or by simply
inverting that part of the pen which is fitted into the penholder, so that the
pen is attached to the holder by the under part, as is shown at Figure E,
instead of by the upper part as usual; or the same result may be obtained
when the pen is fixed at the centre of the penholder, as at Figure E*. Tho
power increases in proportion as the nibs are brought in proximity to the line
of the axis. The flexion C is very good, but the flexion D which leads back
the point exactly to the line of the axis is better, because the pen has thus its
greatest power.
Thus I claim the combination of these two principles in the same pen, -
First, the nibs of the pen bent back so that the pen may glide more easily
over the paper, and thus permit of writing with greater facility.
Second, the nibs of the pen (which are removed far from the axis by the
external flexion) brought towards the axis, in order to increase the power and
to prevent the tendency of the pen to turn round in the fingers, the flexion
existing notwithstanding, but becoming central instead of external.
I name central-flexion-pen all pens which unite these two principles,
because the flexion, instead of being exterior to the line of the penholder as B,
has become central in respect to the penholder, as C, D, E, E, K, L, M, N,
and O. I apply these principles of central flexion to all pens, straight,
oblique, or of any other shape. A, F, G, II, I, J, are examples of common
pens; B is an external flexion pen. C, D, E, E, K, L, M, N, O, are
examples of central-flexion pens according to the principles of this Patent.

page_text: The object of my Invention being to produce a central flexion of the pen,
as regards its position in relation to the penholder, the common straight pen
may be used, provided the extremity of the penholder is so disposed as to
produce the central flexion explained above.
In witness whereof, I, the said Victor Cassaignes, have hereunto set my !
hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
FRED. HARRIS.
VOR. CASSAIGNES. (L.S.)