Electric pen

Thomas Edison's electric pen, part of a complete outfit for duplicating handwritten documents and drawings, was the first relatively safe electric motor driven office appliance produced and sold in the United States.

Edison recognized the possible demand for a high speed copying device after observing the incredible amount of document duplication merchants, lawyers, insurance companies, and those of similar occupations had to complete. To satisfy this demand, Edison invented the electric pen, which uses a perforating function inspired by the printing telegraph. Edison and his associate Charles Batchelor observed that as this device punctured the paper, a mark was left underneath by the chemical solution it utilized. Edison took advantage of this property and built the electric pen around it. Development of the electric pen took place in the summer of 1875. US patent 1800,857 for autographic printing was issued to Thomas Edison in 1876, covering the pen, the duplication press, and accessories.

The electric pen was the key component of a complete duplicating system, which included the pen, a cast-iron holder with a wooden insert, a wet cell battery on a cast-iron stand, and a cast-iron flatbed duplicating press with ink roller. All the cast-iron parts were black japanned, with gold striping or decoration. The hand-held electric pen was powered by a wet cell battery, which was wired to an electric motor mounted on top of a pen-like shaft. The motor drove a reciprocating needle which, according to the manual, could make 50 punctures per second, or 3,000 per minute. The user was instructed to place the stencil on firm blotting paper on a flat surface, then use the pen to write or draw naturally to form words and designs as a series of minute perforations in the stencil.

Once the stencil was prepared, it was placed in the flatbed duplicating press with a blank sheet of paper below. An inked roller was passed over the stencil, leaving an impression of the image on the paper. Edison boasted that over 5,000 copies could be made from one stencil.

Edison’s main target audience included firms that depended on the duplication of documents to run their business. To drive demand, Edison advertised in a circular that was written by the pen itself, in which the pen was called “the “Electro-Autographic Press” and was said to be “the only process yet invented whereby an unlimited number of impressions can be taken with rapidity from ordinary manuscript.” Another advertisement made by the pen read “Like Kissing--Every Succeeding Impression is as Good as the First--Endorsed By Every One Who Has Tried It!--Only a Gentle Pressure Used.” with the words floating around an embracing couple.

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