Dover Publications Inc 1990, originally published by the
Edison Institute, 1937
ISBN 0-486-26357-6
page 9
"Edison's electric pen was used almost universally in
business and professional offices during the late '70's
(((1870s))) and early '80's. He invented it while still
in Newark before moving to Menlo Park, and perfected it at
the latter place. (...)
"In operating the electric pen, I got my current
from a Bunsen battery consisting of two glass jars, capped
at the top and controlled by a plunger with which I
lowered the plates into the acid solution or drew them up
when the pen was not in use. Thus the life of the battery
was prolonged.
"The pen had a needlelike point which darted in and
out of the writing end so rapidly that the eye could
hardly detect it. This was operated by a miniature
electric motor small enough to be attached to the upper
end of the pen. The shaft containing the needle was given
its motion by cams on the rotating engine shaft so that
when the current was turned on, and I wrote with the pen,
holding it in a vertical position, it made innumerable
tiny punctures on the sheet of paper, tracing the words
that comprised the letter.
"After the master copy of the stencil had thus been
made, I took it to the 'press,' where it had to be spanned
in a frame before the copies could be made. A plain sheet
of paper was placed on the press, the stencil was laid on
top and an ink roller passed over it. The impression of
the handwriting was marked on the under sheet by the ink
through the holes made by the needle. It was said that
5,000 copies could be made from a single stencil.
"Its widespread use is indicated by the fact that,
within three years after Edison brought it out, it could
be found in the government offices in Washington, D.C., in
city and state offices, and in such far-away lands as
Australia, New Zealand, China, Brazil, Russia, and
elsewhere."
page 94
"Edison worked out the principles of the pen while
at Newark and took its manufacture with him to Menlo Park.
Shortly after I went to to work for him I noticed one day
a large frame building not far from the Edison homestead.
It stood across the railroad tracks on the way to Newark,
and looked considerably dilapidated. Some one told me
that this was the building in which the electric pen had
been manufactured (...) It became a roosting place for
tramps along the railroad, but, eventually, I was to see
the same building rebuilt and restored to use as the first
commercial factory for making the Edison incandescent
light.
"To operate his electric pen, Edison used a small
electric motor of the impulse type which drew its current
from a wet battery of two cells. This was the first
electric motor in history to be manufactured commercially
and sold in large quantities, and for that reason the
device has a peculiar interest to us today." (((Could
this assertion be true? Amazing, if so -- bruces)))
"The first patent covering it was applied for on
March 7, 1876, and was granted August 8 of the same year,
after he had settled in Menlo Park. It was Patent No.
180,857. Before that time, however, he had brought out an
'autographic press,' and what at first was called a
'magnetic pen.' (...)
"Edison improved this during 1877, bringing out a
'stencil pen,' a pneumatic stencil pen, and a perforating
pen. The latter (Patent No. 203,329) was operated by the
foot or other convenient power instead of by electric
current; the power was conveyed to the pen by a shaft with
universal joints. The pneumatic pen (Patent No. 205,370)
could be worked by air, gas, or water."