FTL Design
History of Technology
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FTL Design |
| Edison’s Electric Pen and Duplicating Press 1875: the beginning of office copying technology by Bill Burns |
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Electric Pen and Duplicating Press - Overview Edison’s electric pen was the first electric motor driven appliance produced and sold in the United States, developed as an offshoot of Edison’s telegraphy research. Edison and Batchelor noticed that as the stylus of their printing telegraph punctured the paper, the chemical solution left a mark underneath. This led them to conceive of using a perforated sheet of paper as a stencil for making multiple copies, and to develop the electric pen as a perforating device. US patent 180,857 for “autographic printing” was issued to Edison on 8 August 1876.
The electric pen was sold as part of a complete duplicating outfit, which included the pen, a cast-iron pen stand with a wooden insert, a wet-cell battery on a cast-iron base, and a cast-iron flatbed duplicating press with ink roller. Other parts and accessories are listed in the price lists for the “Electric Pen and Duplication Press” outfits. All the cast-iron parts were black japanned, with gold striping or decoration. The hand-held electric pen was powered by the 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. Later duplicating processes used a wax stencil, but the instruction manuals for Edison’s Electric(al) Pen and Duplicating Press variously call for a stencil of “common writing paper” (in Charles Batchelor’s manual), and “Crane’s Bank Folio” paper (in George Bliss’ later manual). 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. This short video made by The Henry Ford museum shows how the pen and duplicating press were used. The electric pen proved ultimately unsuccessful, as other simpler methods (and eventually the typewriter) succeeded it for cutting stencils. But Edison’s duplicating technology was licensed in 1887 to A.B. Dick, who sold his own system as “Edison’s Mimeograph” with considerable success. The company remained in business as an office products and equipment manufacturer until 2004. |
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The first batch of pens was made by hand by John Ott, working on a contract from Edison in Edison’s Newark Shop, while Gillland & Co. made the duplicating press, ink rollers, and other parts. Ott also made the tooling for the first production runs of the pens. Once the pen went into regular production, Gilliland & Co. took over all the manufacturing, operating as Edison’s Electrical Pen & Duplicating Press Co. They had offices at 41 Dey Street in Manhattan and a factory in Menlo Park. In November 1876 production of the pens was transferred to Western Electric in Chicago under the supervision of George H. Bliss, and Gilliland was then listed as General Eastern Agent. Some of Edison’s sales agents used the electric pen and its flatbed duplicating press to create advertising material and stationery for their companies. The illustration above is from Gilliland’s letterhead; below are an undated flyer and an 1877 envelope from William F. Wheeler, General Western Agent, of 142 LaSalle St., Chicago.
Other agents used more conventional printing methods for their literature. Below are two items printed by letterpress: an 1881 envelope and 1879 brochure for Edison’s Electric Pen and Press from distributor Ward & Gay, Stationers, 180 Devonshire St., Boston, New England Agents.
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Electric Pen and Duplicating Press - Chronology
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Detail of motor |
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Electric Pen Registry
Several on-line and print sources have stated that as many as sixty thousand electric pens were produced (a number also quoted by the Smithsonian Institution, although this Smithsonian page cites no source), but it’s likely that this quantity is far too high. The earliest source I have found for this number is an 1889 book by J.B. McClure, “Edison and his Inventions” (right), which describes “...the electric pen, over sixty thousand of which are now in use throughout the country”, but I suspect that this number came from Edison’s publicity machine. The 60,000 number was also reported by Edison's assistant Francis Jehl in his 1937 book “Menlo Park Reminiscences” Vol. 1. However, Jehl would have had no direct knowledge of the production and distribution of the pen during his association with Edison, and writing sixty years after the fact he was almost certainly just quoting the publicized number. The digital edition of the Edison Papers has numerous documents regarding the electric pen, but no list of serial numbers, nor overall information on quantities made. The highest known serial number on a surviving electric pen is 8739; the majority of pens examined to date have a serial number, so it may be significant that nothing higher than this one has yet been found. Further, an analysis of royalty statements found in the Edison Papers accounts for fewer than 4,000 sales between 1876 and 1894; even allowing for unrecorded sales, and in view of the serial number evidence, it’s likely that fewer than 10,000 pens were sold. An 1876 electric pen promotional pamphlet, the cover of which refers to the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition (running from 10 May through 10 November), lists users such as the New York Herald, Mutual Life Ins. Co., New York Central R.R., New York Post Office, and many other large companies, and notes “And 1800 others”. Another pamphlet from that same year amends this to “2500 others”. However, on 27 December 1876, Charles Batchelor, who was responsible for the duplicating business, wrote:
These early users were supplied with pens and duplicating presses produced by John Ott, succeeded by Ezra Gilliland, both working under contract out of Edison’s own facilities in New Jersey. Gilliland continued to make the equipment at Menlo Park until manufacturing was transferred to Western Electric in Chicago at the end of 1876. A letter of 10 February 1877 to Edison from George Bliss, who signs himself “General Agent” of the Western Electric company of Chicago (at that time the manufacturer and domestic sales agent for the electric pen), notes:
But further communications from Bliss regarding production problems and late deliveries from Western Electric make it doubtful that this number was ever met, and this is confirmed by royalty payments recorded in Edison’s ledgers. [D7711B] A letter to Thomas Edison dated Dec 6th, 1878, from George Bliss, who is now “General Manager” of Edison’s Electric Pen and Multiplying Press company of Chicago, shows Bliss to be alarmed: “I notice by the papers that you are adapting the Typewriter for the preparation of stencils so as to supercede the use of the electric pen. ... I can scarcely believe this to be possible and shall be glad to have you advise me what the facts are”. [D7822ZCD] These documents indicate that perhaps no more than a thousand duplicating outfits (each including an electric pen) were being sold per year even at the peak of sales activity in the three years following the pen’s invention, and that by the end of 1878 the pen faced serious competition from the newly introduced typewriter. By 1880, there were also many other competing duplicating systems. This production volume information, the analysis of royalty statements mentioned above, and the serial number evidence make it likely that fewer than 10,000 pens were ever sold. Even Western Electric itself, in an February 1881 advertisement, only claimed “10,000 Pens now in Use,” and that number was almost certainly inflated. If you know of an electric pen not on the list below, I’d appreciate receiving its serial number. Pen locations will be listed as “private collection” unless you wish to have your name or business attached to the listing. If the pen is in a public collection, I’d like to be able to list the location, although it’s not essential. Please email me with any information, or feel free to forward my email address to anyone who might be able to help with this research.
Document images courtesy of the Thomas A. Edison Papers website |
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Copyright © 2010 FTL Design
Last revised: 10 April, 2021
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