Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub

154

MORDAN AND Co.'s PATENT THREE-POINTED PENS.

of midwife, as it were, to this invention, I feel myself called upon to offer a short explanation of the matter, which I am quite sure will place Messrs. Mordan and Co., as well as the author of this ungracious attack, in a proper point of view before your readers.

Mr. Gowland is the undoubted inventor of three-nibbed metallic pens, as stated in "Scrutator's" extract from Mr. Carstairs' pamphlet. Mr. Gowland having shown his invention to many other persons, at length submitted some of the pens, to which he had affixed a third nib, to my inspection, requesting my opinion of their merits. I was immediately struck with the great importance and value of Mr. Gowland's contrivance, and I forthwith waited upon Messrs. Mordan and Co. for the purpose of calling their attention to the subject; these gentlemen, with their usual acumen, at once saw and duly appreciated this novel improve

ment.

Upon inquiry being made, it was found that Mr. Gowland had published his invention to such an extent, as to render its being made the subject of a patent altogether out of the question.

Messrs. Mordan and Co. perceiving, however, that this was, in fact, the only true principle for making good metal pens, determined on taking up the invention, open as it was, on terms highly creditable to themselves, and advantageous to the ingenious inventor.

soon

Many practical difficulties, however, arose in attempting to manufacture this pen; the original plan of Mr. Gowland, as well as an improvement of my own, which I submitted, being found incompatible with due economy of manufacture. But Mr. Mordan was not to be foiled and his ingenuity surmounted other difficulty; and by a happy experiment, he struck out a mode of manufacture which rendered the construction of three-nibbed pens, in a perfect form, very easy of accomplishment; which method, the firm deemed it advisable to secure to themselves by patent.

If "Scrutator" will take so much trouble as to refer to the correct list of patents which you have given at page 64 of your present volume, among others, he will find one reported to have been granted "To Sampson Mordan, of Castle-street, Finsbury-square, mechanist,

for an improvement in making or manufacturing triple-pointed pens."

Observe, not for a three-nibbed pen, that is Mr. Gowland's invention-but for Mr. Mordan's original and ingenious mode of making that article.

That the peculiar process of manufacture is a legitimate subject for a patent, nobody having an ordinary share of common sense would attemp to deny; every body in any way conversant with these matters, knows that numberless cases might be quoted to prove that such is an every day practice.

Thus, for instance, on reference to the list of patents given in your last volume, it will be seen that bobbin-net, brandy, chloride of lime, cotton, gas, iron, oxalic acid, paper, pens, soap, screws, silk, and vinegar, as well as distilling, diving, dyeing, embossing, evaporating printing, weaving, and many other things, milking of cows, even included-none having the slightest claim to the title of new inventions, have yet, in their respective processes and modes of manufacture, been recently made the subject of good and lawful patents.

It is, therefore, not any matter of surprise, "that gentlemen so long in the field of invention and bona fide manufactures, as Messrs. Mordan and Co., should, like other people, take care to secure to themselves, by legal means, the fruits of their own inventions.

66

Without condescending any farther to notice the ignorantly mistaken and paltry attack of Scrutator," let me proceed to the more agreeable task of pointing out to your numerous readers, some of the peculiar advantages of this novel form of pen, and in so doing, I shall, for reasons which "Scrutator" will readily understand, quote largely from the pamphlet he has introduced to the notice of your readers.

In the accompanying drawing, fig. 1, is a back and side view of Mordan and Co.'s triple-pointed slip pen, by which it will at once be seen, that the third nib is cut out of the stem or shank of the pen, where there is alway, a superfluity of metal; this being turned back affords what really does appear to be the ne plus ultra of metallic pens-the third nib. Figs. 2, are back and side views of the flat spade; or as some, of the Birmingham makers style it, the Lunar pen, the third nib of which is obtained in pre

MORDAN AND co.'s PATENT THREE-POINTED PENS.

cisely the same manner, as in the pen, fig. 1. With respect to this novel and important addition, Mr. Carstairs, at page 31, observes, "A very curious and useful improvement, and, as I conceive, a very necessary appendage to steel pens, has recently attracted my attention, and I consider it highly worthy of the notice of manufacture, as well as others. It is invented by Mr. James Gowland, chronometer-maker, No. 11, Leathersellers-buildings, London-wall. It is very ingeniously appropriated, and can be readily adapted, to almost all steel pens, with very evident advantage, more especially for the purpose of making the pen to hold an extra quantity of ink, as well as of supplying it, in uniform and never-failing succession, while the least ink remains in it. Every time the pen (to which it is attached) is pressed on the down strokes of the writing, the ink flows in a body towards the point, by the power of capillary attraction, the moment it is most wanted, and this effect is produced by the angle which is formed with the point of the appendage (which is a curved piece of watch spring), and the nib of the pen forming a kind of conical tube, with its smallest end placed downwards, tapering and increas.. ing gradually in width upwards to its widest part, about three-eighths of an inch from the point or nib of the pen, with the point of the spring resting lightly at the back of the nib, thereby forming, when the pen is pressed on the paper, a third point, which also comes in contact with the paper, and always tends to make the ink flow equally as much on the centre of the down strokes, as the two points of the levers or prongs of the pen itself. Capillary attraction, which this ingenious contrivance possesses in a very high degree, counteracts completely the defect existing in all pens, and which arises from the opening in the slit tapering to an angle in the opposite direction to that which is requisite for the purpose of fairly conveying the ink to the paper, as any one may soon be convinced by pressing the points of any pen on the thumb-nail, or on any other hard surface, until the slit opens wide enough for large hand-writing, the ink will then instantly recede from the points towards the upper extremity or angle of the slit. Capillary attraction

156

always causes fluids to flow towards the narrowest part or opening of every conical tube."

Figs. 3, are similar views of Mordan and Co.'s patent three-nibbed counter oblique pen. Speaking of this particular form of pen, at page 16, Mr. Carstairs observes, "A new steel pen has just been produced by Messrs. Mordan and Co., distinguished by the name of the counter oblique pen.' The utility of their original oblique pen has been very generally acknowledged, as the great and extensive sale of them for the last three or four years will sufficiently evince. If the former was highly approved of, the great facilities and evident improvements produced in the counter oblique pen, must tend much to make it a favourite with the public. This novel and curious introduction will, no doubt, be hailed with delight by the admirers of steel pens, not from the peculiarity of its form, but for the advantages of its holding more ink, and retaining, from its obliquity, a direct position to the writing, while it balances itself; keeping alwaysan unchangeable equilibrium! Many persons having been prejudiced against the form of the original oblique pen, has induced Messrs. Mordan and Co. to meet the wishes of every one; and in this praiseworthy attempt, they have succeeded in adding some essential and useful improvements in their new pen, which will no doubt be acceptable even to those who were the most opposed to their former pen, merely on account of its remarkable appearance! This new pen requires not only great care and nicety in the manufacture of it, but also very complex and finely adjusted machinery; and not one is permitted to be issued from the manufactory, until it has been minutely and critically examined, tried, and proved by a competent and able examiner !

"Messrs. Mordan and Co.'s counter oblique pen possesses in a high degree a free lateral opening, which is the action more or less of all steel pens, with no grooves or indentations crossing in the vicinity of the central slit; and therefore pens made without ribs or grooves, can never have the curvelinear spring which is natural to the quill pen; nevertheless, some individuals prefer pens which have a lateral expansion. That it may be explicitly understood what is

156

MORDAN AND Co.'s PATENT THREE-POINted pens.

meant by a lateral opening, the impetus required to expand the slit, merely causes the slit to open in the same manner as two fingers may be opened, or separated from each other, without an uprising action; or, in other words, if we were to open a pair of compasses, though the legs appear in the position of expansion, yet it will be evident that the very action of their separation must be a linear, or lateral one, both right and left, without the least bending of the legs upwards, or downwards, which is precisely the same with pens without ribs, or channels, and that is the cause why the previously manufactured steel pens, in general, have not the easy flexibility of the quill pen. Now if the action and the expansion be not easy and free, the steel pens will write very harshly and stiff; but this is not the case with Mordan and Co's counter oblique pens, for they possess a very free and easy opening, and glide extremely smooth over the paper owing to the fine temper of their steel, and the perfection of the manufacture of their pens, by very superior machinery, &c.

"Upon the whole, I consider this oblique pen superior to many of its predecessors, and Messrs. Mordan and Co. are worthy of high commendation, on account of the great expense they have been at for tools and machinery, and in employing able mechanics to accomplish the end they had in view,, namely, to produce a pen worthy of the public attention.

"As good steel pens cannot be produced from bad steel, and as steel varies extremely in its properties and qualities, it is therefore of the utmost importance to be very cautious in the choice of steel, and more particularly so as it respects, its temper and quality. I believe I have at present in my possession one of the finest and most perfect specimens of steel ever produced in England, or any where else. With regard to its pliancy, it may be compared to the thinnest and finest whalebone, and it will re-vibrate to its former position after it has been bent double, end to end. Being highly carbonated, it is the only proper steel,! and the most suitable for the manufacture of the best steel pens. Now this kind of steel may be more expensive,' yet good steel pens from such a superior article would more than compensate for

any extra charge on the pen; and it si greatly to the credit of Messrs. Mordan and Co. that this is the kind of steel they generally use in their pens."—"I cannot pass over unnoticed the personal exertions and perseverance which Mr. Mordan himself has, with never-ceasing and undiminished ardour, for many years, endeavoured to overcome every obstacle, in the hopes of obtaining ultimately a successful result. Messrs. Mordan and Co, have succeeded in producing a more excellent and natural pen, than all those who have tried every kind of metal, both mixed and unmixed, that the mind of man could possibly conceive or invent!"

Thus far, Mr. Carstairs, in addition to which it is only necessary to state that with three-nibbed pens the following important advantages are secured; viz. 1. A certain supply of ink, uniform with the most rapid writing. 2. The two nibs of an ordinary pen act only as dividers or tracers, while the third nib in the new pen, pressing upon the paper, conducts and distributes the ink. 3. The additional nib renders the same pen capable of writing the boldest text, or finest running-hand. 4. The third nib becomes a species of reservoir, holding a large quantity of ink without any risk of blotting. 5. The third nib acting in the slit of the pen, effectually removes the fibres as they are gathered from the paper, thereby removing the greatest impediment to the use of metallic pens. Finally Firmness in use is obtained by the third nib, and, at the same time, the flexibility is increased, and durability necessarily follows

One important fact is deserving of particular notice; viz. that persons who had been accustomed to sign their names to checks, &c. &c., in a peculiar manner with quill pens, have hitherto been compelled to accommodate themselves to the capabilities of steel pens when using them for that particular purpose; whereas, with the triplepointed pen, the same freedom exists as in the quill, and it accommodates itself to the writer; instead, like all its predecessors, of compelling the writer to submit to the limited range of its capacity.

A jointed holder should always be used with these pens, to enable them

LITERAL SPELLING.

[blocks in formation]

Sir, It is an old maxim, to begin when you can with the egg; and in this age of many beneficial and some Utopian reformations, I am of opinion it would be beneficial to reform the mode by which our infants are first taught to read, and that would be effected by the abolition of absurd literal spelling. The words of our language are made up of the sounds of its syllables, and not of the sounds of its letters; and if so, why are the sounds of those letters taught? Several attempts have been made by Berthaud, Mrs. Williams, and Anti-spelling, to accommo. date the sounds of the letters to their sounds in words; but I would reform it altogether, and abolish them. This may be thought too sweeping a measure, but if your readers will take the trouble of examining, they will find that literal spelling is altogether time lost and worse. Let them try the word leg-l, e, g. What are these sounds, leg or elegy?

[ocr errors]

This foolish system is not followed in teaching music or French. A French master teaches his pupils the sounds of the French letters separately, as aw, bay, say, &c.; but he does not go on with this system, and say, Now, my pupil, vay-0-00-ace-voo (vous): tay-0-00-tay -too (tout)." It is too absurd and roundabout. He says at once, "Look at that vous, it is voo; at that fou, it is too; don't forget, they are voo and too in sound, and vous and tout in sight;" and he remembers accordingly.

There is a strong and prominent fea

157

ture in most (perhaps all) languages, and that is, the abundance of short vowels; they suit the early state of speech, whe ther in infants, as ba, ma, pa, mam, pap, dad-or in low-cultivated nations, as the Eskimaux, in Ikmal-lik, Tussarkit, Tennitarpin, &c. These short sounds far outnumber all the other vowel sounds put together; and if all others were expunged from our tongue, they would still form a language capable of conveying an extensive range of ideas. I would only have to do with syllables, as dis tinct sounds, at first. A child can tell this is and, and why not this, and? this is g, and why not this, jee? this z, why not this, zed?" Let any one dissect an English word as it is now first taught, and divide it into the simple sounds of which it is composed, and he will immediately find out that a child (poor thing) is instructed first to utter a number of simple sounds, and then expected to combine them into a compound sound, of which they do not form the elements or component parts. The child is first taught that this letter a sounds like hay but perhaps the first syllable which it sees the letter in (ab) falsifies its previous instructions, for the letter a does not sound like hay, but somewhat like hah-and if it meet with the letter in the word all, it sounds neither like hay nor hah, but like haw.

I think the most judicious beginning would be to teach these first short vowel sounds unmixed. I intended publishing a first book on this plan, and had two sheets of it printed, but as I may not do so, I beg room for these remarks in your very useful work, and shall be glad of any comments upon them. My lessons are all of the following kind, reserving other vowel sounds for a higher grade or second book :

ab, ad, ak, al, pa, ra, sa, ta, dad, dan, fan.
ed, ef, ek, en, beg, bed, bet, peg, pen, jet.
ib, id, ik, iu, it, ix, fit, pil, din, nit.
ob, od, of, on, op, ox, bob, rob, pon, top.
ub, uf, us, ut, um, up, nup, rub, sud, sun.
on it, an ox, it is, if it is, is it up, or at it.

in a cap, is it a bat, mix it up, dad or mam.

run not in mud, pin her cap on, Tom cut his pen.

It cannot fit him, it is a bad job, it is as big as an ox.

It is a bad peg for his job, but Bob can lop it a bit for him. Put it in a jar, or a cup, in his gig, but let him not sit on it. Her bonnet is formal, but it is velvet.

Benjamin cannot get it into his cabinet, &c.

[blocks in formation]

AERIAL LOCOMOTION.

Sir, I was amused with an idea of one of your correspondents, that birds might be trained for aerostation; and as I have since 1826 had various thoughts on locomotion by mechanical means, I beg leave to lay before your readers my ideas on locomotive-balloons. In the first place, the form of body should resemble that of a fish of great velocitysalmon or bonetta. Next, I would have in the centre of the body a fan-blast, or bellows, the vent being at the tail; and beneath the belly a stage should be hung by copper rods, on which the winch to act on the fan-blast should be fixed. At the tail end I would have a large fan, to act as a rudder; and on each side of the body a sort of fin, to regulate the rising and falling, acted on by strings or cords held by the person at the tail-fan. It is not necessary to go to great altitudes; therefore, I propose that the gas to fill the body should be only in sufficient quantity to render the whole mass of the same specific weight as the atmosphere, or a trifle less-then by working the fan, motion would result. To progress, a nearly fair wind should be blowing, as this mode of transit can only resemble the compound forces of a river and a boat crossing, which produce diagonal motion; hence I consider the solution of the problem more curious than useful.

I had an idea of propelling vessels in a nearly similar manner, but have given it up for one more original, and perhaps better, as it will not require any sort of direct action of machinery on the water. The result will have all the appearance of a common sailer; and for a vessel of war, all will be entirely out of the reach of shot; steam or other power will, of course, be required as usual. I am, &c.

April 30, 1836,

KENANS.

BRITISH IRON TRADE. (Extract of a letter from Mr. Gerard Ralston to the Editor of the American Railroad Journal.)

In my last letter you will recollect I mentioned that the following advances in price had taken place in common (Welch) bars, viz.:

On 25th August the price at
Newport and Cardiff was

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

5l. 10s.

[ocr errors]

10s.

[ocr errors]

12s. 6d.

21. 2s. 6d,.

71. 12s. 6d.

Thus you see there has been a further advance of 12s. 6d. per ton since my letter to you. But the price of 77. 12s. 6d., as fixed by the meeting of Welch iron-masters at Romney, on the 1st inst., is not observed by some of the leading houses, who refuse to sell under 81. per ton, and others decline orders at all, for the present, alleging that their engagements are already so heavy, and the prospects of the trade are such, that they prefer to confine themselves to the execution of orders on hand, and thus enable them to take advantage of increased prices in the spring. The meeting at Romney adjourned to assemble again on the 12th January next, when it is confidently expected the price of 87. will not only be generally confirmed, but that a further advance of 10s. The iron market is in a most ex-.. traordinary state; the demand is far greater than the supply, which it is impossible to increase immediately, owing to the inability to obtain competent workmen to mine the coal, ironstone, and limestone, and to manufacture them into iron when procured. Aid cannot

be expected from the lead, copper, tin, and other manufacturers of metals, which would be practicable if these branches were in a depressed state; but so far from this being the case, these trades are in nearly as flourishing a condition as the iron trade. Hitherto

*The present price (June 6th) of British bar-iron is 121. per ton.-ED. M. M.

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »