Edison Electric Pen

Edison Electric Pen, No. 2576 on nickel-plated flywheel, with cast-iron frame, electric motor, unengraved steel shaft with thread adjustment and stylus, lg. 5 1/2, on original cast-iron stand with gilt-line decoration on circular base, lg. pen 5 1/2, ht. stand 4 in., (shaft brassed, one contact chipped). Literature: W. B. Proudfoot, (1972), The Origin of Stencil Duplicating, p. 42. Note: The Edison Electric Pen, driven by a wet-cell battery, was designed to create manuscript stencils for manifold copies. It worked with a vibrating stylus, like its inspiration the tattooist's needle, which impressed minute perforations in a special wax-coated paper. The pen went on sale in 1876 and is believed to have sold in large numbers, although surviving examples are rare. The development of the typewriter soon reduced the demand for the Electric Pen, and Edison's invention of a simple stylus with a perforating wheel rendered it obsolete for manuscript copy purposes. Four Edison Electric Pens have appeared at auction in recent years; no. 2576 is the lowest serial number so far. One difference between this and the other four is the absence of a patent date on the flywheel. Another is the unengraved steel shaft; possibly the resultant wear to the nickel-plating early on in production led Edison to modify the shafts of the later pens.