41, The Writing Machine

[rhr]

The Writing Machine.

 

Finally! a so-called "writing machine" that's actually a writing machine and not just another typing machine, patent 972,920. It also gives new meaning to the term "machine calligraphy". "When mechanically operated being styled a 'Writeograph' and when electrically operated a 'Teleaugraph'. . . . The primary object of my invention is to provide a machine wherein positive and reliable means [a series of cam discs] are employed for accurately guiding a pen [to] reproduce hand writing". It's a hand in a box that looks like "Thing", the hand in the Addams Family cartoon and television show. There's even a coiled-up snake in there to keep "Thing" company. Now, at last, you can finally see what's inside the box, and just exactly what the hand is doing inside there. It writes!

 

Also see the Scientific American, Nov 2, 1901, p.283, for an article about a cam-driven machine for writing initials, perhaps a precursor to patent no. 972,920. This unpatented machine was designed and created by Henry T. Harra.

 

I am going to use a much-cleaned-up version of one of the patent illustrations, minus the seventy-or-so numbers, as the frontispiece in my forthcoming Volume 1.

 

George Kovalenko.

 

Edited July 17, 2007 by rhr