The Fountain-Sheath Pen: A Reservoir Clipped to the Nib, for Writing on Ground Glass

A pupil copying writing exercises dips the pen for every few letters, blots the page, and uses up a copy book. William Davison of Baltimore, Maryland, received US 2,287, dated 9 October 1841, for teaching writing on "the surface of ground glass with a pen of peculiar construction prepared with fine chalk", over copies laid in a hinged metal frame, "with a pen with which the ink is laid upon the glass being of a new and peculiar construction making the finest hair as well as the boldest line and having attached to it a fountain of ink which fountain being in the form of a funnel, which when filled, is effected at every dip of the pen answers for a page of writing". The fountain's plate lies in the nib's concave side, so the ink runs down the split as the nib writes. This rung works out how the narrow gap holds the ink, then bends a brass fountain onto a steel dip nib, and writes on chalked ground glass over a copy.