2009.24.5

The Automatic Writer

Black, Edith Ferguson

Rectangular plywood board, rounded edges, glossy orange-brown finish, oak on top, softwood on bottom; four nickel bars with acorn finials on ends screwed to four edges of board, defining the writing surface; top bar has a spring loaded wire paper clamp, opened by a small lever handle in center; left bar is notched at 3/8" intervals, a nickel plate writing guide is wrapped around bar and engages notches as it slides up and down bar, a second spring loaded bar is mounted on the guide; top edge of both main guide and the secondary bar are rolled; stamped on guide bar, "THE AUTOMATIC WRITER/PATENTED Sept 14, 1897".

H-12.375 W-7.5 D-1 inches

ca. 1897

Black, Edith Ferguson

Los Angeles, CA

Found in the Migel Library at AFB and transferred along with the collection in 2009. The automatic writer was invented by Edith Ferguson Black (1857-1936) the Canadian born author of A Beautiful Possibility and A Princess in Calico. "During an illness when weakened eyes hampered her literary work, she circumvented her doctor's prohibition against writing by inventing a writing machine for the blind which she then patented." (Simon Fraser University Library, Canada's Early Women Writer's Project.) The spring loaded leaf on the top of the guide allowed the writing instrument to dip below the main line for cursive forms of letters like y and g.

AFB Migel Memorial Library Collection, 2009.24