Editing Mimeograph (section)

===Electric pen===
{{Main|Electric pen}}

[[Thomas Edison]] received US patent 180,857 for Autographic Printing on August 8, 1876.<ref>{{cite patent |country=US |number=180857 |gdate=1876-08-08 |fdate=1876-03-13 |inventor1-last=Edison |inventor1-first=Thomas A. |title=Improvement in autographic printing |url=https://edison.rutgers.edu/images/patents/00180857.PDF}} <!--{{Cite web |url=http://edison.rutgers.edu/patents/00180857.PDF |title=Archived copy |access-date=2005-06-12 |archive-date=2018-02-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180205025553/http://edison.rutgers.edu/patents/00180857.PDF |url-status=dead }}--></ref>  The patent covered the electric pen, used for making the stencil, and the flatbed duplicating press. In 1880, Edison obtained a further patent, US 224,665: "Method of Preparing Autographic Stencils for Printing," which covered the making of stencils using a file plate, a grooved metal plate on which the stencil was placed which perforated the stencil when written on with a blunt metal stylus.<ref>{{cite patent |country=US |number=224665 |gdate=1880-02-17 |fdate=1870-03-17 |inventor1-last=Edison |inventor1-first=Thomas A. |title=Method of Preparing Autographic Stencils for Printing |url=https://edison.rutgers.edu/images/patents/00224665.PDF}} <!--{{Cite web |url=http://edison.rutgers.edu/patents/00224665.PDF |title=Archived copy |access-date=2005-06-12 |archive-date=2016-09-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160923001029/http://edison.rutgers.edu/patents/00224665.PDF |url-status=dead }}--></ref>

The word ''mimeograph'' was first used by [[Albert Blake Dick]]<ref>{{cite web |author=Dick (A.B.) Co |title=Circular Edison Mimeograph |orig-date=1887-03-10 |website=Thomas A. Edison Papers at Rutgers University |url=https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/document/CA035A |access-date=2023-04-10}} <!--{{Cite web |url=http://edison.rutgers.edu/NamesSearch/SingleDoc.php3?DocId=CA035A |title=Archived copy |access-date=2005-06-12 |archive-date=2016-03-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304055344/http://edison.rutgers.edu/NamesSearch/SingleDoc.php3?DocId=CA035A |url-status=dead }}--></ref> when he licensed Edison's patents in 1887.<ref>{{cite web |author=Dick (A.B.) Co |title=Agreement, Thomas Alva Edison, Dick (A.B.) Co |orig-date=1889 |website=Thomas A. Edison Papers at Rutgers University |url=https://edisondigital.rutgers.edu/document/LB024149 |access-date=2023-04-10}} <!--{{Cite web |url=http://edison.rutgers.edu/NamesSearch/SingleDoc.php3?DocId=LB024149 |title=Archived copy |access-date=2005-06-12 |archive-date=2016-07-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160728042043/http://edison.rutgers.edu/NamesSearch/SingleDoc.php3?DocId=LB024149 |url-status=dead }}--></ref>

Dick received [[Trademark]] Registration no. 0356815 for the term ''mimeograph'' in the US Patent Office. It is currently{{As of?|date=September 2022}} listed as a dead entry, but shows the [[A.B. Dick Company]] of [[Chicago]] as the owner of the name.

Over time, the term became generic and is now an example of a [[genericized trademark]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bartleby.com/61/68/M0306800.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080908113755/http://www.bartleby.com/61/68/M0306800.html|title=mimeograph. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.|archive-date=8 September 2008}}</ref> (''Roneograph'', also ''Roneo machine'', was another trademark used for mimeograph machines, the name being a contraction of ''Rotary Neostyle''.)