Bigrapher. P.53.
Photograph: David Remes (2003)
Sketches of a mechanical copying machine, or ‘bigrapher’, from 1777. The writing is done with the quill on the extreme right of a 3 ft long arm. The tube near its middle duplicates the document on a separate sheet of paper at the same time as it is written.
Today a working model of the bigrapher can be seen and tried out at Erasmus Darwin House, Lichfield. Darwin would later work on another type of copying machine.
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Erasmus Darwin’s Commonplace Book
The Scope and Nature of Darwin’s Commonplace Book
Artificial bird. P.32, 38.
Bigrapher. P.53.
Canal lift. P.58-9.
Diving bell with washed air, pneumatic. P.61.
Polygrapher. P.78.
Electrical doubler. P.79.
Rocket motor. P.82.
