Patent model for paper-ruling machine

This patent model demonstrates an invention for improvements principally to the pen cylinder and striker of ruling machines; the invention was granted patent number 194497. William O. Hickok (1815-1891) of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was in the bookbinding trade from about 1840. In 1852 he patented his first ruling machine, an improvement on the Hathaway machine then in use. In 1874, with the O-A Striker machine, he established the principles of all ruling machines to come.