Dotting pen

A dotting pen (in German: Punktirfeder, also Dotted-line pen, Odontograph) is a draftsman's and cartographer's instrument for drawing dotted, dashed and dash-dotted lines with ease.

History

In 1875, German engineer and manufacturer Emil Oscar Richter, after practicing in watchmaking, invented the Universal-Punktirfeder, a mechanical tool which consisted of a metal plate handle, a set of interchangeable gears, and a linked ruling pen (ger. Reißeder), which moves up and down (via cam and ratchet mechanism) while the tool slides along a path on paper. The name is a combination of the German words "Punktir" (dotted line) and "Reißfeder" (ruling pen); such drawing tools are alternatively named Odontograph[1][2][3], same as a tool used to shape involute gear teeth.

Punktirfeder (patent illustration)

E.O.Richter & Co. produced the tool as a separate item, but also included it in various sets of technical drawing tools along with the Kreig-Punktirfeder (a variant for attaching to a compass).

External images
KERN-Reisszeug RA14 (K), Serie A
image icon Photo of the set
image icon List of 25 tools in the set
image icon Diploma from the International Youth Skill Olympics'1978
image icon Article in the Berner Tagblatt newspaper (27 September 1978)

Since 1905, after Richter's patent expired, other manufacturers produced almost identical tools:

  • Eugene Dietzgen Co. has produced the Model 932S "Excello" since the 1920s (in 2018, an ASMR video depicting Dietzgen's 932S, published by David Grimes on YouTube, Reddit, and other social media, became viral).[4][5][6]
  • Soviet Plant «Gotovalnia» produced clones of Richter's sets, where the set №31 (1952) was one of both the Universal-Punktirfeder and the Kreig-Punktirfeder tools.
  • KERN Aarau (aka KERN & Co., KERN Swiss) produced a tool indexed with 1069[7][8] as a separate item, but also included it in various sets, such as RA 342/343, A 164 and RA 14[9] (the last one used by a member of the Swiss Team who won the 4th place at the International Youth Skill Olympics, the WorldSkills Championship 1978 in South Korea).[10][11]

Among other designs, there was the 551 Paragon dotting pen by Keuffel & Esser Co., which incorporated small gears into classic looking handy ruling pen.

See also

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dotting instrument and Case of drawing instruments.

Sources

References

  1. ↑ "Definition of ODONTOGRAPH". www.merriam-webster.com.
  2. ↑ "odontograph | Meanings & Definitions of English Words". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 2025-11-14.
  3. ↑ "ODONTOGRAPH definition in American English | Collins English Dictionary". www.collinsdictionary.com. 2020-02-13.
  4. ↑ 1930's Dotted Line Tool – via www.youtube.com.
  5. ↑ "Dotted Line Tool from the 1930s". www.reddit.com.
  6. ↑ Archweb.com (2023-06-29). "Dotted Line Pen". Archweb.
  7. ↑ "Kern Dotting Pen 1069". www.mathinstruments.ch.
  8. ↑ "Kern Presentation Drafting Set". www.mathinstruments.ch.
  9. ↑ "Kern Drafting Set RA 14". www.mathinstruments.ch.
  10. ↑ "Mit einem Kern-Reisszeug an die Berufsolympiade nach Süd-Korea" [With the Kern-Reisszeug set to professional Olympics in South Korea]. www.kern-aarau.ch (in German). Nach meiner definitiven Qualifikation schrieb ich die Firma Kern an und bat sie um ein Sponsoring in Form eines adäquaten Reisszeugs. Kern ging umgehend darauf ein und schenkte mir das grösste damals erhältliche 25teilige Set RA 14 (K) der Serie A. [Since last Qualification I wrote a letter to Kern company asking for sponsorship in a form of request for good tools for drawing. Kern immediately replied and provided me with a largest set at the time the RA 14 (K), Serie A, with 25 tools included.]
  11. ↑ "Busan, Korea 1978". worldskills.org.
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