The Automatic Pen. Guaranteed to Spell Correctly.

Item

Title of Story
The Automatic Pen. Guaranteed to Spell Correctly.
Story Summary
A university student gives her physics and mathematics professor her science project, a pen that will write the right words as he writes, as he had trouble with spelling. This leads to a romance and marriage. A short story with more of a linguistic rather than science focus. A light, humorous story.
Science Fiction Subgenres
Invention Opera
Children's science fiction stories
Inventions
A pen that is programmed to correct someone's words as they write, built from parts taken from a phonograph. "To that end she strove through days of keenest application and industry, filling her nights with dreams of revolving cylinders of minute dimensions, closely would records, and infinitesimal electrical batteries, all to be contained within the narrow limits of a hollow penhandle." It is later determined that the family must record the entire dictionary into the pen for it to work.
Science
While the text doesn't specifically discuss science, it does list the following words in various places:
thermodynamics
electrostatic
dextrose
laevulose
ethyl acetoacetate
absolute electrical measurements
microengineering
miniaturisation
Science Future Articles
Miniaturisation in communication devices discussed in 1948 when the Australian army reduced morse code training. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/171260009
Science Extrapolations
Perhaps this futuristic pen storing the entire English dictionary and programmed to correct an attempt at mispelling predicts various autocorrect programs.
How this Story was Identified
Using my own designed Automated Popular English Fiction Genre Classification Program (APEFGCP) with the ChatGPT API to determine possible genres.
Date Details Added to IA
October 2024
Attributed Author
Kate Helen Weston
Single or Serialised
Single
First Published Date of Last Installment
1919-04-12
Date Range
1919-04-12
Number of Installments
3 chapters printed in one issue
Complete or Supplemented
Complete
Book Release Details
Flash fiction
Links in To Be Continued
The Automatic Pen: Guaranteed to Spell Correctly
Newspaper Name Location Years
Observer, Adelaide, SA 1905-1931
Location Town City
Adelaide
Location State Territory
South Australia
Provincial or Metro
Metropolitan
Content Advisory
These items are historical texts digitised from their original publication, and reflects the social attitudes, cultural values, and language of the time in which they were created. Some content may include depictions or references that are racist, sexist, ableist, colonialist, or otherwise offensive by contemporary standards. This material is presented uncensored for scholarly, archival, and educational purposes. It serves as a record of past cultural attitudes and is preserved here to support critical engagement, historical reflection, and the advancement of inclusive scholarship. Reader discretion is advised.