“Humanity certainly Pleads Loud”

This chapter describes Jefferson’s encounter with a strange new writing device for copying called the “Stylograph.” Cutting into “Carbonated paper” with “glass brought to a point like a pencil,” this instrument “provided an exact copy of an author’s original.” Jefferson experimented with his new toy, making literary duplicates by cutting across layers with his stylograph on October 5, 1807—the same day he also started to search for a translator to decipher the layered Arabic documents which had cut their way across the country, carried by Ira P. Nash. Canvassing the capital, Jefferson eventually sent his plea for help to Philadelphia on October 18th, even as he experimented with his new stylograph, ensuring that copies of his own letters were preserved. By the time October came to an end, however, Jefferson would discover that he was not alone in reproducing pivotal texts.