1872.03.27 English
Letter for brother Jørgen
not dated but the brother has added in handwriting:
Received on 29/3 1872 Envelope stamped 27/3 Skjelstrup School[1] Th. J. Hansen[2] [3]
dearest brother! thank you so very much for your latest dear letter; i was extremely pleased that the writing ball now has been demonstrating its capacity and excellence in the presence of dear mother[4]. hopefully it will continue to prove itself also in future, well maybe even to the point where its skills will be shown to be clearly superior to those of the pen. first and foremost i would like to report that all of us here in the ball house are happy and in very good health, thanks god! and that I consequently am planning to visit the dear countess[5]. and very soon we wish to invite the thanings[6] for a grand dinner. and now a little something about our blessed tiny tots, in particular for dear mother. first of all i would like to tell you about how the grey matter is developing with little emma: the other day she says: “when mom and dad are walking in the garden, then dad is a small boy and the small girl is mom”. this is obviously a sign of her first awareness about perspective; she has seen us from the window and has become amazed about how small we appeared in the garden. anyway, this reflection is more promising that the one dear mother accuses me of having uttered, the one about the worm: “does it have legs so that it can fly”. last Sunday we were at mother-in-law¨s home. at the table iuliane says: “but grandmother, you havn´t yet seen the new stockings i am wearing today. look! grandmother in lolland knitted them for me”. engelke immediately seconds: “grandmother! you must also see my new stocking”, and then grandmother of course just had to see the stockings. the sisters-in-law have been attending carnivals and ballroom dances, and every time they must parade the big white pearls that dear mother once gave as a present to my dear kæthe. they borrow them al the time. kæthe insisted i should tell you about it. i attach a description of how my latest invention[7] was brought about, and other aspects in this context, and everything performed with the writing ball, while for the title page and back the rotation ball was used. i had to put together this text very hastily – consequently the language is bad and there are several errors – because the distinguished consultant in matters of patents was not able to locate my patent application, which was admittedly rather short, but in all respects correct. i have no doubt that you my dear brothers would be able to cope very well with this issue, that mr etatsraad[8] hummel[9] was unlucky enough to stumble over, and this in spite of the fact that i had on an earlier occasion explained it to him verbally, and he had declared that he understood. i will ask you to return the drawing to me when you re convenient and after having made an imprint of it, if you feel like it[10]. we must not yet mention the tachygraph, since i may later apply for patents in other countries. you see, dear brother, it it meant to be a complement to the writing ball for shorthand note taking at public deliberations – such as in parliament itself. my kæthe is promising to write to dear mother this easter. warmest greetings all of you dear people: dear mother, dear brother iohn and dear brother you. your deeply devoted brother r. malling hansen
[1] CB: Nowadays the name is Skelstrup School and is situated in Maribo
[2] CB: The name of this brother is Thomas Jens Jørgen but RMH always addresses him as brother Jørgen. It should also be noted that his surname is Hansen – not Malling-Hansen.
SA: The mother, Juliane born Matzen, did not live with her biological parents, but was raised by the teacher at Hunseby, Rasmus Malling and his wife. The stepfather was himself a trained teacher from the teacher training college Jonstrup, the very same institution where also RMH was educated. RM was married and had two children of his own. His wife died in 1835 – the year RMH was born. Juliane was married in 1834 with the assistant teacher at Hunseby, Johan Frederik Hansen. He died of typhoid fever in 1839, and Juliane Hansen moved in with her fosterfather again, and he also became the forsterfather of her three sons, Hans Rasmus Malling Johan, Thomas Jens Jørgen, and Johan Frederik Oluf Emanuel. The name Malling was part of RMHs first name, and not until 1883 did RMH adopt the name Malling-Hansen as his proper surname, by changing his signature from Malling Hansen to Malling-Hansen.
[3] CB: The letter was probably sent March 27 – and hence registered by that date. It uses only lower-case letters – this was a feature of the first writing balls – and has the letters æ and ø – but not å or j and also not digits. Later models that only used upper-case letters did have digits and Å and J – but not Æ and Ø.
[4] CB: This seems to indicate that also the brother had a writing ball – at least on a temporary basis – and was able to use it. Unfortunately not one single of the brother´s many letters to RMH has been preserved. Presumably they are among the innumerous documents burned in 1911 by some of his daughters. Hence, we don´t know (yet) if the letters from Jørgen to RMH were handwritten or written on the ball writer.
However, Sverre states that according to the book by Michael Agerskov ( publisher of the book “Toward the Light” in consort with RMH´s daughter Johanne) entitled in Danish “Some Psychic Experiences” , the documentation burnt in 1911 consisted exclusively of Malling-Hansen´s preliminary notes concerning the many measurements he carried out as part of the research published in (Danish) “Periods in Childrens´Growth and Solar Heat”. In other words, according to this source, it seems that we havn´t lost invaluable historical material.
[5] This is presumably the Countess of Knuthenborg, Karen Knuth, born Rothe, 1815-1877, the widow after Frederik Marcus Knuth, born in 1813, the very Count of Knuthenborg that sponsored the education of RMH, but who passed away still young in 1856. Consequently, the son of this Countess is at this point in time Count of Knuthenborg – however he also dies only a few years later and also while still young – which we can read about in one of the later letters – probably from 1874. His name was Eggert Christopher Knuth, 1838-1874. He was succeeded by his brother, Adam William Knuth, 1854-1888. The counts did not get very old!
[6] Sverre: Possibly this is the family, into which Jørgen was later to marry, because he married Mathilde Henriette Andrea Thaning on October 20, 1886, when he was 37 years old - in other words 15 years later! At that occasion he also changes his name into Jørgen Jensen Thaning Hansen!
[7] This must be the Tachygraph, for which he received a patent at this time. It is a pity we don´t have the description he is referring to. And what might a “rotation ball” be?? Might it be yet another invention by RMH??
[8] Obsolete title used in the 19th century, indicating a high ranking officer
[9] Mr Hummel is also mentioned in the third writing ball letter from 1870, because he had produced a very positive review of the writing ball, because of which RMH had written another writing ball letter for him.
SA: His full name was Christian Gotfried Hummel, and he lived from 1811 to 1872. He was the director of the Industrial School and teacher at the Polytechnical Educational Institution. The “issue” referred to here must be the tachygraph.
[10] Wonder how this was done?? SA: Maybe by the means of the method invented by RMH? RMH could possibly already have used a carbonized paper when making the drawing.
- Christian Hummel, 1811-1872, who wrote very favourably about the writing ball. He was director of the Industrial School and teacher at the Polytechnical Educational Institution. Photo: The Royal Library in Copenhagen
- Below can bee seen the signature of RMH's brother, Jørgen Hansen
