1888.07.19 English
- August Lyngbye's model of the writing ball, that won the first prize medal at the large agricultural, art and industrial exhibition in Copenhagen in 1888. Photo: Jørgen Malling Christensen.
THE ROYAL
INSTITUTE FOR THE
DEAF-MUTE
COPENHAGEN
19/7 88[1]
Dear Mr Lyngbye[2]
Please receive my warmest congratulations on the occasion of your beautiful result, the very much deserved assessment of your work with the writing ball as worthy of first class honours[3]. – And thank you so much for your kind letter.
Yours faithfully
R. Malling-Hansen
[1] CB: Letters in italics indicate that it is a handwritten letter. The letterhead was pre-printed.
[2] JMC: In the original address RMH is using Mr Lyngbye’s title/occupation, in Danish “Mekanikus”. This word does not feature in the otherwise complete “Ordbog over det danske sprog” which has all non-dialect words in the Danish language in use during the period 1700-1950. Possibly, this is a linguistic innovation by RMH. The word is Latin, albeit spelled “mechanicus”. My guess is that he is using this term as a way of showing his high respect for the complicated work of Mr Lyngbye, way above the normal level of a mechanic.
[3] JMC: This was probably in connection with the Industrial Exhibition in Copenhagen in May 1888, at which Mr Lyngbye exhibited 7 different specimen of the writing ball, showing different stages in the development and fine-tuning of the writing ball. For more comments on this exhibition, see RMH’s letter to his daughter Emma, dated 21 may 1888.
- The young August Lyngbye.
- August Lyngbye on a drawing that is owned by "Teknisk Museum" in Elsinore.
- The large building to the left housed the large Art- and Industry Exhibition in Copenhagen in 1888. To the right in front one can see the building from the exhibition in 1872. Malling-Hansen's writing ball won the first prize medal on both occations
