Thomas Jefferson used this machine to make duplicates of letters for his personal records.

Jefferson wrote almost 20,000 letters in his lifetime. He wrote John Adams that he suffered “under the persecution of Letters,” calculating that he received 1,267 letters in the year 1820 alone. “From sun-rise to one or two o’clock, I am drudging at the writing table.”  

"I think of this every time I open my email Inbox," notes Bob Hauser, Executive Officer of the APS.

Jefferson often tinkered with other's inventions to improve them. This polygraph was created by John Isaac Hawkins in London and many models were shipped to America. Jefferson and APS Member Charles Willson Peale corresponded frequently about ways to improve Hawkins’ original design. Jefferson moved the inkwells for easier access while writing.

(Robert M. Hauser, Executive Officer of the APS)