patent no. 11,872 · adelaide ferris-quill · 1899
a small engine for the saying of sorry
a brass cylinder, inscribed with thirty-one apologies in ferris-quill's own hand — one for each day of the longest month — mounted on an axle that may be turned by a small crank. a stylus reads the cylinder and inks the chosen phrase upon a length of foolscap. one may select by number; the machine fetches the apology and writes it out fair.
the difficulty is the cylinder. ferris-quill, having dictated her own apologies, could not bring herself to use them. each phrase is correct, each phrase is undeniable, and yet, when set upon paper in her own running hand, each becomes hers again and so refuses to arrive. recipients describe the letters as eloquent and entirely unconvincing. the machine cannot apologise for the machine.
ferris-quill ceased to operate the machine in 1901 and apologised, by letter, in her own hand, for ever having built it. the letter is considered the finest apology in her archive. the cylinder, by then, was already dust.
field-note · the stylus skips on phrase no. xvii. ferris-quill never restored it; no one knew which one it had been.
letter-opener · silence box · thinking chair · apology · letter