This article was originally published with the title “An Instrument for Drawing Ellipses and Hyperbolas” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 97 No. 26 (December 1907), p. 472 doi:10.1038 ...

The hyperbola, if extended,crosses the central major axis at the opposite (missing) end of the ellipse. Conics were described by Appolonius of Perga (c200BCE).