Martin Borbeck's Busy Day

Snap-Fil pens, made by the General Manufacturing Company of Sioux City, Iowa, are a cult classic among pen collectors, with their pointy barrels, flattop caps and levers that open backwards from the direction you’d expect. I don’t have any on hand, but here’s a picture of one from the catalog in the online archives of the Pen Collectors of America (pretty handy membership to have, isn’t it?):

The patent for the Snap-Fil was applied for by Martin Borbeck of Sioux City, Iowa on March 23, 1919, and was issued as number 1,342,736 June 8, 1920:

But here’s the really neat thing: Martin actually received two patents on June 8, 1920. Earlier that same day, he received Patent number 1,342,416: for a lever-operated pencil, which he’d applied for on July 28, 1919:

While the patent for the pen was issued to the "Houston Pen Company," Borbeck’s pencil patent was not assigned. The pen design was marketed under the tradename "Snap-Fil," but since the lever on the pencil just sort of scoots the lead forward bit by bit, the name didn’t make much sense – so the company marketed the only lever-filling pencil ever produced under the trade name "Kaligraf," as shown on this advertisement, sent to me by Joe Nemecek:

I don’t have a Kaligraf, but when Joe Nemecek spent a night here at pencil ranch on his way home from the Ohio Show, he brought with him the only example in his collection, a mottled hard rubber ringtop:

The tip is reminiscent of an early Waterman, but Waterman pencils weren’t introduced for a couple years after the Borbeck patent was issued:

The imprint on Joe’s example is very faint, and took some real gymnastics to get the light at the right angle to show it in these photographs:

General Manufacturing Co.

Pat. Kaligraf June 8, 1920

Sioux City, Iowa

Note:  after this article was first published, I heard from Dave Johannsen, who admitted to an affinity for Kaligraf pencils and, with a little prodding, agreed to send me a picture of the ones from his collection:

The levers are on the opposite side.  That side clip example is just killer, and the imprint on Dave's ringtop is nice and sharp, too.   Thanks for sharing those, Dave!