On page 45 of The Catalogue, you'll find a picture of early pencils made by the Eagle Pencil Company of New York. Although I list all the patent dates found on these pencils, I didn't go into detail concerning the inventors or patent numbers. There were two reasons: first, I had some space constraints with which to contend.
Second, I have have to admit I hadn't tracked them all down yet. Patent databases are pretty easy to navigate around after 1920 -- punch in a date and search for patents assigned to Eagle Pencil Company, and there's your answer. But prior to 1920, you can't search by name. In some cases, the patents aren't for the pencils themselves but for some attachment or manufacturing process, so you can't even search by category.
In a couple of really tough cases, I had to look at every stinkin' patent issued on a particular date until I stumbled into the right one.
At any rate, it's taken some time, but I've finally run down all the patent dates that appear in the book -- and a couple others, too. So I'm declaring this week "Eagle Week" to reintroduce the early Eagle pencils which appear in the The Catalogue.
The first pencils pictured on page 45 are Eagle "Stop Gauge" pencils. Here's a shot of them, together with a nice green and white marbled example I found since the book went to print . . .
NOTE: This article is now included in the print version of The Leadhead's Pencil Blog, available anywhere you buy books, or also from The Legendary Lead Company.
To order, here's the link: Volume 1 at Legendary Lead Company
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