Eversharp Week Part 4: The Other Transition

The dawn of the 1930s was a fascinating time in Wahl Eversharp's history.  Since Wahl had gotten into the business in 1917, the company had been producing pencils that almost universally used the same basic design, invented by Charles Keeran in 1913.  The Tempoint line of pens and pencils only dressed up Keeran's design in attractive new plastics.  By the end of the 1920s, while other manufacturers were introducing a wide variety of innovations, Wahl's product line was beginning to go stale. 

Looking at the company's history in a simplistic way, Wahl's next big move was the "Equipoised" line of pens and pencils, made more streamlined to reflect the dramatic impact the introduction of the Sheaffer Balance in 1929 had on the design of writing instruments industry-wide.  The Equipoised pencils featured an entirely new mechanism -- in fact, it was the only original pencil design Wahl ever came up with (remember that Eversharp's repeating pencil design was "lifted" from the Gilfred Corporation). 

At page 61 of The Catalogue, I illustrate three pencils in frame 7e that match the Tempoint pens of the late 1920s, but which instead use the mechanism that would later be used on the Equipoised line and also on the Doric series . . .

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