Tying up a few loose ends

I wasn't very satisfied with the ending to my article on Charles Walpuski's "ordinary form of pencil," the "Sun Pocket Pencil" (March 19).  I kept having one of those nagging feelings that there was an obvious answer out there that I was missing.

Yep.  There was an obvious answer out there, and I was in fact missing it.  

I suspected the Sun was an Eagle product.  I was sure it was an Eagle product.  But at the time, all I could say was I was pretty sure.  Or almost pretty sure.

Turns out, all I had to do was quit looking, and quite by accident the answer poked out of the bushes and mooned me.  While I was looking for something else, I stumbled across an expired trademark:

The trademark was filed on April 28, 1905, by . . . drum roll . . . the Eagle Pencil Company, which claimed it first used this mark in 1869 (eight years before Walpuski's patent -- which was only for the lead itself -- was issued).  So, case closed on that one, and I've now added an index entry to the "Sun" under Eagle.

And speaking of the copying lead that was the subject of Walpuski's patent, a couple months ago I found this bunch of Eagle copying lead in an online auction . . .

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