This one, owned by Frank Tedesco, is a John C. Wahl "120," complete with the original box, which I saw and photographed at the Triangle Pen Show in Raliegh. I’ve been looking for one of these for a few years – the last one I saw was at an auction at the Ohio Pen Show, and Joe Nemecek took it home for around a hundred bucks. Frank’s is still owned by Frank, because he paid several times that amount for his.
These pencils represent an interesting footnote in history. John C. Wahl is one and the same as the founder of the Wahl Adding Machine Company, which later scooped up Charles Keeran’s Eversharp and got into the writing business overnight. Although John was the founder of the company, he wasn’t in charge. Not by a longshot. According to Syd Saperstien, he was vice president, with a phone line extension at the company and the title of "Experimental Engineer," but he had a lot of time to putter around and invent things on the side. Not much is known about his separate company or this pencil, but it appears that John C. Wahl applied for his patent for this pencil on June 9, 1939, and he was issued patent number 2,210,845 on August 6, 1940 . . .
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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