Monday, February 11, 2013

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:


To learn more, this full article is included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 2, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and everywhere else you buy books, or you can order a copy signed by yours truly through the Legendary Lead Company HERE.



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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 12, 2013 at 6:07 AM

    Nice to see the Kaligraf get some press. I've got two of them and the instruction sheet in my modest Houston collection, but it's taken quite a few years of looking just to acquire these examples - they're fairly scarce. I hope that you soon find an example for yourself.

    Dave

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  2. Jon VeleyFebruary 12, 2013 at 6:20 AM

    Hi Dave, and thanks for the note. For now, I'd settle for a nice picture of the ones you have, if you wouldn't mind taking one for me? I can update my article to add them, giving you credit (or not, depending on your preference).

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