Sometimes as I'm tugging on a thread, it unravels a sweater.
The one I started tugging on about two weeks ago is unraveling something much bigger. There's a lot of moving parts to this story.
Here's a hint: I think I finally have found the proof that Sheaffer did not make Sheaffer's first pencils, the proof of who did, and the one man history has largely forgotten whose career trajectory through three of the Big Four pen companies explains an amazing amount of what happened to the writing instrument industry -- both pens and pencils -- in 1917.
Once I put all the pieces together, I'll be back . . .
6 comments:
From your, one man, largely forgotten comment. Could this be Chemist L.V. Redman? Do you have examples of Redmanol writing instruments? Think pipe stems, and by litigation, Redmanol, Including Redman, absorbed into Bakelite, which had been opaque, murky black, brown. Before bright Catalin appears on the scene, we see some translucent color, sort of like, "Redmanol". Even if this is not your Sheaffer lost person, have you any L.V. Redman info. He truly did disappear into Bakelite. Thanks Chris
Business Equipment Topics, Volumes 50-52
By Ernest Merton Best
Page 318 March 1922
Realite Pen Advertisment Redmanol
Office Appliances; The Magazine of Office Equipment, Volume 34
Nov 21 page 141
Rubber World, Volume 66 1922, though Redmanol is from what I understand an early phenolic, not rubber composition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopoint_Company Bakelite sort absorbed everybody
Hello Chris,
I touched on the Redmanol in a story I posted here awhile ago about the "Craftsman" - see http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-doomed-craftsman.html or click on the "Craftsman" label on the right.
Yes, Bakelite seemed to want to take over the world after 1922, when it won a patent dispute over the compound.
If you note a 1923 advertisement for pipestems, it clealry states Bakelite - Redmanol, citing no taste, translucency. Redmanol clearly already had a name. So, wondering at This juncture if patents stillheld, so both names material, and Company ownership. But, Now L.V.Redman was Bakelite VP, And also Chemist-Researcher. At This time, Bakelite morphed from opaque, basically brown, black, but suddenly we see a brief period before Catalin bright colors, when there were very dark red translucent objects, such as Buttons, make in what Is Guessed to be, (no original cards to confirm), Bakelite, but what I think are remnant Redmanol. A shift from opaque via Redman's absorption into Bakelite/bright Catalin. I've started a private Pinterest study page when if I find more I'l share. Please do post when you find more. Oh and realite also gobbled up by Bakelite. What seems sad to me is that Redman seems to be an important step in plastics advancement, but is obscured by the god-like bakelite name. Even cheery catalin is not referred to as catalin. Everything is the Big B. I actually prefer celluloid because of its beauty and it's overlooked. Perhaps time for Redman's obscured products and achievements to receive their due. (?)
Hello Chris,
Thanks for sharing this. Please read the Craftsman article I posted, which answers some of the questions you raise. Also, Bakelite did not gobble up Realite. Realite acquired Autopoint, and the renamed company was called Autopoint Products Company. Bakelite then purhased shares in the merged company, and several Autopoint executives left, some of whom formed Dur-O-Lite.
Thank you for the correction. The entire effort is to sort through and discern an accurate time-line. Finding all of the Redmanol products, (buttons-fasteners? writing instruments) and how it may have been used once it became Bakelite-Redmanol-Bakelite Company is my quest.
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