Thursday, February 8, 2018

Couldn't Put My Finger On It

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 5; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

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My friend Stephen Mandel had a tray of Ronson Penciliters to show me at the DC Show last August.  Since I’m a completist, I love finding minor little variations and displaying them alongside one another, but I was at a distinct disadvantage . . . I haven’t picked up a new Ronson since 2011, and truth be told, I couldn’t remember what I already had.

Still, Stephen had one that stood out a little from the others in the crowd, and since Stephen made the effort to bring them for me, I felt the need to make an effort to take at least one of them home:


In the canon of the Penciliter, this was the first generation - before they were streamlined to look like something the Rocketeer would have in his pocket while he flew around.


I couldn’t recall seeing one with that nice engine turning on the top:



And there was something about that mechanism . . . something couldn’t quite put my finger on . . .


When I arrived home and compared this one to the ones in my collection, I was pleased to see that I was right about the pattern – I hadn’t seen one like that after all – and better still was that there was indeed something about that mechanism, too:



If I were to bet, I’d say that the new addition is older, made with a less refined flathead screw securing the lighter trigger to the barrel which was later replaced with a pivot point.  I think that’s supported by the patent stamped on it: Design patent 92,996, applied for by Louis Aronson on June 11, 1934:


When I last wrote about first generation Penciliters, back in March of 2012, I referenced this design patent.  However, I didn’t notice a discrepancy between the drawings and the Penciliters I had on hand.  This new example, however, matches the patent drawing to a tee:


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