Twin Brother of Bug . . . and Friends

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Unfortunately, I don’t have any fun stories about how the Redipoints in this article came to me.  Maybe someday I’ll look back on the novelty of it . . . day after day of pandemic online auction cruising on my couch.  A week, a month, a year.  Time has become a warped; sometimes it feels like a year has flashed by in a blink, and other times I’ve felt like it’s been an eternity.  

I digress.  At some point, maybe a week, or a month, or a year ago, this pair appeared in my mailbox . . . maybe separately, maybe together. 

Both share the same imprint at the top: “Redipoint / Pat.Pdg. B&B St. Paul.”  To back up a bit for the beginners in the audience, “B&B” stands for Brown and Bigelow, the calendar and advertising company which originally introduced the Redipoint brand in 1918 (see “The Real Story of Redipoint” in Volume 4, page 335).  

The flared tops on these two pencils told me they were early, and I couldn’t wait to see if an old friend was inside them:

It was . . . at least, in the bottom one.  “The Bug,” I nicknamed it when I first wrote about them back in 2013 (Volume 2, page 211).  Those goofy “antennae” hold spare leads within the chamber, and they spring outward when the mechanism is removed:

I always smile when I find one of these.  In part, it’s because they are so insanely goofy, and goofiness is my preferred milieu.  But I also remember after that first article ran about "the Bug" just before the DC show that August; so many of my friends at the show commented on the article, and it was the first time I realized people were actually reading this stuff.  

“The Bug” was the gift that kept on giving, providing grist for articles detailing other Brown & Bigelow variations on this weird little theme: “Son of Bug” (Volume 3, page 61) and “Granddaddy of Bug” (Volume 3, page 245).  

However, my other new arrival had an unusual feature not shared with any of these entomological relatives:

It’s actually a more elegant solution to the problem of holding spare leads in place - a simple brass plate bent into a triangle around the mechanism secures a spare lead in each of the spaces at the corners.  

I was dreading going back through all of Brown and Bigelow’s early patents to see if this was factory or if it was ever even patented at all – Brown and Bigelow was assigned a lot of patents in those early days.  Fortunately, they are neatly compiled in American Writing Instrument Patents Vol. 2: 1911-1945, organized in the “Patents by Assignee” section of the book and taking up almost all of page 260:

Pandemic life being what it is, though, I figured I might as well spend an evening picking through the company’s patents one by one.  The first patent listed was for a clip, so I skipped that one.  When I pulled up the second one, that was the patent for “The Bug.”  

But wait a tick . . . 

See it?

Figures 3 and 4 of The Bug’s patent illustrate an “alternate construction of lead holding means for our pencil,” and the patented claims include both versions – “means adapted to hold a series of marking leads automatically distended or collectively drawn together about said propelling means.”

Frank J. Kristofek and Howard L. Fischer applied for patent number 1,353,352 on November 11, 1919, and the patent was issued September 21, 1920; therefore, assuming the imprint was updated after the patent was issued, this pencil was made between these two dates.  The triangular spare lead band is as close a relative to The Bug as you’ll find – not just a brother, but a fraternal twin.

Other metal Redipoints have also been coming my way lately.  One seller was apparently dispensing items out of a dealer’s case, since several auctions for Redipoints with price bands came up at once.  I wasn’t greedy, but I placed small bids on everything; at the end of the day, two of the miniature ringtops found their way to me:

The imprints and bands add the Ingersoll name to the Redipoint moniker, dating both of these pencils to between 1924 and 1926.  The nicer of the two, in gold fill, was model 63, retailing for $2.50:

The lowly silver plated edition was model 20, going for 75 cents:

These two limped their way to Leadquarters at some point . . . perhaps hand in hand, or maybe they met here.  I don’t remember:

The upper one is unusual, because the chasing just sort of tapers off to leave a smooth area for engraving:

And then there’s that imprint, for Crescent Life in Indianapolis: “Masons Exclusively.”  There’s John Hall again, nagging me from beyond.  No, John!  I have too much to do, and I’m not joining the Masons!

The other one has an interesting top that unscrews:

I haven’t figured out what’s going on with the “KOBE” imprint on the barrel, and those unusual lines and pattern.  

I’m betting the barrel design is meant to evoke Kobe products, sort of like that “Every Pound Pulls” rebar pencil from Volume 4, page 296.  When I figure that one out, you’ll be the first (or second, actually) to know!

I’ve saved one of the best for last - this commanding oversized Redipoint has it all, as far as their metal pencils go:

The oversized pencil is capped with a cigarette lighter - I’ve got one other like this, in gold fill:

The silver one has thick checking lead – a “checker” model in Redipoint lingo, and not common at all:

The best part, however, is what’s on the top.  Many Redipoints of the era had advertising discs under celluloid on top, and this one is along those lines:

As a salesman’s imprint, for “style number 61970,” no less!