As the Primordial Ooze Turns

 An online auction yielded this mostly ordinary-looking pencil:

These were sourced from some unknown jobber, who produced them for several pen companies, marked only with a name on the bell cap – similar pencils are marked for Weidlich, Ajax, and the Radium Point Pen Company. These are marked for the Weidlich Pen Company of Cincinnati, Ohio:

This one is a little unusual, with its elongated metal nose and secondary tip. More unusual is what is printed on the cap:

“Corona / Antioch Ill.” it reads. After I took these shots and went to file it away, I noticed that I had forgotten about a second example I had found like this one, but missing the end of the two-stage tip:

These were not the first Corona-marked pencils I had turned up. As a Rex Manufacturing Company fanatic, I was well aware that the Corona Pen Company offered pencils. I have a few Rex-made examples:

Including one in a distinctive tortoiseshell plastic I haven’t seen on any other Rex product:

All of the Rex-made examples I have found bear all four of the Rex Manufacturing Company patents, dating them to no earlier than 1926:

Since the later incarnations of Rex-made pencils have similar two-stage tips, I wondered if the new addition might also be made by Rex – looping other brands such as Weidlich, Ajax and Radium Point into the Rex Manufacturing Company’s orbit would solve the longstanding mystery as to who actually made all of them. I took apart the jade Corona and compared it to a Rex pencil . . .

Close, but not close enough to say absofrickinglutely. The threading at the nose is different, and the clip and clip assembly on Rex pencils is entirely absent from the Corona, on which the cap is simply pressed onto the end of the mechanism. 

I have theorized that Parker’s patent infringement case against Rex over Parker’s washer clip patent abruptly ended production of the “four horsemen” patent pencils by Rex, and at the least forced Rex to redesign its pencils to avoid infringement of Parker’s patents. See “My Working Theory” (December 24, 2016: Volume 4, page 298).

These odd Corona pencils suggest that Rex might have hastily redesigned its pencils after Parker’s infringement action, then went on to supply other companies such as Weidlich. However, I don’t think it is conclusive . . . just a tidbit to tuck away and revisit when stronger evidence either way surfaces.  

The pencils themselves begged several questions, but their imprints begged several more. I have crawled out of the same pool of primordial knowledge ooze from which all of us enthusiasts have emerged: our collector’s lore, which teaches us that Corona had some shadowy, unspecified connection with the Parker Pen Company.

That ooze didn’t smell right. I suppose if it did, I would have called it “special sauce” or “nectar of the Gods” rather than “ooze.”

If Corona was somehow connected with Parker, and if Parker was at odds with Rex, why would Corona have ever sourced its pencils from Rex in the first place? Why wouldn’t Corona use rebadged Parker Duofolds, especially after Parker’s infringement action resulted in Rex redesigning its pencils? Where the heck is Antioch, Illinois, and why wouldn’t Corona be located in Janesville, Wisconsin if it was affiliated with Parker? 

Most great adventures begin with “why.” I was off to the races, to learn about the Corona Pen Company . . .