The Only Thing I Accomplished That Day

Here's a group of Roller Rule pencils, as illustrated at page 130 of The Catalogue.

What's bugged me about the Roller Rule for a long time is that I haven't been able to track down the patent for it.  Unlike most patented doohickeys, the Roller Rule doesn't have either a patent number on it or the patent date.

A few weeks ago I had one of those days at work -- the kind of day where I worked really hard, all day long, and at the end I felt like I got absolutely nothing accomplished.  No bad guys were beaten, no good guys vindicated, and tomorrow I'd start all over again in exactly the same place.

That, in my book, is exactly the kind of day hobbies are made for.  I decided that I was going to accomplish something that day -- just one thing.   And that one thing was going to be figuring out who invented the Roller Rule. 

I'd started, of course, with George Kovalenko's book, but nothing in there fit the bill.  Besides, since the measuring unit doesn't necessarily have to be in a pencil, it might not be indexed as a pencil patent.  So I thought to myself, "what would Kirchheimer do?"   

Daniel Kirchheimer plays with words.  So I started playing, putting different words into the search engine to see what came out.   Ruler . . . rolling . . . measuring . . . attachment . . . bingo!

Indexed in category number 33 (not 401, where the pencils are) was patent number 1,599,680, which was issued to one John Hoe Morehead of Clarkdale, Arizona on September 14, 1926 . . .

NOTE:  This article is now included in the print version of The Leadhead's Pencil Blog, available anywhere you buy books, or also from The Legendary Lead Company.

To order, here's the link:  Volume 1 at Legendary Lead Company

Now I Understand What He Was Talking About

A few months ago, a friend (I don't remember which one) emailed me with a question about the Roller Rule.   He was getting ready to list one, and he wanted to know if I could email him a picture of the instructions page that he could use with his listing.  Proudly, I sent him what I had.

The Roller Rule was a nifty little piece of Americana which first appeared around 1948.   When you rolled the top across a surface, a gauge on the back of the barrel records the distance traveled.  This example, complete with the box, was made in Japan.  Chadwick Miller, according to my research (and subject to some reader emailing me with a big "nuh uh"), was an importation and distribution company that distributed all sorts of nickknacks that were made in Japan during the 1950s and 1960s.

The response I got back from my friend after I emailed this took me aback a little.  "No, not those," he said.  The GOOD ones!"

I had no idea what he was talking about.  That is, until my December jaunt at the Scott Antique Market landed me this:

NOTE:  This article is now included in the print version of The Leadhead's Pencil Blog, available anywhere you buy books, or also from The Legendary Lead Company.

To order, here's the link:  Volume 1 at Legendary Lead Company