'Salrite Update

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 4; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

If you don't want the book but you enjoy this article, please consider supporting the Blog project here.

Coincidences seem to follow me around as I write these articles.  A few weeks ago my west coast connection Michael McNeil (Northwest Pen Works) sent me a couple pictures of pen trays to look at.  Here’s the picture he sent me:

That pencil on the far left is another example of the ‘Salrite; since I’ve got a few full sized ones like that, I almost passed on it, except there was what appeared to be a bit of decorative scrollwork around the cap unlike the plain raised rib I would expect to see.  So I bit.

There was more to the story.

Since Michael’s picture was taken at an angle from the nose end, I couldn’t see a couple other interesting things about this one.  The pencil arrived the very day part 2 of the ‘Salrite saga posted here (http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2016/09/before-salz-was-salz-part-ii.html), and of course it changes a few things I wrote.  Here is a shot of Michael's pencil from a better angle:

Yes, it has the decorative scrollwork like the gold-filled example I posted about a couple days ago (see http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2016/09/before-salz-was-salz-part-iii.html), but it’s rendered in the same nickel-plated trim found on the other black hard rubber examples – but with an exposed eraser, a feature I’ve never seen on a ‘Salrite:

But wait, as Billy Mays would say . . . there’s more.  That’s not the most interesting part about that cap:

In “Before Salz Was Salz Part 1" (http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2016/09/before-salz-was-salz-part-i.html) I indicated that Lucifer Most was awarded two patents for the pencil – the patent date usually found on  metal Sta-Sharp and ‘Salrite pencils is December 23, 1919, but an earlier patent application Most filed was not awarded until June 20, 1922.

In “Before Salz Was Salz Part 2" (http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2016/09/before-salz-was-salz-part-ii.html) I noted that the hard rubber ‘Salrites are marked on the cap with the December 23, 1919 date, but that the barrels are also marked with “Other Patents Pending.”

“The ‘others pending’ doubtless refers to Lucifer J. Most’s 1922 patent, which was applied for in 1918 but wasn’t issued until 1922,” I said.  I was wrong: the patent date seen here is May 2, 1922, not June 20, and it wasn’t issued to Lucifer Most:

On November 27, 1920, James Salz applied for what would be issued on May 2, 1922 as patent number 1,414,752, for a “hard rubber pencil.”  The patent was assigned to Pencil Products Corporation.

That clarifies something else I wrote in Part 1, in which I noted that one of the incorporators of The Pencil Products Corporation was “J. Salz.”  At the time, I couldn’t tell whether “J.” was Ignatz’ brother James or his other brother, Jacob  – fair to say it was James, in light of this patent.

But wait . . .  There’s even more.  Note from the patent drawings that James’ patent shows an internal tube with a pushrod that engages the threaded inner walls of the barrel?  I can’t for the life of me figure out how this wasn’t a violation of Charles Keeeran’s patent for the Eversharp . . . but no worries: that isn’t what’s inside this pencil:

There’s a unique little pushrod inside, with two holes drilled into the flange at one end so that it threads onto a spring:

Once threaded in place, the flange engages into a slot inside, so that turning the top causes the plunger to advance and retract, while the lead is held in place by the tip.

Just like an Autopoint, except the rod is attached inside the barrel instead of being threaded into the tip.   Oh, wait... exactly like an early Autopoint.

I’ve started going through 1920s patents in my book (American Writing Instrument Patents Volume 2: 1911-1945) indexed under “Mechanical pencil (screw drive)" and I’m finding some promising leads, but I’m surprised I’m not seeing this unique propeller rod yet.  The most promising patent I’ve found was issued to Julius Swanberg, applied for on April 2, 1924 and issued on May 24, 1927 as number 1,629,766:

The only differences between this and the Salrite are that the top is threaded in place on the Swanberg patent and the pushrod is designed differently.  Other than that, this pencil is identical to this ‘Salrite – it even shows in Figure 5 holes drilled in the barrel for spare leads, just like the ‘Salrite.  Research continues on this one.

In the meantime, consider one last point – which comes from the first thing I noticed from this pencil when Michael sent me the picture: I was hoping that this pencil might have some more clues tying together the stories of the Pencil Products Corporation and the Chase Pencil Corporation, and it does.  Since the only example I’ve seen of a ‘Salrite with a 1922 patent date is also the only one that has this scrollwork, I believe this feature was added late in the ‘Salrite’s run.  That is consistent with my hypothesis that Salz turned over the brand to Chase, which was manufacturing these pencils all along, after clan Salz butted heads with the Federal Trade Commission and Shur-Rite.

Before Salz Was Salz, Part III

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 4; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

If you don't want the book but you enjoy this article, please consider supporting the Blog project here.

(Note: the first part of this story can be found at http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2016/09/before-salz-was-salz-part-i.html).

Where we left off yesterday, the last mention of the ‘Salrite – and what should have been the eulogy which laid the brand comfortably to rest – was an advertisement from December, 1923, in which the pencils are described as “mottled or black.”   While I understand it’s difficult to hold an advertiser hawking closeouts to strict details concerning the blowout pricing of a discontinued brand, I thought Salrites were made only in black hard rubber:

Until last summer, when this monster popped up in an online auction:

Not just mottled hard rubber, but with gold filled . . . ok, goldish filledish trim?

Note that clip?  It isn’t the usual banded ‘Salrite clip, either.  It appears to be the same clip used on the all-metal ‘Salrites before they were discontinued.  The unmarked cap has some fine detail work to it – it fits neither into the Sta-Sharp nor ‘Salrite usual lines:

It is, however, all ‘Salrite.  All you need do is unscrew the nose to examine the patented spare lead chambers – from which it received the Salz moniker in early advertisements, “The Machine Gun of Commerce”:

So is this an early transitional model, made while all metal pencil clips were still available and before Pencil Products had settled on plain black and plain nickel trim?   Or was it a last gasp, hail Mary attempt to spruce up the brand in late 1923, as suggested by that December advertisement which was the only one to indicate there were mottled hard rubber examples?

I'm still not entirely sure, but I got another clue . . . just before the Chicago show this year, this one popped up online:

Note that the clip and tip, unlike the other example, are nickel plate:

This one has two of those great wide bands:

And on the reverse is a clue not found on any other ‘Salrite:

Chase Pencil Corporation.  I had never heard of the company, and a Google search turned up nothing.  However, when I searched Newspapers.com, I did get one hit which might explain a few things:

This “help wanted” advertisement, which ran on November 5, 1924 in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, states that the Chase Pencil Corporation was a New York City manufacturer, established three years (the first ads for the ‘Salrite appeared in September, 1921), and still making a “meritorious product.”  It would appear, connecting the dots, that the Chase Pencil Corporation, and not the Pencil Products Corporation, was the actual manufacturer of the ‘Salrite.

I’m still no closer to answering the question of whether these mottled hard rubber examples are from the beginning of the line, at the end of the line, or are a previously undocumented deluxe model that ran the continuum.  Nor am I any closer to knowing exactly what sort of cap this new example would have had, since this one is missing and mix-and-match was apparently par for the course on the Chase Pencil Corporation assembly line.   For the time being, though, I couldn’t believe my luck when this part jumped out of Rob Bader’s junk box at the Raliegh show:

Yeah, it’s a nickel trimmed Salrite cap, complete with “Pencil Products Corp.” and the 1919 patent date, but what the heck:

On a pencil with a nickel plated tip and clip, and wide gold filled bands, who’s to say that’s not what they did?

(Tomorrow:  more about inventor Lucifer Most.  Article is at http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-company-with-most.html.)

Before Salz Was Salz, Part II

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 4; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

If you don't want the book but you enjoy this article, please consider supporting the Blog project here.

(Note: the first part of this story can be found at 

http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2016/09/before-salz-was-salz-part-i.html).

Sometime in 1921, The Pencil Products Corporation adapted Lucifer J. Most’s existing design to a large, hard rubber pencil.  Every time I’ve picked one up, it has a little different ring here, or a variation on the imprint there.   I haven’t released one back into the wild as a duplicate yet:

One thing most examples have in common - other than the black hard rubber barrels - is the great imprints you’ll find on the caps:

“Pencil Products Corp. / Pat. Dec. 23, 1919" on the metal cap, and on the barrel, “Pat. Dec. 23, 1919 / Other Pending.”  The “others pending” doubtless refers to Lucifer J. Most’s 1922 patent, which was applied for in 1918 but wasn’t issued until 1922.

Another feature to nearly all (we’ll get to that qualifier later) ‘Salrites is the clip, which is a one-piece affair which wraps around the barrel:

Although these clips are marked “Pat. Pend.” in various places, I’ve never found a patent which was issued during this time frame.   Either one was applied for but never issued, was ultimately denied, or was filed in some other country or not at all:

The first mention I found of the new hard rubber ‘Salrites is in this advertisement run by James McCreery & Co., a New York City department store.  The advertisement ran in the September 7, 1921 issue of the New York Evening World:

Judging from the advertising which followed, the new hard rubber Salrites were a spectacular hit.  Pencil Products Corporation (not Salz Brothers, you’ll note) ran full page advertisements in The New York Times between October and December, 1921:

But in 1922, there appeared to have been something of a shakeup over at Pencil Products Corporation.  The Harrisburg Telegraph ran an advertisement for the ‘Salrite on March, 1922, and you’ll note that a tiny “z” has been interposed in the middle of the name . . . were the Salz family literally squeezing out their partner and the inventor of the pencil, Lucifer Most?

Just a month later, in an advertisement that ran in the Evening World on April 24, 1922, James McCreery & Co. announced that Pencil Products had ceased manufacturing metal pencils.

And on September 24, 1922, Lucifer J. Most applied for a patent for another new pencil – it was issued on September 1, 1925 as number 1,551,604 and was assigned – wait for it – to Mabie Todd:

More on that one tomorrow.

Then came the company’s legal problems: The Sandfelder Corporation, owner of the “Shur Rite” trademark for mechanical pencils, objected to Pencil Products’ attempt to register ‘Salrite as a trademark, claiming that the names sounded so similar that the public might be confused.  It seemed like a stretch to me, but when I read the initial announcement in Geyer’s Stationer of the Sta-Sharp pencil from yesterday’s article, that reference to the Salz “Shur Hold” clip got me to thinking there was probably much more evidence of Salz capitalizing on the Shur Rite trade mark than came to light in this decision.  Ultimately, the Patent office denied registration of the trademark on grounds of likelihood of confusion: that’s a death sentence for the name, since one such finding would inevitably lead to an injunction from using the name by the Federal Trade Commission.

As the decision was announced in March, 1923, ‘Salrites were already being sold at huge discounts.  An advertisement for the pencils in the March 13, 1923 issue of the Winnipeg Tribune indicated that the factory was changing ownership:

And on August 20, 1923, another advertisement in the same paper indicated that “an old firm taken over by new management has been busy disposing of stock on hand:

The last reference I could find to ‘Salrites being offered for sale was in an inconspicuous advertisement in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which ran on December 6, 1923:

Wait a tick . . . “3 sizes – mottled and black”??

(Tomorrow . . . "mottled and black."  See http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2016/09/before-salz-was-salz-part-iii.html.)

Before Salz Was Salz, Part I

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 4; copies are available print on demand through Amazon here, and I offer an ebook version in pdf format at the Legendary Lead Company here.

If you don't want the book but you enjoy this article, please consider supporting the Blog project here.

Salz Brothers was founded right around the end of World War I and is associated, fairly or unfairly, with lower-quality pens and pencils imitative of higher quality brands.  The company’s early history, particularly when it comes to the pencil the company was turning out, has been murky, muddled in with a company called the “Pencil Products Corporation.”  I used to believe the Pencil Products Corporation was nothing more than a subsidiary formed to supply Salz with pencils.  Now, after researching the history, I don’t think that’s correct. I think the Pencil Products Corporation had its own independent, rich, full . . .  and Mercurial life. 

The announcement of the Pencil Products Corporation’s incorporation on March 3, 1919 was printed in The New York Times:

The initial incorporators were Ignatz Salz, J. Salz (it’s not clear which one, Jacob or James) and Lucifer J. Most, who had recently developed a new mechanical pencil.  He was awarded two patents for his pencil: the first one issued was patented on a date more familiar to collectors:  December 23, 1919.  The date refers to patent number 1,325,570, for which Most applied on June 11, 1919:

The others patent Lucifer J. Most was awarded for this pencil was eventually issued as patent number 1,420,275, which was applied for earlier – on August 25, 1918 – but wasn’t issued until June 20, 1922:

The Pencil Products Corporation wasted no time getting Lucifer’s new pencil into production.  It was initially introduced as the “Sta-Sharp,” as announced in the January 22, 1920 edition of Geyer’s Stationer:

Note that this announcement indicates that the pencils were equipped with the “Shur Hold” clip – hold that thought for just a few minutes because that detail makes something else make sense later on.  Note also that Salz Brothers is identified as “the manufacturer.”   On January 31, 1922, Salz took out a half-page ad in The American Stationer, again claiming to be the manufacturer:

There’s a few examples of the Sta-Sharp pictured in The Catalogue, three of the four of which are marked “Salz Sta-Sharp” (we’ll get to that fourth one in a minute):

Note that example at the bottom?  If it looks like a Mabie Todd “Fyne Poynt” pencil, you aren’t imagining things – and by the time this story is over, you’ll have even more to mull over on that similarity.  I’ve only got one example marked “Pat. Applied For,” and it’s the one missing the bail;

The other two are marked with the December 23, 1919 patent date:

At some point, Ignatz Salz – ever the wordsmith – came up with the catchy name ‘Salrite, a play on his last name as well as being pronounced like “It’s all right.”  I believe this happened while the Sta-Sharp was still in production; here’s a pair of pencils found in boxes marked Salz Sta-Sharp:

As an aside, note the 1919 trademark on the boxes: this is nearly identical to the Penkala logo:

The patterns on each is very similar, and for a company with a reputation for lower quality, these are pretty nice:

One has a clip marked with the “SB” in a circle (the early Salz Brothers logo), but the cap isn’t marked Sta-Sharp: instead, it has a Pencil Products Corp. imprint:

No, the metal on the cap doesn’t match the rest of the pencil, but that’s not an indication of parts being swapped out.  The Pencil Products Corporation wasn’t very picky about matching metals, and this might be an indication that remainder parts were being used up.

The other pencil has a ‘Salrite clip and a Pencil Products Corporation cap:

However, whatever success the Sta-Sharp had, bolstered by the catchy new ‘Salrite name, would soon pale in comparison to another improvement: the ‘Salrite reworked as a hard rubber pencil.

(The story continues at http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2016/09/before-salz-was-salz-part-ii.html).