Two Cans of Worms

This article has been edited and included in The Leadhead's Pencil Blog Volume 3; 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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Note: this is the third installment in a series of articles.  To start from the beginning, see http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2015/06/nailed-it-pretty-much.html.

One of the distinctive features common to these metal Rex pencils, be they Rexholds, E-Z Rites or Criterions, is the clip mounting.  They pierce through the barrel on either side at the tang:

This entire family of pencils was introduced in the early 1920s, just as market tastes were beginning to move away from metal pencils and towards larger pencils in flashy colored plastics.  It’s not surprising that the E-Z Rite can also be found in oversized plastic models:

Until I found the brown one with an E-Z Rite clip, I wasn’t so sure that the yellow one was another example of the brand – it’s marked only on that ringtop cap, and it’s a little unusual to see both a ringtop and a sideclip.

McNary’s patented innards have been abandoned for this series.  These are what I refer to as “Welsh style” pencils, with that large conical, press-fit screw drive mechanism most commonly associated with pencils along these lines made by the Welsh Manufacturing Company (which, like Rex, was located in Providence, Rhode Island).  However, a close examination of the clip mounting reveals that the side mounted clip design has been carried forward from the E-Z Rite’s all-metal ancestors in the most elegant way: the easiest way to adapt a metal pencil clip to a plastic pencil is to simply make a shorter metal barrel portion to which it is attached.

Pause here for a second and consider the following: if these plastic E-Z Rites were made by Rex, does that mean that so many other cheaply made pencils with that same clip assembly were also made by the company, such as the “Townsend”:

And this example of the “Ritzie”?

And think about how many other brands also use a similar mounting: Morrison, Marathon, Spors . . . that is the first can of worms this line of research opens.  Did Rex make all of these?  Did the company just supply the distinctive clip assemblies?  Did Welsh either copy or license the design?  Or, was the design widely licensed or copied by other manufacturers?  I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.

There’s a second can of worms here.  It involves the Criterion:

The pen and pencil shown in yesterday’s post exhibit the usual plain, side mounted clips.  But Criterion pens are also found with another type of clip, sometimes found on the metal pens and also on large, plastic flattop pens like the one Nathaniel Cerf has pictured over at ThePenMarket.com (yes, this one is for sale!):

I’m sure there’s matching pencils are out there, but I haven’t found one . . . yet.  Note that these clips, like the E-Z Rite, mount on the sides, but these have a “belt” that wraps around the clip.  Was this a logical next step in the evolution of the Rexhold clip, a more well-suited application of the same idea for use with all-plastic barrels, without the need for the supporting metal band?

And if it was, what does it say about these?

From left, these are marked “Ever Last”:

“Parrott”:

“Postal”

and “Thompson”:

All the pencils with this clip that I’ve found so far have all been mechanically identical, and they all have a very Rexy look, although the tips are a bit longer and they don’t come apart like a Rex pencil.  Rifling through my own patent book in the “clips” section, I’m not finding either the E-Z Rite or Criterion clips, leaving open the possibility that an unpatented innovation could have been made by anyone.

Yet there is a consistency here that’s got me pausing for thought.

Note:  The story continues at http://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2015/07/what-about-boogeyman.html.

My Travel Buddy

My day job, for those who don't know, is as lawyer in solo practice in Newark, Ohio.  My main focus is in real estate law, so from time to time clients send me off to other counties to do title research.  It's my favorite part of the job, getting out of the office for a bit of a change in scenery.

Yesterday, I was called on to travel to Wooster, Ohio, in the northeastern part of the state (for those not from Ohio, that's WUH-ster, not WOO-ster).  I ran a mapquest search to confirm my directions, and on paper, it looks like a relatively straight line from here to there.  In real life, the trip was more challenging. 

The first leg of the trip is fairly straightforward, until you get to the little town of Danville, Ohio, where US 62 takes a hard right.  The way to Wooster is to go straight, up what looks like someone's driveway but really is Ohio State Route 514.  If any of you have ever seen the movie Rat Race, I was looking for a sign that said "you should have bought a squirrel."   By the time they get that high in the Ohio route numbers, you know we're getting off the beaten path. 

It was a beautiful drive, with lots of hills and sharp turns, and had it been a warm day on a motorcycle it would have been an ideal getaway.  In a Ford F-150 and in a hurry.... let's just say my knuckles were white.  Route 514 turned into 226, and I rolled into Wooster a bit frazzled.   At 4:30 p.m., the government offices were closed and with them, most of the doors of the town closed.  As dusk approached, I saw a little antique store on the right heading out of town.  What the heck, I thought...

This place was long and narrow and just packed with stuff . . . just not my kind of stuff.  About the best things I saw . . .

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