Eversharp
Eversharp was a pioneer maker of mechanical pencils.
History
The company was started by Charles Rood Keeran in 1913.[1] He applied for a patent on the pencil on October 10, 1913 and was granted US patent 1,130,741 on March 9, 1915. The first production Eversharp pencils were made in New Jersey by Heath, a prominent provider of high quality metalwork to the writing equipment industry. These pencils were test-marketed over the holiday season of 1913 at Wanamaker's in New York City. Shortly thereafter, Keeran moved his base of operations back to Illinois. In October of 1915, Keeran signed a contract with the Wahl Adding Machine Company of Chicago to manufacture Eversharp pencils. In mid-November of 1915 Wahl took control of Eversharp in exchange for a capital infusion of $20,000. At the end of 1916, Eversharp was wholly absorbed by Wahl through an exchange of stock. Keeran retained a small stake in the combined firm and held the position of sales manager, but by the end of 1917 Keeran had been squeezed out of the company.[2]
External links
- Charles Keeran, a Mechanical Pencil Pioneer
- A Tale of Two Pencils: Keeran's Eversharp & Hayakawa's Ever-Ready Sharp originally published in The PENnant, Winter 2001
Further reading
- The pencil: a history of design and circumstance, Henry Petroski, Knopf, 1992. ISBN 0679734155, pp 265-270.
Patents
- U.S. patent 1,130,741 New and useful Improvements in Lead-Pencils and #1151016, and #1153115
References
- ^ "Charles Rood Keeran". Chicago Tribune. June 11, 1948.
The funeral of Charles Rood Keeran, 65, who was associated for many years with the mechanical pencil, will be held at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in the chapel at ...
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Eversharp". Vintage Pens. Retrieved 2010-06-22.