9, Flurries Of Activity, Steel Nibs, Stylos, And Charm Pencils,

[rhr]

Those flurries of activity in the USPTO record occurred in the patents and designs as well as the trademarks. Every time a new invention, or innovation came along, a group of copycat improvements and close variations followed. The ten-year period from 1875-85 was especially fertile. In the designs, a flurry of activity in ring-top, charm pencil cases started with design no. 10,260 from Sept 25, 1877, William S. Hicks's design for a telescopic, or "extension", ring-top, charm pencil case in the form of an acorn, "to be worn as a charm or ornament on the watch-guard". The flurry continued for almost seven years until design no. 15,060 from June 10, 1884, Edward Todd's design, assigned to Edward Todd & Co., for a pencil case ornamented with a spring or spiral coil, after which the flurry of ring-top, charm pencil case designs ended. A similar flurry of activity in registering the trademarks and names of steel nibs commenced with trademark no. 05731, Joseph Gillott & Sons, "Steel Pens", Mar 12, 1878, used since 1851, for the name "Double Elastic", and the number "604". But this flurry extended well into the next few decades with trademarks for many more numbered nibs. The years 1875-85 coincided perfectly with the period when the stylograph was perfected and when it flourished, or flurry-ished. Almost all the stylograph patents fall into this decade. In fact, it could be called the stylographic decade. It started with MacKinnon’s Canadian patent no. 4,809, and ended with US patent nos. 308,144, or 330,636, and a few thereafter. But it could also be called the decade of portability, the period when the practical fountain pen started to become ubiquitous, especially after Waterman’s two 1884 patents, 293,545 and 307,735, and continued on its journey to eventually displace the penholder, the steel nib, and the inkwell.

 

George Kovalenko.

 

 

If you want to perform the trademark searches yourselves, simply cut and paste, or type the trademark numbers into the search window in the Trademark Document Retrieval Portlet. --G.

Edited May 6, 2010 by rhr