Petroski does indeed touch on the difference in US and European use of erasers on the end of pencils. However he doesn’t provide much additional information but to note the difference. He does provide a few quotes from earlier times discussing the merits and otherwise of the eraser equipped pencil. The design was not universally liked, and was often associated with cheap pencils.
Interestingly the patents for an eraser on a pencil were soon thrown out by the supreme court, as the union of the pencil and eraser didn’t create a new device - one with new capability, merely union of two existing things - something that can’t be patented.
One thing he notes - the ferrule became something of a branding device for US made pencils, whereas in Europe the finishing of the pencil with paint, with a rounded end was the vehicle for much branding.
Personally, I still like and use pencils, and have always had a dislike of erasers on the end.
Pssh. You don’t need pay that much to get a nice fountain pen. Get yourself a Pilot Metropolitan. 15 bucks, and behaves like somethng much more expensive.
(Which is not to say rhe expensive ones aren’t worth it too!)
Seconding the recommendations for Henry Petroski, Dixon Ticonderogas, and whie plasticky erasers. One can use both types, you know!
I have maybe a half-dozen of his books, including “The Pencil”. He has an amazing ability to take an obscure but mildly interesting topic and make it truly dull. Really. You’ve got to struggle through his writing style to get the satisfaction of the content. Still, I did buy all those books, which is what probably counts.
Stationery Fetishists - You may wish to checkout the books of James Ward (Motto - “I like boring things”) including “Adventures in Stationery”, “The Perfection of the Paperclip” and more at his blog
Coming at this from a different angle, I am amazed that he was able to get a patent. I’ve been involved with patents for years (got 6 of them) and one rule is something like "You can’t patent sticking two existing things together unless it introduce some new feature or function (other than the convenience of having them in the same place.) The oft-given example is “You can’t patent sticking an eraser on a pencil” although that would seem to be untrue. Perhaps the rules for patent were more lenient back then.
As I noted above, the patent was overturned for just this reason a couple of years later.
It seems that the laxness of the patent office has never changed, and unpatentable things are allowed patents all the time, and remain so patented until a legal challenge points a spotlight on them.
Thank you. How intriguing - I’ve only looked at “Adventures in Stationery” so far. So don’t Americans use the term “stationery” or use pencil cases? Just the blog ad for it has been illuminating.
Ninja’d by Ascenray. Agree with Ascenray’s post, but also, pencil cases also come in soft form these days, e.g. a zippered pouch meant to hold pencils and other writing instruments, to be tossed into a brief case or backpack. I have some of those.
Pencil cases are something I associated with school and schoolchildren*. I’d have thought not many adults routinely need access to a lot of writing implements.
It’s probably been 5 years since I last used a pencil in any form*. Other than signing my name I probably write barely 10 words per month using a pen in any form.
Keyboards on the other hand …
Upon further reflection I recall I used a carpenter’s pencil to mark a measurement to cut something last month. Before that it was over a year since my last measure-mark-and-cut. Definitely many years since I used a pencil to write a word. Bloody nuisance the things are.
Don’t you guys ever write a grocery list? Address an envelope? Write a check? Yes, some things are easier to do by hand instead of on the computer. Takes no time at all to write something on a list. And I do write some checks (property tax for one thing. Which is not to say my handwriting is all that good any more.
My grocery list is on my phone synced to my other tablets & computers. As are all my other to-do lists & such. That way I always have it / them with me.
I have an address document with the handful of places I regularly send snail mail to. I’m already sitting at my computer when writing a check, so why not highlight the address & click “print”?. Much easier than fumbling with trying to write it out long hand. I still need to have the correct address stored someplace and that someplace is my computer, not a paper name/address book. Hand copying something I’m already seeing on my screen is what sounds bass-ackwards to me.
Almost all my checks are done through e-bill-pay. I write about 3 physical checks a year.
To be sure, these are all choices and one could use a pencil or a pen & paper just as well. I was hand-addressing envelopes and writing paper checks en masse as recently as 5 years ago. And keeping to-do lists in little short-pocket sized spiral-bound pads. Then I changed over to my current approach and haven’t looked back.
I am a writer and have a pencil case with my erasable pens and highlighters inside a pencil case with other stuff like pencils, and eraser, sharpener, scissors, glue and backup memory sticks. That goes with me from the house to my office - which is a study about 20 metres away in the garden. The pencil case is in the basket with my 5 mm grid notebooks, each covered different coloured paper and plastic contact. That basket is my office.
I have another pencil case with all sorts of pencils and associated detritus next to my chair so I can draw and scribble when watching TV. There are more pencils and note books next to my bed in case I think of something. I use a paper diary - made myself from a 5mm grid exercise book - because I have never found a commercial one which works for me.
I am a technology devotee - my laptop, iPad and iPhone also get a good workout every day. I just love the feel and sound of paper and using these implements. It’s all about feeling creative and enjoying the tools of my trade. I am a non-fiction writer, so reality rules, but I just love my pens, pencils and paper. My publisher gets the manuscript electronically, of course!
I write code for a day job. Emacs being my weapon of choice for text wrangling. But I find that I cannot be usefully creative as the paradigm of text editor isn’t flexible enough. Pencil on paper is vastly more flexible. Whiteboards can be good but you need to take photos so they are not self documenting.
