Related Objects

An image showing a variety of drafting pens and pencils from the Division of Medicine and Science.

Engineering draftsmen sometimes needed other writing implements as well as objects that helped maintain their pens and pencils.

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Pen Knife

This 5" steel knife blade probably has a celluloid (rather than an ivory) handle. It was received with a sizable collection of mathematical drawing instruments, but makers of drawing instruments did not typically advertise knives in their catalogs.
Description
This 5" steel knife blade probably has a celluloid (rather than an ivory) handle. It was received with a sizable collection of mathematical drawing instruments, but makers of drawing instruments did not typically advertise knives in their catalogs. This object may have been useful for sharpening pen quills and pencils. Draftsmen also used knives as erasers, but the blade on this example is shaped differently from the blades on the "steel erasers" depicted in Keuffel & Esser and Dietzgen catalogs. Compare to the knife in 1990.0690.01.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
early 20th century
ID Number
1978.2110.13
accession number
1978.2110
catalog number
336739

Dotting Instrument

This 2-1/4" German silver drawing instrument consists of a teardrop-shaped plate to which is attached a mechanism that links a serrated wheel to a bar that holds a pen point.
Description
This 2-1/4" German silver drawing instrument consists of a teardrop-shaped plate to which is attached a mechanism that links a serrated wheel to a bar that holds a pen point. When the wheel is rolled along the edge of a T-square or straight edge, the pen point bounces up and down to make a line of dots. Draftsmen would then retrace and fill in the line, if desired, while they were finishing an engineering drawing.
Underneath the uniformly serrated German silver wheel is a brass wheel with a pattern of three and one serrations. This wheel is marked: 6. It could be interchanged with one of four other brass wheels to change the dotting pattern. The instrument originally had six pattern wheels, but the one numbered with a "2" is missing.
The back of the plate is marked: 1050. The instrument is in a rectangular wooden case covered with brown and black leather and lined with dark blue velvet and satin. The Eugene Dietzgen Co. of Chicago and Technical Supply Company (TSC) of Scranton, Pa., sold a similar dotting instrument in the early 20th century for prices ranging from $4.20 to $5.15. According to the 1904 Dietzgen catalog, E. O. Richter of Germany made the instrument sold at that time. Unlike the Dietzgen and TSC instruments, this example has a screw that allows the pen point to be removed from the bar. Compare to 1982.0147.01.
References: Catalog of Eugene Dietzgen Co., 7th ed. (Chicago, 1904), 88; Catalog of Eugene Dietzgen Co., 12th ed. (Chicago, 1926), 84; Technical Supply Company, Complete Catalog and Supply List, 5th ed. (Scranton, Pa., 1912), 91.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
early 20th century
ID Number
1987.0788.02
accession number
1987.0788
catalog number
1987.0788.02

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