Ruling pen multipacks
A recent discussion about Stanley's 20th-century "Perma" cases and their ruling pens reminded me of an uncommon four-pen set that I acquired as part of a lot of modern drawing instruments. At…
Jopling’s Double Cranks
Occasionally it is worth buying something just to find out more about it, such as the box of jumbled geometric shapes that turned out to be Stanley's version of Archimedes'…
Purple Reign
Tangentially to my recent post on Bagshaw's patent diagrammeter, I was reminded of something that had always puzzled me, but until now had not seemed of any particular significance. As…
Plumbago, Canada!
Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends! This year to mark the occasion I decided to dig deep - beyond the ubiquitous Schoenner and Eichmüller wallets, past my lovely…
A nineteenth-century stencil set
Before the advent of CAD, laser printers, photocopiers and even that old favourite Letraset, stencil plates were widely used to apply standardised and decorative lettering to technical drawings. They were…