Mechanical Pencil Month – Day 1: Borrowdale Plumbago
Object number one is not actually a pencil at all, mechanical or otherwise, yet without it the history of drawing would have turned out very differently. Said to have been…
Mechanical Pencil Month
While digging around in the Repertory of Arts for Brunel patents, I came across a familiar design from the early 19th century. Granted to civil engineer John Isaac Hawkins (inventor…
Sketchy calculation
As a bit of weekend fun, here's something called a Rechenstift - German for "calculating pen" - by the venerable Hamburg firm of Dennert & Pape, erstwhile inventors of the…
Class of the Titans
A recent discussion about instruments named after mythological figures brought to mind the "Titan" Combination Compass, a simple design that aimed to provide a full drawing set in a box.…
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…
Rules are made to be broken
When is a rule not a rule? When it's four rules! This deceptively simple rolling ruler offers an unexpected "twist" on the conventional design. Made of what appears to be…