Posted 4 years ago
dav2no1
(830 items)
Too Cool For School
Hey man! Don't be a fool and think you're too cool for school. You may not be the sharpest pencil in the class but maybe these pencil sharpeners will help you.
Boston L
Boston Vacuumette
Apsco Giant - type 3A cutter assembly - US PROPERTY
APSCO
For most of its existence, the Automatic Pencil Sharpener Company was owned and operated by the Spengler-Loomis MFG Co. of Chicago. In 1905, APSCO’s home office was located in New York City, on Broadway.
The Spengler-Loomis MFG Company wouldn’t officially buy out APSCO and move it to Chicago until 1911.
In 1913, a new factory space was commissioned.The APSCO and Spengler-Loomis corporate headquarters, meanwhile, remained in Chicago.
The state-of-the-art Rockford factory was completed in 1914 and covered 26,000 square feet, with upwards of 150 employees soon working to produce half a million pencil sharpeners per year.
in 1916 there was a labor dispute and some of the fired men returned and started a riot. this resulted in 22 people going to jail.
As World War I was underway, and much of the production at the Spengler-Loomis plant was shifting into government contract work. Along with pencil sharpeners, the plant normally manufactured they started making trunk hardware, stamping tools, sugar dispensers, and a line of stove-top ovens, to name a few. Now they were slowed by metal rationing and patent theft.
There's more to the story look it up to read on....
Did you guys catch this? Isn't that amazing! Those were the days.....
"1914 and covered 26,000 square feet, with upwards of 150 employees soon working to produce half a million pencil sharpeners per year."
Just think of all those ground up pencils!
The teacher’s pet usually got the fun job of emptying the pencil sharpeners. :-)
I have a couple of these ...reminds me of school I spent more time at the Pencil Sharpener be cause there was this cute girl right next to it ....lol the teacher would tell me to go sit down 3 or 4 times in class.. cool collection .
Great story. I always tell people that often the monetary value of an item can be low, but the memories it triggers are priceless.