Friday, January 21, 2011

1894 Aluminum Lead Pencil

The local news section of The Fowlerville Review would have short blurbs of goings-on within the village, visitors, swindles -- you name it, Mr. Adams probably wrote about it. Included in all of these articles, he would often report on various new inventions that would show up in the village. Once such item was a new lead pencil. The article is as follows:

We are in receipt of a neat lead pencil as a souvenir from the Michigan stove company. The pencil is manufactured from aluminum, which is a very light metal and yet is as strong, if not stronger than steel. The stove company uses this metal largely in the manufacture of the Garland stoves and ranges, which are sold at this place by Hugh Loughlin & Son, for which they claim a stronger and smoother casting than from cast iron.Out of curiosity, I "googled" Garland Stove Company 1894 and came across a picture of a front cover for a brochure for these stoves. And, as a side note, the Garland Stove Company appears to still be in business all these years later.

No comments: