Schoenner Wallet Case of Drawing Instruments Sold by Technical Supply Company
date: label: date made
content: 1903-1912
name: label: maker
content: Schoenner, Georg
notes: label: Description
content: This folding cardboard case is covered with black leather and lined with blue leather. The inside of the lid flap is marked in silver: Made in Germany. It is also marked: Technical Supply Company (/) Scranton and New York. The firm's logo (intertwined letters T, S, and Co., in between two torches) is to the left of the first mark. The set includes:
label: Description
content: 1) 6-1/4" German silver compass with bendable legs and removable needle and pencil points. The central joint is marked: PAT. (/) 17.3.03. Inside one leg is marked: n 16. A picture of a gear is to the right of the mark. Inside the other leg is marked: SCHOENNER, GERMANY ||.
label: Description
content: 2) 6" German silver and steel fixed-point dividers. On one side, the joint is marked: D.R.P. On the other side, the joint has the Schoenner logo: an S, G, and two intersecting arrows with two heads superimposed on each other. The inside of one leg has a drawing of a gear. Inside the other leg is marked: SCHOENNER, GERMANY ||.
label: Description
content: 3) 1" yellow metal cylindrical case with two pencil leads. The lid is marked: PNK TINGE. The bottom is marked: AVON PRODUCTS INC. (/) DSTR (/) N.Y.
label: Description
content: 4) 3-3/4" steel bow pencil with German silver handle. The handle is marked: GERMANY.
label: Description
content: 5) 4" steel bow pen with German silver handle. The handle is marked: GERMANY.
label: Description
content: 6) 3-11/16" German silver lengthening bar.
label: Description
content: 7) 5-1/2" steel, German silver, and ebony drawing pen. The point has a latch that allows the user to set it open. The pen is marked: T.A. & SONS PAT. MAY 7, 95 – SEP. 29, 96.
label: Description
content: 8) 1" metal joint tightener.
label: Description
content: The drawing pen and case for leads do not appear to be part of the original set. The case may have been manufactured for cosmetics instead of as a scientific instrument. Another instrument, probably a small pair of dividers, is missing.
label: Description
content: Georg Schoenner (1821–1899) established an instrument workshop in Nuremberg, Germany in 1851. His son, Georg Schoenner Jr. (1851–1921), joined the firm in 1877, and his grandson, Georg Paul Schoenner, reorganized the business as a limited liability company in 1921. Schoenner exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The firm targeted the U.S. in its sales, and was the largest producer of mathematical instruments in Germany before World War I. The company's interest in the American market is illustrated by the fact that Georg Schoenner Jr. received five U.S. patents in 1904 and another five in 1908. Similarly, the firm held the rights for the patent mentioned on the compass, for the design of the pivot joint.
label: Description
content: Theodore Alteneder & Sons held the rights to the patents marked on the drawing pen. These covered the set-screw and latch on the pen point. For other drawing and calculating instruments manufactured by Alteneder, see 1991.0793.01, 1991.0793.05, and 2008.3041.01.
label: Description
content: This set is not exactly like any of the sets of drawing instruments advertised in the Technical Supply Company's 1912 catalog.
label: Description
content: References: Wilhelm Schwarzer, "Compass" (U.S. Patent 723, 041 issued March 17, 1903); U.S. Centennial Commission, <i>International Exhibition, 1876. Reports and Awards: Group XXI</i>, ed. Francis A. Walker (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1877), 192; U.S. Tariff Commission, <i>Tariff Information Surveys on . . . Antimony</i>, rev. ed. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1921), 49; <i>Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1904</i>, H.Doc. 266 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1905), 437; <i>Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1908</i> (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1909), 443–444; Ferdinand A. Alteneder, "Drawing Pen" (U.S. Patent 538,811 issued May 7, 1895) and (U.S. Patent 568,556 issued September 29, 1896).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Germany: Bavaria, Nuremberg
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Drafting, Engineering
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Drawing Instruments
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of LaVerne Watkins
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1989.0305.05
label: catalog number
content: 1989.0305.05
label: accession number
content: 1989.0305
objectType: label: Object Name
content: drawing instruments, set of
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: german silver (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: leather (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cardboard (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: case: 2 cm x 23 cm x 8.5 cm; 25/32 in x 9 1/16 in x 3 11/32 in