Mechanical Pencil
date: label: Date made
content: ca. 1925
name: label: maker
content: Autopoint, Inc.
notes: label: Description
content: Autopoint, a firm that makes mechanical pencils, was founded in Chicago in around 1918. Bakelite acquired a large interest in the firm in the 1920s. J. Harry DuBois acquired this mechanical pencil from Rupert Lowe, an associate of Leo Baekeland. One inscription reads “Autopoint / Pat’d and Patents Pending / 114K Green Gold Filled.” The “G. C. Gunderson” inscription refers to Gothfried C. Gunderson, a mechanical engineer from Norway who spent many years working for Bakelite in New Jersey.
label: Description
content: Ref. “Gunderson, Engineer, Dies at 105,” The Coast Star (Nov. 17, 1988), p. 2.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Chemistry
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of J. Harry DuBois
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1984.0138.09
label: catalog number
content: 1984.0138.09
label: accession number
content: 1984.0138
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Mechanical Pencil
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 143 mm x 10 mm; 5 5/8 in x 3/8 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 5/8 in x 3/8 in; 14.2875 cm x .9525 cm