Lang Pen Company - Liverpool

[penuria]

Hi ..... I am researching some pens and am trying to get some info on the Lang Pen Company of Liverpool (UK). They appear on some significant patents filed by Ernest Macauley Wade (Owner) and some of his family members. From what I can make out they produced between 1910 and 1937

 

Any help would be appreciated : .

 

John

Edited January 9, 2007 by penuria

[jhmclearly]

Have a look at this link John.

 

http://www.penpractice.com/page21.html

 

It has a mention of Langs who apparently manufactured pens for Stephens.

[antoniosz]

It looks that they were active even later.

Check http://v3.espacenet.com/results?DB=EPODOC&...=advanced&LG=en

 

while for the earlier patents of E.M. Wade see:

 

http://v3.espacenet.com/results?DB=EPODOC&...=advanced&LG=en

[jhmclearly]

I'm assuming you've seen this link, but here it is anyway.

 

http://www.denbighshire.gov.uk/Corp/Press%...33;OpenDocument

 

It seems as if they also produced Enfield Rifles during the war as I did come across another link listing them with a makers mark... but that was with a factory in Leeds.

 

I'll try and find the link again.

[jhmclearly]

There you go...

 

http://home.earthlink.net/~smithkaia8/id3.html

 

About half way down the page.

[penuria]

Hi ... Firstly many thanks for all of the information. I have been been pretty short on time the last few days hence the delay is responding!

Its great to get this sort of help and its one of the great strengths of the FPN.

I have also had the Liverpool records office on the trail and they provided the following information from the trade directories:

 

1940

 

Lang Pen Co. Ltd, fountain pen mkrs, Hope St works 13, Hope St, - warehouse entrance Arrad St

 

1952

 

Lang Pen Co. Ltd, fountain pen mkrs, Hope St & 2A, South Hunter St

 

1955

 

Lang Pen Co. Ltd, fountain pen mkrs, 2A, Hunter St

Lang Precision Engineering Ltd, press tool mkrs, Hope St works

 

1958

 

Lang Precision Engineering Ltd, press tool makers, Hope St works

 

1960

 

Lang Precision Engineering Ltd, press tool makers, Hope St works

 

1962

 

Whiteley, Lang & Neill Ltd, 13/15, Hope St

 

It looks from the entries in the trade directories that the pen company probably did their manufacturing at 13, Hope Street at the Hope St works.

 

The company of Lang Precision Engineering Ltd took over the site of the Lang Pen Co. Ltd in the mid 1950s. These companies were obviously linked. There is newscutting about Eric Ernest Samuel Wade. He was the chairman and managing director of the Lang Precision Engineering Co. and of the firm Lang Pen Co. which operated before it. The newscutting is about his death in November 1959.

 

The company of Whiteley, Lang & Neill Ltd took over the site in Hope St in the early 1960s. Apparently this company was formed in 1960, an amalgamation of the Liverpool firms of Whiteley Mills Ltd, and the Lang Precision Engineering Ltd in association with the Sheffield firm of James Neill & Co. This company must have moved very early on from the Hope St site as its factory on Speke Hall Road, Speke was officially opened on 8th December 1961. It was a high precision toolmaking business.

 

The next task is to visit the library in Liverpool to try to get some contemporary stuff and hopefully catalogues!!

 

Thanks again to all of you for the posts. I will reciprocate on areas where I have the knowledge.

 

Anything else that can be found would be of interest

 

I have copies of all the patents now so I will try to post for posterity!!

 

John

[peterbackman]

I just came across this thread. I know quite a bit about The Lang Pen Company - but not much about pens:

 

Samuel Wade was a stationer and fancy goods agent in the 1870s/80s in London, England. He started making steel pens in about 1880.

 

By the late 1890s he lived in Liverpool and had retired from day to day work. However, we do know that at about that time he made a trip to New York to pick up samples, including samples of new pens.

 

Some of his sons (including Samuel Frank) set up a limited company - The Lang Company - in 1899. Other sons included Osmond, Ernest and Leslie - they were also involved from time to time in the business.

 

From 1904, the company operated from 13 Hope Street in Liverpool.

 

It was put into liquidation in 1907.

 

In February of that year, a new company - The Lang Pen Company - was set up with several of the same managers and shareholders as in the previous company, and several new ones as well. This company also operated from the Hope Street address.

 

Several people from Germany (principally Munich) were involved in running the business as was an "an American workman" about whom I know nothing.

 

In 1915, that business was put into liquidation and a new company - with the same name - was established in the same year, and still operating from Hope Street.

 

From then on, things seem to have stabilised and the business continued until the 1940/50s. It seems that there was a sister company, Amalgamated Gold Pen Makers; this company seems to have traded in gold for nibs, supplying all the pen makers in the UK (except Parker apparently); it possibly helped keep The Lang Pen Company afloat during its troubled times.

 

During World War II, The Lang Pen Company made radiators (for tanks/aeroplanes?) in Ruthin, Denbighshire (actually in the former Ruthin jail) and Abergavenny, in south Wales. (I was not previously aware of the work that they did on rifles).

 

The advent of the ball point pen caused problems and, so I am lead to believe, lead to the ultimate demise of pen making by the company although some efforts were made to make ball point pens in the late 1940s.

 

I hope this bit of history is of interest.

 

P

[UK Mike]

A long-dead thread (is over 7 years a new record?) but interestingly the Lang premises on 13, Hope Street, Liverpool have just opened up as a Bistro under the name "The Pen Factory"

 

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/everyman-bisto-team-open-up-8196747

Edited December 4, 2014 by UK Mike

[davidod]

I know the streets mentioned above quite well. South Hunter Street is close to Hope Street, and Arrad Street is round the back of Hope Street, running parallel with it. Arrad Street still contains buildings which do look just like small old warehouses, presumably including the same one which the Lang Pen Company used.