Esterbrook Used In Wwii?

[OcalaFlGuy]

I'm just trying to help the OP be accurate in his writing.

 

And, you are not alone there.

 

http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/history/war_and_fp.htm

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[LBpens]

Graphite existed before the civil war and so did homemade instruments to hold it, but pencil manufacturing didn't begin in the US until the 1890s. Dip pens, incl quill pens, and ink were how the common man wrote in the civil war era, and well into the 20th century. But again, I'll leave it up to the OP whether he wants to put his front line soldier out there with a fountain pen.

 

Bruce, if the OP were writing about WW1 that would be relevant. But by WW2 pencils were common and cheap.

[OcalaFlGuy]

Richard Binder is probably At Least Close to an expert in FP use during warfare.

 

He sure doesn't seem to think the pencil was the primary writing choice of WWII.

 

I am Personally Aware of MAGNITUDES More front line accounting that Some How happened in ink than pencil.

 

Think what you want to, but don't call it fact until you can substantiate it.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[Charles Rice]

Graphite existed before the civil war and so did homemade instruments to hold it, but pencil manufacturing didn't begin in the US until the 1890s. Dip pens, incl quill pens, and ink were how the common man wrote in the civil war era, and well into the 20th century. But again, I'll leave it up to the OP whether he wants to put his front line soldier out there with a fountain pen.

 

Bruce, if the OP were writing about WW1 that would be relevant. But by WW2 pencils were common and cheap.

My great grandmother began her diary during the Civil War. It was written in pencil.

You are correct that major manufacturing of pencils in the US did not begin until the 1890s,

But they existed long before then.

[OcalaFlGuy]

And, the Dollar pen WAS a genuine mil clip pen.

http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/design/milclips.htm

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=LVEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA86&lpg=PA86&dq=esterbrooks+on+the+front+lines&source=bl&ots=xNaQ2LrRXH&sig=6RyVsJEpPNADSzzDNXILE4BMpdI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZlZJU-3yD-LN0AGYvoHQCg&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=esterbrooks%20on%20the%20front%20lines&f=false

 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/370069294351874974/

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=FmIxAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA9-PA42&lpg=RA9-PA42&dq=soldier%27s+esterbrook+pens&source=bl&ots=NajjjP5-UK&sig=-e_0fy2I9D55eQ6uvCHMOd1DA-0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=E1xJU72zIObRsQS_vYHQBA&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=soldier's%20esterbrook%20pens&f=false

 

http://munsonpens.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/morrison-wartime-pens/

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[OcalaFlGuy]

They were harvesting Florida cypress for pencils, 50 miles from where I sit...

 

in 1865.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar_Key,_Florida

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[Bemo]

Fascinating thread. Thanks everyone for sharing their knowledge.

[welch]

On pencils, get and treasure a copy of Henry Petroski's "The Pencil" (1989). What we think of pencil "lead" was being manufactured early in the 19th century, in part (as best I remember) because France had no graphite mines. Maybe Germany, too. The Faber family was big in pencils...a younger son came to New York and opened what became Eberhard-Faber to compete with Faber Castell.

 

Henry David Thoreau -- no kidding, Thoreau of "Walden" -- figured out the European formula. Part clay, part something else. The Thoreau family gave up their pencil business, but many other companies took over.

[penrivers]

Well, this is for sure, they really existed.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Black-Esterbrook-Lever-Fountain-Pen-with-Military-Clip-9788-Nib-/271430163525?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f327f9c45

[Jerome Tarshis]

Soldiers wrote with what they had. During World War II many non-officers came from families of above-average income, so it is no surprise that some privates and corporals wrote home with top of the line pens they took with them into the armed forces.

 

For that matter, some bought fountain pens at prices high or low at the PX; there wasn't so much to spend money for, and if your heart was set on a Parker 51 and your PX had one to sell you, there you were. As has been pointed out above, private soldiers wrote home in ink during the Civil War, and many of us had relatives who wrote home in ink (possibly using V-mail) during World War II. My older cousins did.

[Scrawler]

I don't know if they used them in WWII, but in WWI, they had ink 'pills'.

I have a Greishaber Graphomatic made before WWII that uses an ink pill and you fill it with water to make ink. They advertised it as "The Inkmaker" and claim on the packaging that it met all military specifications. It is probably my least used pen, in fact I am unlikely ever to attempt to write with it again, but keep it as a curiosity.

[Captain Ahab]

Graphite existed before the civil war and so did homemade instruments to hold it, but pencil manufacturing didn't begin in the US until the 1890s. Dip pens, incl quill pens, and ink were how the common man wrote in the civil war era, and well into the 20th century. But again, I'll leave it up to the OP whether he wants to put his front line soldier out there with a fountain pen.

 

Bruce, if the OP were writing about WW1 that would be relevant. But by WW2 pencils were common and cheap.

The pencil manufacturer we know as Faber-Castell was founded in 1761, although mass production of pencils began earlier than that, for both the wood-cased kind, and propelling pencils. Both kinds were imported into the US until a home grown industry took root. One famous American manufacturer in the early 19th century was the Thoreau family, as in Henry David Thoreau, author of Walden (1854), who also mentions taking pencils with him when he took to the woods.

 

For an online source on pencil history, refer to: http://pencils.com/pencil-history/

 

For a complete, everything you wanted to know about pencils history, I refer you to the very excellent book by Henry Petroski, The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance. It's very well written and worth reading whether you are a pencil collector or not. Looking at the pencil as a cultural artifact and an example of a thing designed and manufactured, Petroski gives the reader a good deal of information on engineering and design.