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Pencil sharpener
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==History== <!-- NOTE TO EDITORS: The French word *crayon* refers to what is called a *pencil* in English. Do not let this cause confusion! --> Before the development of dedicated pencil sharpeners, a pencil was sharpened by [[whittling]] with a [[penknife|knife]]. The development of pencil sharpeners began in France when a French book from 1822 reported in detail about an invention of Mr. C. A. Boucher (Paris) for the construction of a pencil sharpener. He was working with [[pantograph]]s and apparently needed a device to precisely sharpen the pencils.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vut7Bt4AjmIC&q=boucher+taille+crayon&pg=PA290|title=Recueil de la Société polytechnique: ou Recueil industriel, manufacturier, agricole et commercial, de la salubrité publique, ...|date=1822|publisher=Société polytechnique|pages=290–295|language=fr}}</ref><ref name="Grahl">{{Cite web|url=http://patent-infos.de/overview/history-pencil-sharpeners-1850.html|title=History of pencil sharpeners and pointers −1850 Lassimone, Cooper/Eckstein, Lahausse|last=Grahl|first=André|website=patent-infos.de|access-date=2019-03-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191113171647/http://patent-infos.de/overview/history-pencil-sharpeners-1850.html|archive-date=13 November 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref> The device of Mr. Boucher was technically sensible and functional. His idea was also internationally known and recognized, as shown by corresponding reports in German literature at this time.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vm9QAAAAcAAJ&q=boucher|title=Allgemeine Maschinen-Encyclopädie: A – Beu|last=Hülsse|first=Julius A.|date=1841|publisher=Voss|pages=247|language=de}}</ref> But Mr. Boucher had not applied a patent for his pencil sharpener. Commercial use of his inventions is unlikely. French mathematician [[Bernard Lassimonne]] (Limoges) applied for the world's first patent (French patent #2444) on a pencil sharpener in 1828.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BkYFAAAAQAAJ&q=lassimonne+taille+crayon&pg=PA383|title=Description des machines et procédés spécifiés dans les brevets d'invention, publ. par C.P. Molard. [With] Table générale des vingt premiers volumes...|date=1835|pages=583, 81–83|language=fr|last1=Du Commerce|first1=France min}}</ref> Pencil sharpener devices using his patent were actually produced and sold by Binant, a shop for painting accessories in Paris.<ref name="Grahl" /> In 1833 in England, Cooper & Eckstein patented the so-called Styloxynon, a simple device consisting of two sharp files set together at right angle in a small block of rosewood.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=esA-AAAAcAAJ&q=cooper+eckstein&pg=PA318|title=Repertory of patent inventions and other discoveries and improvements in arts, manufactures and agriculture|date=1833|publisher=Macintosh|pages=318–319|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qoqJvkEyCnIC&q=185|title=The Mechanics' Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal & Gazette|date=1837|publisher=Knight and Lacey|pages=185|language=en}}</ref> This is the oldest pencil sharpener that has surviving examples.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/antique-early-patent-pencil-sharpener-633650095|title=RARE ANTIQUE EARLY PATENT PENCIL SHARPENER 1830s – COOPER & ECKSTEIN STYLOXYNON|website=Worthpoint|language=en|access-date=2019-03-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190302024601/https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/antique-early-patent-pencil-sharpener-633650095|archive-date=2 March 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref> In the 1830s and 1840s, some French people, all based in Paris, were engaged in construction of simple pencil sharpening tools, like François Joseph Lahausse.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cf7NAAAAMAAJ&q=lahausse+taille+crayon&pg=PA406|title=Bulletin de la Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale|date=1834|publisher=Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale|pages=406–407|language=fr}}</ref> These devices were partially sold, but without supra-regional significance. In 1847, the French nobleman [http://www.rupertwilloughby.co.uk/gleanings/constant-de-thierry-des-estivaux-marquis-de-faletans-inventeur-du-taille-crayon Thierry des Estivaux] invented a simple hand-held pencil sharpener in its recognizable modern form.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hEky1B7Fl0sC&q=estiveaux+taille+crayon&pg=PA260|title=Description des machines et procédés pour lesquels des brevets d'invention ont été pris sous le régime ...|date=1852|publisher=L'Imprimerie Nationale|pages=260|isbn=9781010644743|language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{citation |magazine=[[Discover (magazine)|Discover magazine]] |date=May 2007 |url=http://discovermagazine.com/2007/may/20-things-you-didnt-know-about-pencils |title=20 Things You Didn't Know About... Pencils |access-date=2009-04-30}}</ref> The first American pencil sharpener was patented by Walter Kittredge Foster of [[Bangor, Maine]] in 1855.<ref name="officemuseumsmall">{{cite web|url=http://www.officemuseum.com/sharpener_small.htm|title=Handheld Pencil Sharpeners|access-date=9 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718121544/http://www.officemuseum.com/sharpener_small.htm|archive-date=18 July 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> He founded a company – the first pencil sharpener company in the world – and produced such small hand-held pencil sharpeners in a large amount. Only a few years later the sharpeners were sold also in Europe as "American pencil sharpeners".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NdJFAAAAcAAJ&q=amerikanische+bleistiftspitzer&pg=PT1613|title=Neueste Nachrichten aus dem Gebiete der Politik: 1858|date=1858|publisher=Wolf|pages=2623|language=de}}</ref> At the end of the 19th century, especially in the United States, pencil sharpeners with various mechanisms had been developed and put on the market. These devices were often heavy and intended for use in offices. Examples are the Perfect Pencil Pointer (Goodell. Co.), the GEM Pencil Sharpener (by Gould & Cook Co.), the Planetary Pencil Sharpener ([[A. B. Dick Company]]), all from the US or the Jupiter (Guhl & Harbeck Co.) from Germany.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.officemuseum.com/sharpener_gallery_1900-1909.htm|title=Mechanical Pencil Sharpeners ~ 1900–1909|website=officemuseum.com|access-date=2019-03-03}}</ref> At the beginning of the 20th century the company Automatic Pencil Sharpener Co. (APSCO) was founded and brought out the US Automatic Pencil Sharpener after 1907,<ref name=":0" /> which dominated in those years. They later sold machines with milling mechanisms, such as the Climax, Dexter, Wizard, and Junior models.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.officemuseum.com/sharpener_gallery_1910-1919.htm|title=Mechanical Pencil Sharpeners ~ 1910–1919|website=officemuseum.com|access-date=2019-03-03}}</ref> In the next few decades, APSCO became the largest pencil sharpening machine producer in the world and together with a few other US companies, it dominated the market. Electric pencil sharpeners for offices have been made since at least 1917.<ref name="officemuseumelectric" /> In May 2011, tourism officials in [[Logan, Ohio]] put on display, in its regional welcome center, hundreds of pencil sharpeners which had been collected by Rev. Paul Johnson, an Ohio minister who died in 2010. Johnson, a World War II veteran, had kept his collection of more than 3,400 sharpeners in a small shed, outside his home in [[Carbon Hill, Ohio|Carbon Hill]] in southeast Ohio. He had started collecting after his wife gave him a few pencil sharpeners as a gift in the late 1980s and kept them organized into categories, including cats, Christmas, and [[Disneyland]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=New home for Ohio man's pencil sharpener 'museum' |url=https://abc7.com/archive/8135635/ |website=ABC7 Los Angeles |language=en}}</ref>
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