What Do These Have To Do With Model Rocketry?

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Company that also made pencil sharpeners that were used in Mark 1's?

Chas

not to mention collectables....

__________________
Charles Russell, MSgt,USAF (ret.)
NAR 9790, Lvl 1
SAM "Balls Three"

Correct, Chas!

Leeds Sweete was an interesting company, from Chicago, that specialized in home craft products. Most of their items were plastic, like the Crayon Sharpeners and Crayon Holders. They also made a very large variety of plasticised rubber molds for folks to make their own plaster of Paris items, like the Indian Head in the photo. At one time they were also making carve-it-yourself Totem Pole / Kachina kits.

The principals of the company, Walter Leeds and Norbert Sweete also acquired a number of patents for products like the crayon sharpener, multi-part molds, etc. Interesting company that played an unitentional, but pivotal role in the development of model rocketry.

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Now this is some serious time tripping! I still have some of these old crayon holders, though without the card, unfortunately. And the Indian head mold. I remember my Dad and I making plaster casts of these, one for each father/son team in my YMCA Indian Guide group.

And I still have one of the "Carlisle style" crayon shapeners in the desk at the old homestead in Colorado Springs. And it still does a good job of sharpening crayons! (Mine is sort of a marbled Yellow, but I think they came in other colors. Can't remember for sure, but I think I got it from a Duckwalls or a Ben Franklin dime store about 1957.

Good heavens, this is a nice bit of detcctive work... And the patent too! You should get a gold star for this one, Gus!

The Fireman

formerly NAR 2217,

Peak City Sec 2

Well, I was WAY off.

MY guess was that the crayon holders could be used as launch lugs and the Indian head-----I was still working on that one.

__________________
Never trust an atom. They make up everything.

4 out of 3 people struggle with math.

Chemically, alcohol IS a solution.

NAR# 94042
SAM# 0078

Hey Steve (also known as Gus),
Thanks for sharing the photos of the old products. I love when some stuff surfaces about the old products that became unintentionally related to rocketry. I have always meant to share some more info on the Leeds Sweete Crayon Sharpeners and hope that some folks find it here.


First, I'll add pictures of the box that the Crayon Sharpeners came in. Look and read closely and I think you'll find some interesting/funny stuff. I'll make another post with more info.

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Rick Randol
NAR #28062, ROCI Section #625
http://www.newwayspacemodels.com
http://www.indyrockets.org
NewWay Space Models-We Cornered Model Rocketry

Next I'll show the variants of the Crayon Sharpener that I know of.

First photo is what I believe is the first package for the Sharpener in the off white paper. Second photo is bottom showing Pat. Pending. Third photo is the next generation of package in yellow with die-cut hanger hole and the addition of the 10 cents price. Forth photo is the bottom of second generation still showing the Pat. Pending. The Fifth photo shows the bottom of the third generation with the addition of the Patent number and the rest of the package remains the same. I've got one more post with some more pictures to come.

Looks like the photos might be in reverse order.

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__________________
Rick Randol
NAR #28062, ROCI Section #625
http://www.newwayspacemodels.com
http://www.indyrockets.org
NewWay Space Models-We Cornered Model Rocketry

Now I'll add photos of what I think is really interesting.

In the first photo the Forth generation of Sharpener packages completely changes. For some reason the Sharpener now becomes a "Rocket Crayon Sharpener". So, this begs the question, did Leeds Sweete find out about the use of the Sharpener by Orville as a nose cone and they changed the packaging? My complete guess would be, yes.

The second photo shows the back sides of the 3rd and 4th generation packages.

Now in the third photo we move on to the Sterling Plastics Co. "Atomic Crayon Sharpener". The base of these 2 sharpeners are almost exactly the same size and Orville used these to make nose cones also. In the premiere issue of LAUNCH Magazine, there is a photo of Orville showing rockets with both types of Sharpeners as nose cones. While taking these photos tonight, I found out something I had not noticed before.

In the forth photo you can see the bottom of 2 packages of the Atomic Crayon Sharpener. You will notice that they are not quite the same, as one shows a patent number.

In the fifth photo you will see the bottom of the Leeds Sweete Sharpener and the Sterling Plastics Sharpener. They are the same number. I had not seen that until tonight. It just makes me wonder.

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__________________
Rick Randol
NAR #28062, ROCI Section #625
http://www.newwayspacemodels.com
http://www.indyrockets.org
NewWay Space Models-We Cornered Model Rocketry

One last post on this subject. I've included the photo from LAUNCH Magazine that shows Orville and his brother with the Mark II's and the 2 different Sharpener cones.

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__________________
Rick Randol
NAR #28062, ROCI Section #625
http://www.newwayspacemodels.com
http://www.indyrockets.org
NewWay Space Models-We Cornered Model Rocketry

Rick,

Thanks for the great history of the sharpeners.

A couple of notes. First, I'm not sure if your generation 1 is really a whiter paper or if it just faded over time. I have one which is also unpunched and lacking the 10 cent price, but the paper is the same yellow as the others. I notice a great variation in the color of various specimens which may be attributable to where they were stored (desk vs. sunlight).

I've also pretty much convinced myself that the unpunched version is the first generation but there is one thing which bugs me. If you look at the ones with the price printed on them, the line with "10c The First" is nicely centered. In the one without the price tag the words "The First" aren't centered, but are off to the right. Kind of seems like the ones with the price on the label must have been designed before the ones without, and that the price was simply removed from the earlier design without changing anything else. Clearly I've spent too much time thinking about these sharpeners, LOL.

Finally, about the Sterling sharpeners. I agree the photo from Launch seems to show them, but have you seen them mentioned by name anywhere?

Steve