学術雑誌論文

本学関連学会

text

大阪大学経済学. 2014, 64(2), p. 12-31

日本語

text

2014-09

This article throws light upon manufacturing, inventing and patenting of mechanical pencils in Japan from 1880s to 1960s. Old-fashioned screw-based mechanical pencils imported to Japan commenced to be imitated by traditional metal working craftsmen in the Meiji era. They had already mastered fine personal ornaments making by thin metal forming in the Edo period. These craftsmen became owners of somewhat modern small factories. As they did not content themselves with being imitators, they contrived and sought novelty. At the same time, they were wise enough to file applications for patents or utility model rights. There were a lot of mechanical pencil assemblers and their parts suppliers in the prewar eastern Tokyo. Some of them cooperated in developing new models or parts. However, they did not expand to be a large pencil manufacturer in the postwar days. Though Tokuji Hayakawa, the founder of Sharp Corporation, had been manufacturing mechanical pencils till the Great Earthquake of 1923, he succeeded in manufacturing consumer electronics, such as radios and TV sets. Ratchet-based mechanical pencils spread after the high polymer lead had been invented in 1962 by one engineer of Pentel Co., Ltd. Thereafter prominent pen and pencil makers, such as Pentel, Mitsubishi Pencil Co., Ltd. and Pilot Corporation have been developing various models of mechanical pencils and have them patented. Though many innovative mechanical pencils came onto the market in 1970s when the population of students increased, there were seeds of these inventions in the older files.

10.18910/57032

57032

日本におけるシャープペンシルの製造と発明・考案（1960年代前半まで）

廣田, 義人

大阪大学経済学会

日本語

2014-09

大阪大学経済学

64

2

12

31

https://hdl.handle.net/11094/57032

10.18910/57032

https://doi.org/10.18910/57032