I recently added to my stable a BCHR pen with no identifying imprint beyond the name Monogram in script on the delightful Nº 2 flexible nib.

There began a quest: who made the pen? How did they come up with the ingenious lever design this pen has? And why didn’t they run afoul of Sheaffer’s lever patent? I did start with one piece of useful information, i.e., the fact that Monogram was a house brand sold by the Rexall Drug Company. That didn’t tell me who had made the pen for Rexall; I was pretty sure Rexall hadn’t set up its own pen factory.

So I started with the inevitable Web search, and I came up with something interesting. The clip on my pen, held in place by three tabs, is a feature that can be identified as having belonged to Kraker. Now Kraker is an interesting piece of pen history in its own right. Michael G. Kraker worked for Sheaffer in that company’s early years, and his departure wasn’t on the best of terms. It got even uglier when he set up his own company, allegedly using technology that Sheaffer thought was theirs...

Well, that train had already left the station by the time my pen was made, so I had to look around at Kraker’s own stuff. After an extensive patent search, I discovered U.S. Patent Nº 1,263,261, issued April 16, 1918, to Rudolph W. Lotz. That patent covers my pen’s lever, which has a small spring-loaded latch at its open end to hold the lever securely in position. This also “parks” the pressure bar, which is secured to the lever and has no spring.

And the best part is that the Lotz lever design was also Kraker’s property.

But don’t jump yet. Following up a couple more clues brought to light the fact that the Kraker Pen Company did not make Monogram pens. Mr. Kraker set up a separate company, the Michael George Pen Company, for that purpose.

The original Sheaffer invention (U.S. Patent Nº 896,861, issued August 25, 1908) specifies essentially the same design, including a retainer at the distal end of the barrel to hold the pressure bar in place and a mechanism for locking the lever in the closed position. So the question is, how did Lotz and Kraker do an end run around Sheaffer’s patent? Hmm. Maybe that train hadn’t left the station after all!