This article also appears in the Spring 2020 Pennant, the magazine of the Pen Collectors of America.
Kraker No. 2 Red & Black mottled hard rubber fountain pen, 1914-16. Shown with the articles of incorportation of the Kraker Pen Company. Pen & box from the collection of Cyndie Reppert. Articles from the Sheaffer Pen Museum archieves. Photo Copyright © 2020 Jim Mamoulides / PenHero.com LLC.
The Kraker Pen Company’s story leads us to question who owns the inventions and ideas made under the employment of another—the employee or the employer?
In early 1912, George M. Kraker, a former Conklin salesman, offered to buy Walter A. Sheaffer’s 1908 “self-filling” fountain pen patent.1 Most collectors are familiar with Sheaffer’s “self-filling” pen, but for those who aren’t, a short explanation is in order. The Sheaffer self-filling pen was one of the first of many lever-filling pens made by many companies. The lever-filling mechanism uses a lever on the barrel of the pen to compress a flexible reservoir of ink, known as the ink sac, while the nib of the pen is inserted into an ink bottle. When the user pulls the lever out, the ink sac compresses, and when the user puts it back down, the pen sucks in ink through the feed and fills the ink sac. This system was much more elegant than the similar coin filler, which required the user to push a coin to compress the sac, and the crescent or hump filler, which had a large hump on the side that was used to compress the ink sac.
Although Sheaffer declined to sell the patent, he made a deal with Kraker and another former Conklin salesman, Benjamin T. Coulson, to sell the Sheaffer pen, for which they would receive a 33.33 percent cut.2 Sheaffer hired Harvey Green Craig as factory manager on November 29, 1912,3 with a primary job at the time of “inserting the bars and levers in the [barrel].”4
Kraker No. 2 Red & Black mottled hard rubber fountain pen, 1914-16. Shown with the articles of incorportation of the Kraker Pen Company. Pen & box from the collection of Cyndie Reppert. Articles from the Sheaffer Pen Museum archieves. Photo Copyright © 2020 Jim Mamoulides / PenHero.com LLC.
Early drawing by Harvey Green Craig. Not dated, presumed to be draft art work for US Patent no. 1,242,323, filed in April 1914. From the Sheaffer Pen Museum Archieves.
Invention of the Double-Bar Mechanism
A big issue with the earliest self-filling pens is that they tended to accidentally expel small amounts of ink. According to Craig, he initially believed the problem with the pens was an issue with the feeds. He tried many types of feeds but couldn’t find a solution.5 This caused him to look at other areas of the pen to find the problem, and “on or about December 15th, 1912, [Craig] conceived a double spring bar which seemed to [him] would eliminate the trouble [they] were having with the single bar.”6
The early Sheaffer “self-filling” pens use a single-bar mechanism. The single-bar mechanism is called this because it has a single bar that the lever pushes to compress the ink sac. A double-bar mechanism uses two bars and keeps the lever in position without the need for a sac to even be in the pen. The single-bar mechanism uses the sac to hold itself in place, causing constant pressure on the sac. The double-bar mechanism design relieves this pressure by holding the lever on its own.
According to Sheaffer, he had the idea for his double bar mechanism in January 1912—although the origin of the initial idea is disputed. He filed for the patent on this idea February 19, 1913, which was awarded as U.S. patent no. 1,118,240 on November 24, 1914. One claim in the patent is that the design specifically prevents the weight of the mechanism from resting or pressing on the ink sac when the lever was not in use.7
According to Walter Sheaffer, when he asked Craig to craft a prototype of the double-bar mechanism, Craig couldn’t fasten the two bars together with a rivet, and he resorted to wrapping a piece of wire around one end, with the result that the mechanism couldn’t be inserted into a test barrel.8
Craig may not have been expert enough to develop the double-bar mechanism, but he clearly took the idea to Kraker. Craig’s work on it undoubtedly led to the patent filing for his double-bar invention on April 9, 1914. U.S. patent no. 1,242,323 was awarded on October 9, 1917, and assigned to the Kraker Pen Company.
Early drawing by Harvey Green Craig. Not dated, presumed to be draft art work for US Patent no. 1,242,323, filed in April 1914. From the Sheaffer Pen Museum Archieves.
Kraker and the Sheaffer Pen Company
“The first meeting of the incorporators and subscribers of the capital stock of the W. A. SHEAFFER PEN COMPANY was held at the office of the Company in the city of Fort Madison, Iowa, on the 16th day of May 1913,” according to the meeting minutes, with the Sheaffer stock divided as follows: W. A. Sheaffer—171 shares, J. C. Brewster—50 shares, B. T. Coulson—52 shares, G. M. Kraker—76 shares, and J. H. Axt—1 share. The relationship between Sheaffer and Kraker at the incorporation of the W. A. Sheaffer Pen Company wouldn’t last long, however.
On January 7, 1914, the W. A. Sheaffer Pen Company’s annual stockholder’s meeting was called to order. After some preliminary business was attended to, which was unrelated to Kraker, a 10-minute break was called. After this break, the minutes record that “Mr. Kraker has ceased to be a stockholder of this company.” Kraker sold 25 of his shares to Sheaffer and the remaining 56 to Coulson. Kraker remained a distributor for Sheaffer until at least mid-1914, and he had a contract with Sheaffer until at least late 1914, but the agreement details are unknown. It is assumed that the contract would not allow Kraker to compete with Sheaffer, but it is unknown if it was for a set amount of time after he left the company or if he was still a distributor in late 1914. Kraker wrote a letter to his lawyer, Rudolph William Lotz of the law firm Lotz & Sheible on January 22, 1914. This is the earliest letter by Kraker among the correspondence in the Sheaffer Museum, but it seems that the two men had already spoken and that Kraker had already hired Lotz. At the time of this letter, Kraker said that he did not wish for Sheaffer to know he was a part of an upcoming lawsuit between Craig and Sheaffer.
The Beginning of the Kraker Pen Company
On February 5, 1914, in a letter to Kraker, Lotz’s law partner Albert Scheible wrote the following: “In regard to Mr. Craig’s relation to his present employers we hope you have cautioned him to be particularly careful in all his dealings so as not to be entangled in any way regarding his future.” Sometime after this, Harvey Craig left the Sheaffer Pen Company and Fort Madison. On February 17, 1914, Scheible wrote Kraker that “[t]he writer hopes Mr. Craig struck no snag in connection with his departure for St. Louis and that he will soon be in a position to proceed with experimental work on which he has already made such a good start.” By February 20, Craig had joined Kraker in working on developing a new pen for the Kraker Pen Company, according to Lotz’s response to Kraker.
Kraker no. 3 in black hard rubber with clip. This pen bears the earliest Kraker imprint, 1914-16. Pen and box from the collection of Cyndie Reppert.
Photo Copyright © 2020 Jim Mamoulides / PenHero.com LLC.
Attachment from Lotz & Schieble sent with ideas for the name of the Kraker Pen Company, dated 4/25/1914. From the Sheaffer Pen Museum Archieves.
How Kraker Pen Became Kraker Pen
On April 16, 1914, it is implied in writing by George Kraker that he and Lotz & Scheible had been speaking about filing a trademark for a new pen company. On April 20, in a letter to Lotz & Scheible, Kraker suggests the name “Imperial.” Lotz & Scheible suggest a more distinctive name, as the name Imperial is used in many industries and was a trademark of Esterbrook at the time. Names that were suggested include the following: Aloha—“The pen everybody welcomes”; Duro—“The durable & dependable fountain pen”; Kumpfy—“the embodiment of comfort for fountain pen users”; Joyo or Joyall—“The pen that spells joy to writers”; Apex—“The height of perfection in Fountain Pens”; Summit—“The Top-Notcher among fountain pens”; Amazon, a very familiar name to most of us today; Alfo; Only; and Mazda. Yet, George Kraker didn’t choose any of these names. On April 25, he wrote to Lotz & Scheible, “[I am] getting discouraged on trying to find a name. And after having talked to several advertising men, I am about convinced that ‘Kraker’ for the pen, and ‘Kraker Pen Co.’ for the company would be as good, if not better than any we could possibly get.”
Attachment from Lotz & Schieble sent with ideas for the name of the Kraker Pen Company, dated 4/25/1914. From the Sheaffer Pen Museum Archieves.
Clip Patents
Albert Scheible, who was not only Lotz’s partner but also a mechanical engineer, developed the Kraker Pen Company’s first clip. On May 4, Scheible completed the clip patent: “note that the claims are drawn with the Sheaffer clip patent particularly in mind.” On May 6, Lotz & Scheible wrote Kraker, “[Y]ou will understand that this really should have been accompanied by a bill to you for at least $500.00, as it ought to form the basis of steady profits…However, we appreciate your financing such matters personally at present and are perfectly willing to leave the matter of a proper compensation for the rights to this pen clip to your own sense of fairness when you reach the point where you do not have to watch the dollars as closely as at present.” The application was filed in the patent office on May 7 and issued on September 22 later that year. George Kraker was awarded a second clip patent, also issued on September 22, which uses a different mechanism of attaching the clip.
Note that the patent date, 9-22-14, appears on this Kraker-Clip. The Sheaffer nib on this pen was probably a replacement. From the collection of Cyndie Reppert. Photo Copyright © 2020 Jim Mamoulides / PenHero.com LLC.
The First Kraker Pens
On May 22, Scheible wrote to Kraker that C. E. Barrett, a supplier for many parts of the Kraker pen, was beginning to make the first of the barrels, and that they would be testing the collars to make sure everything worked before making more. Also on this day, Kraker wrote to Lotz & Scheible about the “entirely out of reason” price of $90 per die for the collars. The collars required four separate dies, one blanking, one drawing, one redrawing, and one cutting-off die as explained by Scheible’s letter.17 On May 23, Kraker had Barrett began making the no. 2 collar, which he planned to test and later have the other three sizes made. The “collar” of the pen is a small metal insert under the threads on the barrel. In Fig. 7 of Harvey Craig’s patent drawing on p. 12, you can see what it would look like. This is similar to the ones used in production. On July 2, Scheible thanked Kraker for sending him several pens. This is the first known mention of a pen sold by Kraker. These were most likely not Kraker lever-filling pens, as they had not finished the design yet.
Kraker invoice of stock dated July 21, 1914, the same day Kraker notified Lotz & Scheible that Sheaffer had accused him of breach of contract.
The Kraker Pen Company Incorporation
On June 17, 1914, George Kraker wrote the following to Lotz & Scheible: “We started yesterday to incorporate ‘The Kraker Pen Co.’ We intend on account of the contract held by the writer, to keep both our present business and the Kraker Pen Co., business separate at this time.” This confirms the idea that George Kraker couldn’t be the president of the Kraker Pen Company because of the contract with Sheaffer. On July 21, Kraker wrote Lotz & Scheible that “[t]he writer has been notified by Sheaffer that he has broken his contract with The Sheaffer Pen Co., by helping The Kraker Pen Co., to get out a new pen.” W. A. Sheaffer visited the Kraker Pen Company on August 4 to let Kraker know in person that he was breaking the contract. In writing to Lotz & Scheible about the incident later that day, Kraker said he told Sheaffer that “there was a way to test out as to whether we had broken our contract or not, and that there was no using arguing about it. This closed the interview as far as [I] was concerned.”
Sheaffer also visited Joseph Kraker and Harvey Craig, who “told [Sheaffer] they expected to have a better pen than anything on the market out shortly, but they were not in a position to show a sample at this time.” The pens being worked on would have been the early Kraker pens.
On September 17, George Kraker wrote to Lotz & Scheible: “The Kraker Pen Company expects to incorporate this week, and if it is not too much trouble for you, would like to have you write us what you would appraise the two clip patents, which are to be issued on the 22nd. of this month. We expect to put these in at $3,000 apiece.” The Kraker Pen Company was incorporated on September 24, 1914, at 2:40 p.m., with Joseph Kraker as the president. George Kraker was not listed as a stockholder, presumably because of the contract he had with Sheaffer.
It is speculated that George Kraker was using his brother’s name while the company was starting, in order to get around the contract with Sheaffer. George was certainly doing work for the company, but his brother Joseph was absolutely working with Harvey Craig, developing the Kraker pen. George was likely breaching his contract with Sheaffer, but it cannot be said that he was just using Joseph’s name, as Joseph had a prominent role in the Kraker Pen Company.
The author thanks the Sheaffer Pen Museum and Dan Reppert for access to the documents used for this article. Most of the sources for this article are available at KrakerPens.com. Furthermore, he thanks Cyndie Reppert for the use of her Kraker Pen collection, for allowing examples to be photographed for the article, and for previous research by her and Dennis Bowden. Finally, he thanks Principal Greg Smith and teacher Randy Sissel of Fort Madison High School for making it possible for him to work on this research during school hours.
Notes
- W. A. Sheaffer, The Life Story of W. A. Sheaffer (1937), p. 14.
- lbid.
- U.S. District Ct., Northern District of IL, Eastern Division. Walter A. Sheaffer vs. C. E. Barrett. In Equity. No. 348, May 27, 1915, Sh. Rec. 218, Q. 36.
- U.S. District Ct., Northern District of IL, Eastern Division. Walter A. Sheaffer vs. C. E. Barrett. In Equity. No. 348, March 8, 1915, Cr. Rec. 29–30, Q. 18–19.
- Ibid., Cr. Rec. 29–31, Q. 19.
- lbid.
- U.S. patent no. 1,118,240
- U.S. District Ct., Northern District of IL, Eastern Division. Walter A. Sheaffer vs. C. E. Barrett. In Equity. No. 348, May 27, 1915, Sh. Rec. 218–220, Q. 39–42.
