Re: [CBQ] Burlington Route pen nibs

["Gerald Edgar" <gvlc6@hotmail.com>]

Indeed Rupert, MANY corporations had their nibs inscribed with their company initials or logo.  Why? To minimize employee theft per accounts I have read in office supply-related periodicals.  As you mentioned, 
'nibs' back in the pre-fountain pen days (and MUCH before ballpoint pens!) were very common in homes, schools & everyday businesses just as ballpoints are now.  They came in different sizes depending on how wide/thick a line you wished to use when writing.  They were removable from the stock body/handle as wore out easily or got bent causing the narrow separation between the tines to widen too far.  RR's being the largest employer in America til about 1910 or so, were big users.  But it was not just nibs that got marked to prevent theft: shop towels, postage stamps (perforated with the initials of the company - I have examples of BR), etc.   Today, pens are relatively cheaper & more durable plus you can emblazon a large easily read name on the barrel whereas John Q citizen would not easily notice his nib was courtesy of CB&Q or U.S. Steel.  Thus RR's including the Q had freebies for customers but I have never seen mention of nibs.  I have wondered though, how likely was a company to check employees' personal pens as being stolen inasmuch as they would have been in their homes at a writing desk.  Perhaps concern that they might go to small business eager to save a little $$$?  Nibs, in today's $$$, cost more than a cheap Bic.  To my knowledge the body or stock that the nibs were attached to were NOT marked by the Burlington, at least none of the Q "dip" pens I have found are marked.  I do have an entire small purple box of Q nibs (size of a small wooden matchbox) & it's fully marked with the BR logo.  Note too nibs came in certain number sizes, most Q nibs were a particular size - standardization?  That said, two people alternating ues of the same pen with a nub, would get different results when writing depending on the angle they held the pen at.   Gerald

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