Quiz 11 - 10 Questions on Pen, Pencil and Eraser

1.Established in 1958, Hindustan Pencils Pvt. Ltd. are the largest pencil manufacturer in India. Which two well known brands do they own ? (Both Required)

2. Prior to the invention of the eraser in 1770 by Edward Nairne (better known for making the marine barometer), what was used by people in Europe to erase pencil marks?

The invention was described by Joseph Priestley on April 15, 1770, in a footnote in " A Familiar Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Perspective"

3. Hymen L. Lipman is credited with registering the first patent for a pencil with an attached eraser on March 30, 1858. In 1862, Lipman sold his patent to Joseph Reckendorfer for $100,000, who went to sue a pencil manufacturer for infringement. In 1875 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against Reckendorfer declaring the patent invalid because his invention was actually a combination of two already known things with no new use.
Which pencil maker won the case ?

4. The small hole in the cap or lid of a pen is recommended by ISO 11540:2014. What is its purpose?

5.What was invented by Yukio Horie of Japan in 1962 and was ideally suited to the strokes of Japanese writing, which is traditionally done with a pointed ink brush ?

Yukio Horie, was the President of Pentel until his death in 2010

6.If you recollect your early school days you will remember a practice in which one used to keep a plane paper over a embossed surface and lightly rub it with a pencil, thus creating a image of the embossed surface on the paper. Such technique is also used in visual art in which an impression of the surface texture of a material, such as wood, is created by placing a piece of paper over it and rubbing it with a soft pencil or crayon and often provides a starting point for more elaborate compositions such as paintings and collages.What is this art technique called?

One of the proponent of this technique was Max Ernst. Ernst was inspired by an ancient wooden floor where the grain of the planks had been accentuated by many years of scrubbing. He captured these by laying sheets of paper on the floor and then rubbing over them with a soft pencil.

7.The Japanese Kokuyo Co. Ltd. is a major share holder of which Indian company ?

Clue: When Kokuyo purchased 51% stake in 2011, it flipped its backward looking logo to forward looking.

8. When the swadeshi movement started in India, all the pens used for writing were imported from abroad. One day Gandhi met Kosuri Venkat, a local entrepreneur and encouraged him to start manufacturing pens. Thus this company was launched in 1932 and began manufacturing fountain pens at Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh. N Subba Rao Pantulu and S Kasturi Ranga Iyengar, the founders/managers of what is now The Hindu Group were the first people to buy these pens and were soon followed by Nehru, Gandhi and other Congress leaders. The pens are available even today and are handmade and take about 2 days to manufacture. Which company?

9. You can buy this pen made by the Italian car designer Pininfarina for 89 euros ...

or go for this cheaper Jac Zagoory pens for about 25euros...

What is their USP or what is special about these pens?

10. Frederick George Miles was a British aircraft designer and manufacturer of light civil and military aircraft . In 1943, Miles was shown a prototype of an invention and  he believed it to be of great use to aircraft navigators as it worked equally well at low altitudes and high altitudes. So Miles offered to produce them for the Royal Air Force. The ministry was worried that it would distract Miles from aircraft production but Miles eventually persuaded government officials to let him use 17 unskilled women to produce the invention commercially. At the end of the world war II, the factory employed 700 people, and was named the Miles Martin Company. What Invention am I talking about ?

F.G. Miles