“Wheel” mechanisms aren’t unheard of:
There are the Listo, the Ohto Super Promecha, the Slencil or that one flat Kanoe one; All have in common that their wheel is mounted coaxially to the pencil.
How the Ritepoint Wheel pencil works
The Ritepoint, no model name, however, has a wheel whose center axis is perpendicular to the pencil.
The wheel, as described in the 1955 patent US2833251, is made up of a pulley, around which a long coiled spring (“spiral propelling spring”) runs. Inside the spring there is a strong metal wire that is bent around the pulley.
So when you push the coil around the wheel, the wheel turns with it, the metal wire stays in place and the coil “flows” around it. That’s how the coil never loses grip of the pulley.
The proposed improvement was that a lead almost the size of the pencil could be used.
Nothing new for single-color slide and twist mechanisms, which have done the same job for many decades before it.
However, the Ritepoint is a multipen(cil) with a pencil and pen refill. It remains the multipen with the longest possible lead refill to this day, AFAIK.
It suffered the fate of being no more than an advertisement pencil. So let’s give it the love it deserved.
Considerations
In the examples in the start, the rotation of the wheel was responsible for the feed. Technically, what is simply a pulley in the Ritepoint pencil could be left out, although it would introduce a whole lot more friction. So it could be argued that it can’t count as a “wheel feed”, if you wanted.
The Japanese wheel pencil
There exists a much smaller japanese version of this mechanism.
Everything about this pencil is unknown. If you find its patent, advertisements, or anything else, please share it.
The unrelated(?) older German patent
DE1608148 uses a wheel mechanism, in 1948, before the Ritepoint. It is unknown if it was ever manufactured.
Hope you found it interesting!
