antique, Diary, My Collection, Nostalgia, Scientific

EBay Find: Westinghouse Diary, 1945

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Here’s another neat little item purchased on EBay:
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This is a sub-category of notebooks that I could happily collect: small promotional diaries given out to the employees or business partners of various corporations. I have ones in my collection from Sandoz, GE, and the Harvard Coop, and this Westinghouse one was a great addition. First of all, it’s from 1945! I can’t believe it’s still in such pristine condition. It measures about 2.5 x 4.5″. The cover seems to be real leather, and the pages are gilt-edged. And it also has a lot of fun extras inside, as you’ll see…
It starts off with a pretty standard inside front cover: a 12-month calendar and a title page with the company logo and slogan: “Plants in 25 Cities… Offices Everywhere.”

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Then there’s a page for identification, which a certain Mr. or Ms. Newhouse filled out with Social Security number, address, and the wonderful phone number “Ridley Park 17828.” Then we get into the diary portion with a week to each page:

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I suspect that these cryptic notes may relate to some sort of mechanical or engineering work, but I’m really not sure. The whole month of January then seems to track mileage and hours worked, which make it look like the person worked without a single day off for an entire month. They also traveled 11 miles most days and noted expenses of one dollar a day.
After February, there are no more diary entries. After the calendar pages, there are a few for telephone numbers and addresses, with only one name jotted down: Joe Rice, Signal Detachment, Signal Depot, Baltimore -19-.
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The end of the calendar and address pages brings us to this point about halfway through the notebook:
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Then begins the fun stuff! First we have a directory of all Westinghouse offices and plants, coded by type as “sales office,” “manufacturing and repair shop,” “warehouse,” etc. Then you have a listing of other electrical supply companies that acted as Westinghouse agents. Then you have a few pages of 1940 census data by city, weights and measures, and “handy formulas” along the lines of those found in my engineer’s field book. You even get a table of “Approximate Amperes per Terminal for Squirrel-Cage Induction Motors,” whatever those are! (I can’t help imagining a squirrel whizzing around in some sort of motorized cage!)

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Best of all, at the end you get several lovely full-color maps– a pretty standard set of United States and continent maps, plus the baffling addition of a full page devoted to the Philippines. Of course there are lots of interesting differences from today’s world maps, especially in Africa.
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At the end of the diary, there’s a nice little index that tells you where to find all the various bits of info. Helpful, since there’s so much data packed in!

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What a great little notebook… Westinghouse still exists today, but I’ll bet they don’t give out promo items like this anymore.

creativity, Links, Writing Notebooks

Do You Like Notebooks Because You Write?

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Or do you write because you like notebooks?

“Girl with A Notebook” ponders the question “How has writing affected your life?”

One of the seemingly obvious answers would be that I spend a lot more time alone since I’ve started writing, preferring the company of my keyboard to the company of my classmates… or did I start writing because I was forced to spend a lot more time alone, because my keyboard suddenly became my only company? I’m not sure which way that goes.

Same goes for my obsession with office supplies — notebooks, post-it notes, pens, paperclips, paper, pencils, erasers, notebooks… But then again, do I like office supplies because I write, or do I write because I like office supplies?

via Girl With a Notebook: Blog Chain: How Has Writing Affected Your Life?.

Goldline, Guildhall, Journal, My Collection, Notebook Reviews, Places to Buy Notebooks, Sketchbook

Review: The Goldline Journal

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Here’s a lovely notebook that I haven’t seen sold in very many places: the Goldline Journal.

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It’s made by Tollit and Harvey of the UK, the same people who make the Guildhall notebook. I was never tempted to buy the Guildhall because the paper was lined, but the Goldline has plain paper, and a lovely faux-suede cover! How cool is it to have an off-white suede notebook? It seems so decadent and groovy, like something Austin Powers’ girlfriend might stash in her purple vinyl purse. Next to this baby, a Moleskine looks like a nerdy, bespectacled science teacher out of a 1950s film strip (not that that’s all bad).

Here’s how the notebook is packaged in the store, in a loose plastic bag rather than shrinkwrap.

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Once you get the plastic off, it turns into a bit of a puzzle, as the elastic is trapped under the paper band in a way that makes it tricky to open. It’s not really that hard, but it would probably make a good sobriety test.

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The back of the journal has the standard embossed logo. The holes for the elastic are a bit bigger than I’d prefer.
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Inside the front cover there are a few lines for you to write your name or other info. Inside the back cover is the usual expanding pocket.

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The paper seems a little lighter than most– I would say it has more show-through than any other notebook I’ve reviewed thus far in my usual pen tests. The paper weight is not specified on the notebook or the company’s website.

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And here’s another distinguishing element: like the Guildhall tested by Black Cover, the Goldline has an extremely flexible binding. You can fold it back completely without it cracking, though I’m not sure why anyone would want to! I think the signatures are just a bit more loosely sewn than in other notebooks. The second image below shows a bit of separation but it was like that before I bent it.

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The Goldline journal also comes in pink, lavender and light blue. Not to be sexist, but these are great gifts for girls– they’re cute without being too cutesy. I gave them to two adolescent nieces who seemed to really like them. The only retailer I know of that sells these in the US is Paper Access in New York. Pocket size 3.5 x 5.5″, price $11.95. Goldline notebooks are also available in a 130 x 210mm size, though I haven’t seen them at Paper Access. If anyone has spotted these at other retailers, please let me know!

My Collection, new products, Piccadilly, Places to Buy Notebooks

Piccadilly Softcover Notebooks Coming Soon!

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Ooh, ooh, ooh! Check out this page at Piccadilly’s website.

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Apparently they’re introducing softcover notebooks! So far just a lined version, in small, medium and large sizes.

I contacted someone at Piccadilly to get the full scoop: the lined softcover notebooks will be available around the end of September in the bargain section at Borders stores and on the Piccadilly website. Just lined for now, but they plan to have other styles at a later date.

I also took the opportunity to ask about some of the quality concerns many Piccadilly users have expressed, mainly that the elastics were lousy and lost their stretch too fast. In response to those concerns, Piccadilly has improved the elastic on all their notebooks, using a thicker, better quality elastic. I recently bought a small graph paper notebook and so far, that elastic does seem to be holding up much better than the original lined notebook I bought last winter, which went slack almost immediately when I’d barely even used it.

On Twitter, ecram mentioned that he’d heard Piccadilly was upgrading their paper from 80gsm to 100gsm– it turns out this is not true. Piccadilly makes other products with 100 gsm paper, but the line of hardcover and softcover notebooks will stay at 80gsm.

Stay tuned for more Piccadilly reviews sometime this fall!

Art, My Collection, Nostalgia, Personal, Scientific, Sketchbook

Engineer’s Field Notebook, late 1980s

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A couple months ago I posted about the artist David Fullarton and wondered where I could get a notebook like the one he used for his work. Well, it turns out I had only to look in my own collection! The unusual gridded pages appearing in Fullarton’s artwork come from an engineer’s field book like this one:

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I’d forgotten I had this notebook, which I bought when I was in college and used for notes and sketches. It measures 7 1/4 x 4 5/8″, with a hard cover faintly embossed with the words “Field Book 1308” (1308 is the Boorum & Pease product number).

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The inside front cover has the Boorum and Pease logo and item number, and boasts of the following features:

This book contains a superior 50% rag content paper having a high degree moisture resisting surface. Waterproof ink is used and it is sewed with Bing Enamel Waterproof Thread. The binding material is also waterproof.

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The pages all have the strange grid format– horizontal rectangles on the left side, and a small grid pattern bisected with a red line on the right side. It’s funny, both my dad and brother-in-law are engineers, but I’ve never known them to have a notebook like this, and I have no idea why an engineer needs that particular kind of grid layout! The same exact page layout is also used in something called a “Mining Transit Book,” which is even more mystifying to me, urban thought-worker desk-jockey that I am.

Here’s a few of my odd notes and sketches. I have to say I found the bathroom stall one rather amusing and have no memory of having drawn it!

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In the back of the notebook, there are several printed pages with information that I suppose an engineer might use, or would have in pre- laptop computer days– mathematical formulas and various other tables.

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I still really like this notebook. The paper is quite sturdy and the binding also held up to being knocked around quite a bit. And there’s something about that weird grid pattern that really appeals to me! I also love the old-fashioned look of the cover. The brown color is kind of ugly, but it’s sexy-retro-ugly, somehow. I think more notebooks should be made in these sorts of colors– black covers can get a little boring after a while but it’s a bummer when the only alternatives are too bright and cheerful. (Kikkerland’s Writersblok notebooks are one of the few pleasingly muted alternatives.) If this notebook could be shrunk down to the pocket size 3.5 x 5.5″ format, I might never use anything else.

I haven’t seen a notebook like this in a retail store for a long time, but similar ones are available online from EngineerSupply.com.

Notebooks, journals, sketchbooks, diaries: in search of the perfect page…