Is there anything more fun than seeing early, experimental designs for now-commonplace objects? As in, the wild things people tried before the dominant form factor emerged.
Rescue & Restore shows us five proto-pencil-sharpeners that they restored, and demonstrates how they operate. Some you can guess how they work by looking at them, others are a surprise:
1886 Gem Sandpaper Pencil Sharpener By Gould & Cook
1890s Perfect Pointer Pencil Sharpener
1904 Little Shaver Pencil Sharpener
As examples of early UX considerations, the ones designed with a shavings capture bin should get extra points:
1910 Peerless Pencil Whittler Sharpener
1920s Avanti Pencil Sharpener
How disappointed would those inventors be, to know that we’ve whittled it down to this: