Bleistiftscharf Maschine Jupiter, 1920

Bleistiftscharf Maschine Jupiter, 1920, Germany 

Since the early 1900s the most common instrument to sharpen pencils was the normal sharpener. From the 1880s on people started producing mechanical pencil sharpeners, industrially produced. The first Jupiter was introduced in 1897; a couple of years later, this first model was improved into the Jupiter N.1 model, patented in 1905.

How to use: the pencil is placed on the specific housing, with the top towards the cutter. By turning the handle, the gear wheel spins the cutter and the shaft. The shaft, in turn, spins the pencil; To sharpen the pencil, you then need to push it towards the cutter with the handle.