Dear Filofax lovers,
I have owned and used many different 6 ring binders over the years but I think the one I've just acquired may be one of the earliest. It is an imitation leather binder made by Moores Modern Methods, London EC4, for The Mond Nickel Company Ltd for its foundry reference book 'Nickel Cast Iron'.
Mond Nickel apparently became International Nickel in 1928.
The binder is standard Filofax Personal 6 ring spacing. Reference in the text to a paper of 1937 shows it is probably late 1930s.
Any ideas or further info would be welcome. Regards, Alan Burgess
Please leave a comment below if you have any information you can share.
I am intrigued it looks like a manual/ file of facts, and so very old and historical and - anyway I do not know anything about it but have shared the post to Twitter in case anyone of my followers or their followers can help
ReplyDeleteNice to see this - thanks for sharing it Alan.
ReplyDeleteI think it demonstrates that the format we now call "personal", with engineering pocket-book size and standardised six hole punching, had an existence then which was somewhat independent from Lefax/Filofax.
This may well have developed by other manufacturers copying the format. I think the page size had existed independently before Lefax adopted it around 1914. It's unclear whether the standardised hole punching also did.
Sorry - I should have said around 1911 not 1914.
DeleteMany thanks for your interest. I think I have dated this to second half 1942 from a reference in the text to a 'very recent'patent which turns out to have been issued in May 1942. The two sets of three rings work independently. I'm never sure how to measure the size of rings but these are 15mm externally,12.5mm internally. They have interlocking tips. The binder is compact in size at 183mm by 107mm. The war time production is why the material is relatively flimsy and has warped and wrinkled.
ReplyDeleteI guess the binder itself could still be older than that Alan? If the info about the company name change is correct then pre-1928 seems likely.
DeleteI think the binder is contemporary with the contents as enclosed. It would seem that the company was merged rather than taken over and that Mond was still an entity in itself until post war.
ReplyDeleteWhat intrigues me is Moore's Methods who seem to have made other robust file binders. I'd love to know who originated the six ring format. The middle ring of each set of three seems purely for show and is not required for strength or stability. I wonder who first realised it looks good and adds quality?
Lefax catalogues attribute this to the company's founder John Clinton Parker. They also say that the format of page size, hole punching and ruled index boxes in the page corners was copyrighted by Lefax.
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