William Brockeden

William Brockeden was born on 13th October 1787 in Totnes, Devon, the son of a watchmaker. He too trained as a watchmaker but also earned money as an author and artist.  He worked with Sampson Mordan in 1831 on the development of a pen nib with an oblique form.  
However is was later as an artist that he made the discovery that was to revolutionise not only pencil making but also the preparation of medicines and enabled apothecaries to replace laborious pill-rolling with efficient and reliable tablet making machines.
Pencil making was in difficulty the late 1830's. The sources of real lead, such as the highly-valued Cumberland Plumbago, had become rarer and more expensive. As high-quality graphite got more expensive, cheap imitations with sulphur or clay added as additives became common.
Brockeden was frustrated that he could not obtain drawing pencils which were free from grit and he had the idea of compressing pure, powdered graphite in a die between two punches. Brockeden exhibited at the Crystal Palace showing how powdered graphite could be reformed into a block without binder. Powder was poured into a tube, and then compressed with a mallet until solid. Realising that his invention could have other uses, he then took out a patent for a device for 'Shaping of pills, lozenges and black lead by pressure in a die'.
In 1844, just a few months after Brockeden's patent was granted, the Pharmaceutical Journal in Britain recorded that: 'We have received a specimen of bicarbonate of potash compressed into the form of a pill by a process invented by Mr Brockeden and for which he has taken out a patent. We understand the process is applicable to the compression of a variety of other substances into a solid mass, without the intervention of gum or other adhesive material”.

Mordan Compass

During the First World War S. Mordan & Co manufactured compasses for the UK Ministry of Defence. They made mainly Verner’s pattern compasses during this period. Called mirror compasses, they were a variation on a model designed and produced for the U.S. Corps of Engineers by Cruchon & Emons and PLAN Ltd. in Switzerland.
Typically they are 54mm diameter and weigh about 150 grams. The case inside contains radium paint.

The range of Mordan’s Products

I have written elsewhere of the wide range of Mordan’s output. This is clearly demonstrated in an advertisement in the The Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles Letters, Arts, Sciences and Co., No. 1043, January 14th 1837.  This was before Sampson Mordan the elder’s retirement. It is interesting to note the caution at the bottom  refers to “S. Mordan and Co. Makers” This is much earlier than the 1844 date which is usually stated as the beginning of the use of the “"S. Mordan and Co. Makers” mark.
"To the trade.
S Mordan and Co. beg to call attention of the Trade to the following Articles of their Manufacture, viz;-
Patent Ever-pointed Pencils and Leads
Patent Locks, with seven guards
Patent Oblique and counter Oblique Steel Pens
Patent Triple Pointed Steel Pens
Patent Portable Quill Pencils
Patent Joint Penholders for Do. in Silver and in Gold
A New Guide Penholder in Silver, much approved of
Patent Styloxynoe (sic), or Pencil Sharpener
Patent Parisian Spring Penholder, and Short Pen for Do.
Gold Pens with Perpetual Points
Cedar Drawing Pencils, pure Cumberland Lead
Fire-Proof Deed Boxes etc
Iron Chest and Bookcases
Iron Doors for Strong Rooms
Patent Spherical- Stoppered Bottles for Scents, Aether (Sic), etc. mounted in Gold and Silver
Patent Inkstands for Travelling Desks, Pocket Etc.
New Fountain Inks of Superior Construction
Portable inkstands in Wood and Leather, etc.
Lump Ink, Cone Ink, and Glass Inkstands of every description
Toilet Bottles, Pastille Burners, Rose Water Bottles Etc.
Smelling Bottles, mounted in Silver and Gold, with S. M. and Co.'s Improved Conical Stopper
Preston Salts, Vingrettes, etc. etc
Soda Water Machines etc., etc,
And to inform them that they have now, in the course of manufacture, several entirely new and useful articles which will be laid out before them with all possible dispatch.
Caution – As imitations have been made of many of their articles, observe, that each bears the name S. Mordan and Co. Makers London.
Manufactory, 22 Castle Street, Finsbury, London
N.B. S. Mordan will be happy to advise Persons taking out Patents for New Inventions, as to the best mode of manufacturing and laying the same before the trade."

Clara Mordan

Clara Mordan, 1844 – 1915, the daughter of Augustus Mordan, was born in South Kensington. A supporter of women's suffrage after attending with her father a speech on the subject given by John Stuart Mill,  she joined the Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage in 1888.

At a meeting of a feminist society in London in 1896 a paper was presented by Annie Rogers on "The Present Position of Women at Oxford” and Clara became interested in the position of Oxford women's colleges. In 1901 she visited Oxford with her friend Mary Gray Allen, and decided St Hugh's was the college most in need of help. She sent a cheque for £1000 to found a scholarship bearing her name on condition that no student should practise vivisection while holding the scholarship.

In 1900 Clara Mordan became a member of the executive committee of the Central Society for Women's Suffrage. Following a speech in 1906 by Annie Kenney, having been until then a loyal supporter of the policies of the National Union of Suffrage Societies, she joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). She went on to give several speeches on behalf of the WSPU including in 1908 in Bristol and Plymouth.  On her release from prison in January 1909 Emmeline Pankhurst was presented by Clara with an amethyst, pearl and emerald necklace.

Clara Mordan, who never married, died on 22nd January 1915 at 18 Marine Mansions, Bexhill, East Sussex. She left a bequest of £11,000 to St Hugh’s College, Oxford.

Kate Greenaway scent bottles

Kate Greenaway was a prolific illustrator of children’s’ books, born in Hoxton in 1846, the daughter of an daughter of a draughtsman and engraver, John Greenaway. She popularised a style of drawing that is instantly recognisable as hers - delicate watercolours of children with animals and birds in the English countryside. Kate Greenaway died of cancer in 1901.

Between 1882 – 1884 Greenaway pictures appeared on Mordan scent bottles almost always with children in the foreground and a house or church in the background.

The scent bottles are generally silver with a gilt interior, just over 20 mm diameter and 50 mm tall they are hallmarked on the base and on the inside of the lid.

Dating Mordan Postal Scales

In the last post I wrote about Mordan Scales, and how the letter rates are often engraved on the letter pan. These letter rates can be of great help in dating the scales. This table has the postage Rate for Great Britain from 1839 up to 1940

5th December 1839 – 9th October 1840
½ oz. 4d
1 oz. 8d
2 oz. 1s 4d
3 oz. 2s 0d
Then 8d per oz. up to 16 oz.

10th October 1840 – 31st March 1865
½ oz. 1d
1 oz. 2d
2 oz. 4d
3 oz. 6d
Then 2d per oz. up to 16 oz.

1st April 1865 – 4th October 1871
½ oz. 1d
1 oz. 2d
1 ½ oz. 3d
2 oz. 4d
3 oz. 6d
Then 1d per ½ oz.

5th October 1871 – 30th June 1885
1 oz. 1d
2 oz. 1 ½d
4 oz. 2d
6 oz. 2 ½d
Then ½ d per 2 oz. upto 12 oz., then 1d per oz.

1st July 1885 – 21st June 1897
1 oz. 1d
2 oz. 1 ½d
4 oz. 2d
6 oz. 2 ½d
Then ½ d per 2 oz.

22nd June 1897 – 30th October 1915
4 oz. 1d
6 oz. 1 ½d
8 oz. 2d
10 oz. 2 ½d
Then ½ d per 2 oz.

1st November 1915 – 2nd June 1918
1 oz. 1d
2 oz. 2d
4 oz. 2½d
6 oz. 3d
Then ½ d per 2 oz.

3rd June 1918 – 31st May 1920
3 oz. 2d
4 oz. 2½d
5 oz. 3d
6 oz. 3 ½d
Then ½ d per 2 oz

1st June 1920 – 28th May 1922
1 oz. 1½d
3 oz. 2d
4 oz. 2½d
5 oz. 3d
Then ½ d per 2 oz.

29th May 1922 – 13th May 1923
1 oz. 1 ½d
3 oz. 2d
4 oz. 2 ½d
5 oz. 3d
Then ½ d per 2 oz.

14th May 1923 – 1st May 1940
3 oz. 2d
4 oz. 2½d
5 oz. 3d
6 oz. 3 ½d
Then ½ d per 2 oz.

Source: Handbook of Old Weighing Instruments by Michael Crawford published by the International Society of Antique Scale Collectors in 1984