All About Pocket Knives

I purchased an E. C. Simmons hardware, Philadelphia billhead and found something very interesting stamped on it. I have heard about this but never saw it before. Stamped in red ink on the bottom of the letter was the following:

We, the undersigned do hereby gauranttee that the articles or commodities listed herein were purchased by us under a gauranty by the manufacturer that they were manufacutured in an extablishment in which within 30 days pior to the the removal of such product therefrom, no children under the age of 14 years were employed or permitted to work, nor children between the age of 14 years and 18 years were employed or permitted to work more than eight hours in any day or more than six days in any week, or after the hour of 7 o'clock p.m. or beofre the hour of 6 o'clock a.m.

This stems from the Federal Child Labor Act of 1917. My billhead is dated 1918.

It was ment to prevent comerce in the products of child labor. It was a way for the wholesaler to thwart an attempt to be sued for child labor. sounds like NIKE only in the early 1900's


I find these things very interesting in the development of the cutlery industry as a whole. The language was not unique to E.C. Simmons. It was drafted as a boiler plate for any such business and was used by MANY for the same reasons.

History is ALWAYS interesting whether it applies to knives or not.I always am interested in finding out about particular knives or whatever I collect.A couple cases in point:
Picked up a very unusual letter opener that had a unique feature:the handle looked like a pair of tweezers and attached to the inside of one leg was a small serrated rubber pad.Thought about what it's function for awhile until I remembered that back when I was a kid(late 40's early 50's)envelopes containing advertisements would be stamped:"Postmaster:This letter may be opened for inspection"and one of the sides was designed so it could be opened without breaking the flap seal.This letter opener facilitated that by having one jaw that slid along the outside while the one with the rubber piece gripped the flap and allowed it to be pulled out.
What was also unusual is that this letter opener was an advertising piece that promoted a product called,"Glyco-Heroin" which was an opiate that was then legal and a substitute for morphine!
Another small German knife I acquired advertised Bayer-Meister Lucius "productos pharmaceuticos".I wondered what the history of this knife was and did some research.Got into a long history of Bayer which was part of I.G.Farben industries and it's connection to American businesses.Too long to get into here but it proved fascinating reading.