Edward Walter McCarroll was born on 18 December 1881 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father was from Ireland and his mother was from Germany.
Edward's father was in the clothing business and that is where he started his career. His brother Phillip had gone into the more interesting real estate business. At the time the Samuel W. Black Company was the premier real estate company in Pittsburgh. If you wanted to learn that business then that is who you worked for. By 1902 Edward joined his brother at the Samuel W. Black Company. Apparently having a knack for the realty business Edward moved up and on by 1909. He then joined the Union Realty Company as their general manager. Within two more years he left that company and started his own business.
Edward's father was in the clothing business and that is where he started his career. His brother Phillip had gone into the more interesting real estate business. At the time the Samuel W. Black Company was the premier real estate company in Pittsburgh. If you wanted to learn that business then that is who you worked for. By 1902 Edward joined his brother at the Samuel W. Black Company. Apparently having a knack for the realty business Edward moved up and on by 1909. He then joined the Union Realty Company as their general manager. Within two more years he left that company and started his own business.
Edward's business was located in Union Bank Building in downtown Pittsburgh
As good as Edward was in real estate his enjoyment was inventing things. His first idea came in 1913 for a vehicle jack. Wheel segments, powered by the motor, would engage and lift the vehicle enabling you to work on it.
Expanding his real estate business in 1914 Edward formed the Miller Construction Company. Buying, selling and building were now the company's priorities.
Inventing again the next year, staying with the automotive theme, he finds a way to carry your lighted cigar with you. He stated; "The object of my invention is to provide a cigar holder, adapted to be attached to automobiles or other vehicles which vibrate when traveling, such holder being so constructed that a cigar may be easily placed within and removed from the holder and will, when therein, be freely supported; and further so constructed that the ashes which may drop from the cigar will be retained within the holder, but in such manner that the ash dust, which may be formed by the vibration of the vehicle, will be prevented from Settling on the cigar"
Inventing again the next year, staying with the automotive theme, he finds a way to carry your lighted cigar with you. He stated; "The object of my invention is to provide a cigar holder, adapted to be attached to automobiles or other vehicles which vibrate when traveling, such holder being so constructed that a cigar may be easily placed within and removed from the holder and will, when therein, be freely supported; and further so constructed that the ashes which may drop from the cigar will be retained within the holder, but in such manner that the ash dust, which may be formed by the vibration of the vehicle, will be prevented from Settling on the cigar"
In 1915 he comes up with a new way to put a pencil with an eraser together. The pencil with an eraser had been patented since 1858. The last patent for ways of attaching erasers was in 2013.
Wanting to help the ladies, Edward next invents a "Shopping and Toilet Case" for the woman on the go. It held the usual mirror and pockets or compartments for coins, cards, rouges and toilet powder. It also had a hidden stand that could be used to support the mirror for hands free powdering. Plus the case was made of metal so the handle could not be cut by a purse snatcher.
Following his case idea he moved onto a gaming device. "In playing games, such as various species of poker, wherein counters of various assigned values are deposited or set aside by each player during the course of the game, it is frequently difficult, when sufficient counters have not been deposited or anteed, to determine which player failed to make his deposit. - The object of my invention is to provide a game device whereby the foregoing difficulty may be eliminated." It did not catch on.
In 1918 Edward tries growing his business again. He formed the Liberty Sand and Clay Company that was in the business of quarrying manufacturing and dealing in stone, sand and clay articles of commerce. This failed the following year.
That same year he tries to help the ladies again. This time it is a vanity mirror for the automobile which could also be used as a rear view mirror.
Elmer Clinton Adolph Berger, a St. Louis, Missouri inventor is credited with the invention of the rear-view mirror. Although racing enthusiast Ray Harroun experimented with one as early as 1911 while driving in the Indianapolis 500, it was Elmer Berger who obtained the first patent in 1921. Through his Berger and Company he manufactured the rear-view mirror for automobile use. He called his apparatus the "COP-SPOTTER."
With more initiative, Edward's mirror might have been marketed over a year before Berger.
Elmer Clinton Adolph Berger, a St. Louis, Missouri inventor is credited with the invention of the rear-view mirror. Although racing enthusiast Ray Harroun experimented with one as early as 1911 while driving in the Indianapolis 500, it was Elmer Berger who obtained the first patent in 1921. Through his Berger and Company he manufactured the rear-view mirror for automobile use. He called his apparatus the "COP-SPOTTER."
With more initiative, Edward's mirror might have been marketed over a year before Berger.
By focusing on his company, Edward no longer invents for some time. Then in 1924 he comes up with a radical card playing idea. "The purposes and games for which ordinary cards are used, at the same time enables any player at will to modify or vary the game by choosing to play his hand under alternative suits and card values." Each card will have TWO sets of pips!
Whatever game you play you use either the Upper Deck (K of Spades), or the Lower Deck (5 of Diamonds) for your hand. He names the cards "Pepper". (This deck is listed as N13 in the Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards)
A lot of things are happening now in Edward's life. He is the president of Flex File office supplies, he is running his realty business and now he is president of his own playing card company. So what does he do? He leaves Pittsburgh for Chicago.
In late 1925 he joins the Baird & Warner Realty Company in Chicago. The company, still in business today, was started in 1855. At the time they published the "Portfolio of Fine Apartment Homes", pioneering a whole new way of marketing. Sales agents used the 30-inch tall and lavishly illustrated book to help potential renters or buyers narrow down their choices without spending days of tiresome travel visiting each property in person.
But being in Chicago gave him a printer for his playing card idea. This would be the Standard Playing Card Company. Standard Playing Card (SPCC) started about 1890. Then in 1894 the newly founded United States Playing Card Company acquired them. The company continued operating as an independent in Chicago, as shown on their Ace of Spades and boxes. The Ace of Spades did not normally carry their brand name. Their large number of brand names were usually identified on the boxes and wrappers and in some cases on a special Joker. They had their initials on the tax stamp as well.
The Pepper King of Spades next to the USPC King of Spades Used by SPCCo in the 1920s
The Three Legged Pepper Joker and the SPCCo. "Society" Joker
Pepper playing cards were sold until at least 1943. So to figure out the age of a deck you have is by looking at the date code on the ace of spades. This one has an "H" which would represent 1926 or 1946.
To find out which one is correct you would need to have a tax revenue stamp.
(See the links below)
Edward was again inventing by 1931. This time it was furniture. Edward designs a vanity bench with room under the cushion for toiletries.
Two years later he comes up with another card game. This one was even more radical. He described it as such; "the object of the invention is to provide a novel card game well adapted to entertain and amuse card players. Another object is to provide a game which, in its playing, will test the mental alertness, keenness of vision, and quickness of perception of identities and differences on the part of the players. And a further object is to provide a card game which may be played by any number of players from two up to the capacity of the deck, and will not require preliminary study or a course of instruction or practice to qualify the player to play the game well, the outcome of the game depending partly on chance and partly on skill." It does not appear to have been produced.
In the early 1930s Edward changed careers. He went to work for the Aurora Steel Works Product Company on the westside of Chicago. By 1935 he was the Manager of Locker Division. Most school lockers made in America came from this company. While working there he patents an updated version of coin operated locks.
This patent was followed, in 1945, with his last invention. This was a bench that could be converted into a writing desk. It took six years to finally be approved by the patent office.
Retiring from Aurora Steel Products after World War II, he settled in Evanston, Illinois. His 1958 obituary only mentions his jobs in the Chicago area. He is interned in the family plot in the Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh.