Designer Watches | Designer Pens

Fountain Pen

The first fountain pen was invented as a viable product in 1884, previous models did exist but none was ready for mass production. Lewis Waterman was the first to create a good viable pen, and he was a real pioneer for the writing industry. Although previous patents for fountain pens were recognized in both North America and Europe the pens had many functional problems. Ink spills and material issues were the main difficulties for the pen industry. Because of such failures early pens like those from the 18th century were very hard to sell in those days when the quill pens were still ruling.

As a historical record the fountain pen appeared one thousand years after the apparition of quill pens, in fact it was the quill that inspired the inventors. They noticed that the ink had the tendency to remain in the feather natural capillary system acting like a reservoir. So they thought how to create a larger reservoir that could store an increased amount of ink. Their idea was simple, to create a man-made pen that would not need constant dipping in the ink. The most primitive pens included a long rubber reservoir with a metal nib at the bottom. This first models were a failure from a certain point of view because of ink dripping: they weren’t good enough to draw a straight line on paper.

Lewis Waterman created the best fountain pen of his times, it is said that the innovatory idea came to him after loosing a valuable contract because of leaky ink pens. He added an air hole into the nib, and he also modified the feed mechanism adding three groves. All fountain pens contain an internal reservoir, for which the first viable solution was the rubber sack. This flexible sack was simply squeezed and inserted in the bottle, when the sack was released the internal pressure would fill it with ink.

There are nine sizes for fountain pen nibs, each of them can be italic, oblique or straight. In the old days the ink composition wasn’t similar to the one we have in our days. The fact is that corrosion affected the metal so fast that few nibs could be used; hence gold was the only good alternative to other materials. To compensate for the lower hardness of gold the tip of the nib was treated with iridium. Another characteristic for early fountain pens was the fact that the nibs would flex gradually according to the owners’ writing skills, this is one of the reasons for which people avoided lending their pens.

Fountain Pens

Fountain pens are those pens that have an internal reservoir for liquid ink, there are a variety of mechanisms that allow pens to suck ink inside them, for example older pens had a rubber sack which was pressed and released in order to create the needed pressure. The first pen with a reservoir was invented in 953 AD, when the caliph of Egypt asked for a pen that would contain ink. Another record goes back to the 17th century when a German scientist described a pen created from two quills, one of them was like a reservoir included in the other. The explanation of the slow progress is that back then people didn’t fully understand the importance of pressure, not to mention that ink had a lot of impurities which affected the pen longevity.

Beginning with the 19th century, more precisely with 1875, the pen industry started to develop, there were many problems with pens in those days because of the materials but people liked them anyway. Almost all fountain pens had a problem, they leaked and were hard to fill. With the appearance of new materials the problems were corrected one by one. The golden era for the fountain pens was the inter-war period; in those days some of the best models were created, the Parker Duofold and Vacumatic, the Pelikan 100 and the Sheaffer’s Lifetime Balance series were just some of the top models. In 1940 the ballpoint pen appeared, which marked the beginning of the fountain pens decline. In the first decades after the 1940s the pen industry continued to produce even better pencils like the Parker 51, the Sheaffer Snorkel and Eversharp.

By the late 1960s, ballpoint pens evolved a lot so that they ensured their dominant position in casual writing. At present fountain pens are still used in France and many private schools in Europe prefer them as a symbol of tradition. Some teachers even claim that a child can learn how to write faster if he or she uses a classical pen. In our days good quality gold and silver pens can be found at a decent price especially in Europe. Most people who use fountain pens say these items are part of their writing habits, and for those who sign business contracts, they are part of the work routine. Even official national papers have to be signed with fountain pens: there is a tradition that requires it.