The Action Of High Quality Writing Instruments - The Fountain Pen
Posted by Essay Help on November 16, 2009High quality writing instruments have been around for centuries and continue to exist; from the first pencils in 1584, to the quill pen, to the reign of the fountain pen from 1925 to 1940.
These high quality and highly functional writing instruments were being made around the class in beautiful styles and with an elegance and class not previously seen in a writing instrument.
The early fountain pens were not effective at providing a consistent and even distribute of ink. You would have either overmuch ink which caused blots or also little which caused skips.
In 1870 Boater developed a 3 channel feed which meant the ink flow was controlled during writing, making the pen a choice as a portable writing instrument. Today collectors refer to these pens as eyedroppers because of how they were filled.
Eyedropper pens leaked because the caps didn’t fit really assured and the joint became aged from consume, so in 1907 Boater came up with a solution. It worked like a lipstick conduit with a barrel that coiled and a point that could retract into the barrel. It was called the safety pen. These pens remained popular advantageously into the 1920s.
Parker and Sheaffer developed their own advancements; Parker with the button filler and lever filler, and Sheaffer with similar systems that also included what was called a blind cap.
During the action the pen market continued to grow at an incredible rate. Pens were made from ebonite or vulcanite, which was a hard rubber material that was real easy to activity with. Pens were decorated with engravings, swirls of color, woodgrain, and even mottled colors. Black was the most popular base color but sometimes other colors were produced, especially red. The high quality pens had 14k coagulated gold points and gold pocket clips.
Men’s pens were had a clip, piece ladies were somewhat smaller and had a ring apical so they could be attached to a chain, a dress pocket, or a fob.
But competition was fierce and quality writing instruments were everywhere, so to act competitive the manufacturers were forced to produce a pen that had fashion appeal. So along came pens much as the Duofold with its striking red orange colors, Bakelite, tortoise bombard, and horn.
Sheaffer introduced a line of pens in 1924 that were made from celluloid which were an instant hit even tho’ they were expensive. Inside 5 years they were the #1 selling pen. Celluloid was available in bottomless colors and patterns which made it perfect for the Art Deco times and styles.
Many of the pen manufacturers ran into ail during the 1930s but Parker, Wahl-Eversharp, Boater, and Sheaffer all kept their heads above H2O and Parker did especially advantageously.
In 1932 Parker introduced a clean filler group which eliminated the need for an ink sack. Parker continued to activity towards new innovations and in 1941 introduced the fast drying Parker Superchrome ink which required any design changes to their pen.
Sheaffer created cardinal filling systems; the touchdown and schnorchel which remained popular into the 1960s. In fact just recently they have been reintroduced to the market. Boater introduced the disposable cartridge for the fountain pen and perfected it during WWII. But the final achievement in fountain pens belongs to Parker who in 1956 introduced the capillary filling group.
High quality writing instruments have been demanded by civilization for centuries. It’s interesting to follow the changes in design that have occurred over the centuries and what we once considered high quality, compared to what we now consider high quality writing instruments.
Tags: fountain pen, pens, writing instrument