Story of Fountain Pen

The first practical fountain pen was patented by Lewis E. Waterman in year, 1884.

                    Lewis E. Waterman 

The first American patent for a pen was received by a shoemaker Peregrin Williamson in 1809. Following this, in 1819, John Scheffer received a British patent for his pen which was half quill and half metal pen.

                               A Quill Pen.

However, the first self - filling fountain pen was patented by John Jacob Parker in the year, 1831. But all these fountain pens had a huge drawback — that of ink spills. This made the mass sale of these fountain pens very low.

             Parts in Fountain Pen Nib.

♦ Fountain Pen:

                              ♣ The Fountain Pen made by a Frenchman, M.Bion in the year, 1702 is the oldest pen to survive.

            

                               ♣ The early attempts at making a pen were inspired by the working of a feather quill.

      Caplliary action in Fountain Pen.

                                ♣ The first quills were made up of bird's feathers. A feather has a hollow channel through which the ink gets sucked up and get stored in it. But it is a natural object and a man-made pen on similar lines was incapable of holding the ink for long . A long, thin rubber reservoir attached to a metal nib and filled with ink was not a good option.

                   M.Bion Pen's Nib.

                                 ♣ Also, Lewis Waterman , who was an insurance salesman, had to cancel an important sales contact with leaky pens to start work on improving his fountain pen 🖋️

      Patent awarded to Waterman (1884).

♦ Mechanism of a Fountain Pen:

                                 ♣ A fountain pen has three parts: a nib, a feed ( black part under the nib ) and a barrel. The nib comes in contact with paper. The feed regulates the ink flow from the reservoir to the nib. The round barrel, holding the nib and feed on the writing end encases the ink reservoir. Lewis Waterman thought of adding an air hole in the nib and three grooves inside the feed.

                    Parts Of Fountain Pen.

                                  ♣ Fountain pens have an internal reservoir of ink. Different pens had different concepts of filling the reservoirs. Earlier pens used droppers to fill ink. By 1915, most pens were equipped by self-filling ink reservoir made of rubber. The reservoir were squeezed flat and then the nib was inserted in the ink bottle. The pressure on the reservoir was released and the nib would then suck up the ink to fill the empty reservoir.

       Nib and Feed of the Fountain Pen.

♦ The Coin Filler:

                                 Developed by Lewis Waterman in an attempt to complete with the winning lever filler patent belonging to Sheaffer, it is a slot in the barrel of the pen enabled a coin to deflate the internal pressure plate, a similar idea to the matchstick filler...

   The Coin Filler by Waterman's Fountain                    Pen.

“ There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up a pen to write 🖋️ ” 

             — William Makepeace Thackeray.