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		the fountain pen

		Monsieurs Bion's fountain pen system did not survive into the nineteenth century. However, developments were made gradually over the following hundred years and included Scheffer's 'Penographic', patented in 1819 where the ink was made to flow by means of pulling back a valve and the reservoir was a pig's bladder. In 1832 John Jacob Parker, no direct relation of the modern Parker pens, took out a patent for the first self-filling pen. This was filled by dipping the end of the pen-holder in ink and raising a piston by turning the outer case. Unhappily, neither of these attempts were wholly successful. The breakthrough came, the story goes, when an American, Lewis E. Waterman, an insurance salesman, lost a contract when he accidentally spilled ink over it whilst signing. He realised the potential of a pen that did not need to be dipped into the ink after every few words. He duly took out a patent in 1884 for a pen that relied on a feed with a channel in it being placed under the nib. Air would pass up the channel into the reservoir, while at the same time ink would flow in the opposite direction, but in equivalent amounts through the feed onto the paper. An early Waterman's fountain pen, a number 12 bearing the patent date of 1884, is shown on the right of the photo above. Our pen is a little after the patent was taken out and has two gold bands round the barrel. Other filling devices were invented including Scheaffer's 'Snorkel' pen in which a tube is extended into the ink bottle and drawn up into the reservoir. One of the most famous pens to be produced since then is the Parker '51' shown in the centre of the picture. These were very elegant, aerodynamic in style and had the option of three filling methods. Of the most convenient modern filling methods, the cartridge seems to be favourite, and most fountain pens now have the option of reservoir or cartridge filling. Fountain pen collecting came to the fore in the 1980's, since when numerous books have been published on the subject and manufacturers have profited from this by producing Limited Edition pens. Among the most artistic and complex of these is the Montegrappa 'Aphrodite' pen, on the left of the picture. This incorporates applied silver figures and decoration, mother-of-pearl plaques and real pearls. The museum has many examples of fountain pens from the early Waterman's to the present day. For any information on fountain pens you can contact the Writing Equipment Society, whose e-mail address is given on their page of this site.
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