11, The Waterman's Piston and Vacuum Fillers

[rhr]

Did Waterman ever produce a piston, or plunger, or pump filler in the 1930s? And how about a button-vac filler? Well, Parker had its Vacumatic with its diaphragm filler, so Waterman’s had to have its Ink-Vue with a diaphragm, even though theirs was lever-driven rather than plunger-rod activated. So why didn't Waterman have a vac filler as well? And Sheaffer and Pelikan had some very competitive piston fillers. So why didn't Waterman’s have a piston, or plunger, or pump filler? And if Waterman did have pump fillers, or vac fillers under development in the 1930s, but never put the pens into production, then how do you look for them? How can you look for them, when you don't know that they ever existed? And how can you look for 1930s patents when the word "pen" isn't used in the title of one of them? Well, the answer is you can't, unless you stumble upon them, and even then, they're only the patents for the pens, not the actual pens.

 

 

Well, here are a couple for all the Waterman's collectors out there. First of all, there's patent no. 1,967,580 for a pump filler that was assigned to Waterman's in 1934. The piston rod, or plunger had to be pumped several times to fill the pen. It was, as far as I know, never produced. Then there's a Waterman's button-activated vacuum filler in patent no. 2,139,084, also unproduced as far as I know. Has anyone ever seen one of either of these?

 

George Kovalenko.

 

:ph34r:

Edited March 21, 2007 by rhr

[rhr]

Over on Lion & Pen, David Nishimura pointed out the file application no. 15,044, filed April 6, 1935, mentioned in patent no. 2,139,084. File number applications are difficult to find, so I didn't follow up on it till this morning. This is the patent number for that one, 2,087,672, the Waterman's "Ink-Vue" lever-actuated bulb-vacuum filler.

 

George Kovalenko.

 

:ph34r:

Edited July 24, 2006 by rhr

[rhr]

And here's an interesting piece of Canadian "Ink-Vue" ephemera, a pen that was sent back from the Waterman's repair department in Montreal as unfixable due to lack of repair parts.

 

George Kovalenko.

 

:ph34r:

 

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/rhrpen/inkvue.jpg

[rhr]

I'm in a hurry, so I won't hyperlink all these patents, but you might also want to look at patent no. 2,068,419 for an interesting collapsed diaphragm Ink-Vue, and 2,162,223 for the "Lady Patricia" Ink-Vue plastic, and 2,217,755, the goofy, one-piece, Ink-Vue barrel that's HELL to fix!

 

George Kovalenko.

 

:ph34r:

[Ben Looijesteijn]

hi George,

I know for sure that Watermans produced a piston filler in the '40s. I believe it was specially made for the Swiss market. I have two of those in my collection. Very nice pens!