Interesting Pen Patent

[bgray]

Take a look.

 

http://www.google.com/patents?id=2ARNAAAAEBAJ&pg=PA1&dq=1898844&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=2#v=onepage&q=&f=false

 

You'll have to zoom in to really see the detail.

 

This pen has a blind cap that when loosened, aligns a hole that goes through the top of the pen. This hole is also aligned with a channel leading to the ink reservoir.

 

The user blows through this hole. Air traveling over the channel creates a Venturi effect, which causes a vacuum in the ink reservoir, filling the pen.

 

Then a ball float rises to block and seal the channel when the pen is filled.

 

First off, it's just interesting. Probably not practical.

 

I can't really imagine that the ball float would really give a good seal, and not allow any ink into the channel.

 

So whenever the pen is filled, I'd be willing to bet that the user actually blows some ink through the hole and out the top of the pen, probably on your desk, hands, the pen, etc...

 

Any historians out there know more about this? Did it really work without blowing ink on your desk?

 

If only you could engineer a slide whistle into it.

 

Edited January 17, 2010 by bgray

[ZeissIkon]

I suspect you're right, Brian -- not very practical. I doubt there was actually much danger of blowing ink on the desk -- I think you'd be able to hear a change in tone as the reservoir filled, even if you didn't get a genuine whistle, and if the ball was the least bit soft, say a little bubble of sac material, it'd seal pretty effectively even with a very small pressure differential -- but there's a much greater problem with, first, trying to blow into the pen while the nib is in the ink (without dipping your necktie, necklace, beard, ponytail, or what have you into the bottle), and second, with having the ink drip out like a lever filler with a leaky sac until you can manage to close the blow hole (and maybe even then, if the O-rings or packing that seals the top when the blind cap is tight aren't perfect).

 

That said, it'd be interesting to see an example if one was ever built. I'd rather have the float valve captive than free, but that's a detail that wouldn't break the patent. One could probably also make the blind cap operate on a quarter turn (like a modern kitchen faucet) rather than with threads, and gain ease of operation as well as reliability -- again, not sufficient to bypass the patent, even if it weren't long expired.

 

Now you've got me tempted to try to make a modern version -- and I haven't turned a single pen yet. :roflmho:

[kushbaby]

There's a Mooney's blow-filler on sale at www.nibs.com, here. I remembered because I was drooling over it. (OK, so I like to have different filling mechanisms).

 

Maybe someone will buy it so I will no longer be tempted... :embarrassed_smile:

[Rabbit]

There's a Mooney's blow-filler on sale at www.nibs.com, here. I remembered because I was drooling over it. (OK, so I like to have different filling mechanisms).

 

Maybe someone will buy it so I will no longer be tempted... :embarrassed_smile:

 

That "blow-filler" is actually different from the one in the patent above... This one for sale you blow into the pen to squeeze the air out of an ink sac which then returns to its normal shape (thus sucking in ink) when you stop blowing. The one in the patent above seems a bit more complicated!

 

--Stephen

Edited January 18, 2010 by Rabbit

[kushbaby]

There's a Mooney's blow-filler on sale at www.nibs.com, here. I remembered because I was drooling over it. (OK, so I like to have different filling mechanisms).

 

Maybe someone will buy it so I will no longer be tempted... :embarrassed_smile:

 

That "blow-filler" is actually different from the one in the patent above... This one for sale you blow into the pen to squeeze the air out of an ink sac which then returns to its normal shape (thus sucking in ink) when you stop blowing. The one in the patent above seems a bit more complicated!

 

--Stephen

 

Interesting!!!! Hmmmm.... :hmm1:

 

I also wonder if there's one of these out there. I bet either David Nishimura or Richard Binder knows...

[tonybelding]

That "blow-filler" is actually different from the one in the patent above... This one for sale you blow into the pen to squeeze the air out of an ink sac which then returns to its normal shape (thus sucking in ink) when you stop blowing.

 

That sounds conceptually similar to a Sheaffer touchdown-filler, except the air pressure is created by pushing the plunger-tube into the pen rather than by blowing into it.

[Johnny Appleseed]

I also doubt this would have been that effective. The period between 1900-1940 was filled with hundreds of patents for new ideas for fountain pens, some that became the filling-methods that we know and love, some that were tiny variations meant to get around other patents ("no, this is not a crescent filler - it uses a hump rather than a crescent"), some that were dead ends and crazy ideas that never went anywhere.

 

It is worth mentioning that there was an even hokier filling method used in some pens in the 1860s - the suck-filler. You would put your mouth over a hole, open a valve, use suction from your mouth to suck ink into the pen, and close the valve when it was full. Since transparent barrels hadn't been invented, you had to guess, or know from experience, when it was full - and I am sure many an inky mouth ensued from that method.

 

 

That "blow-filler" is actually different from the one in the patent above... This one for sale you blow into the pen to squeeze the air out of an ink sac which then returns to its normal shape (thus sucking in ink) when you stop blowing.

 

That sounds conceptually similar to a Sheaffer touchdown-filler, except the air pressure is created by pushing the plunger-tube into the pen rather than by blowing into it.

 

The Sheaffer Touchdown pneumatic filler was based on the Chilton pneumatic fill pens of the 1930s, after the Chilton patents expired. The Chilton's were identical to the touchdowns except that you had to hold your thumb over a vent-hole in the barrel on the downstroke, and then release it to allow the sac to re-inflate, whereas the Sheaffer method avoided the thumb.

 

I believe that the Chilton Pneumatic fillers were direct decendants of the Crocker Blow-fillers, which worked much like the Mooney blow-filler. The pneumatic-filler used the same principle as the blow-filler, without having to stick your face so close to the ink bottle.

 

John

[Rick Krantz]

Late Long Island chiltons used a modified filler that had no hole in the blind cap. It lasted a short while, there was a valve affair in the blind cap that released similar to your thumb. You find these with drilled blind caps, sorta "converted" back to the old style, since these frequently failed. the barrel tube has a depressed relief path for the air to release the ink sac, very similar to Sheaffer's touchdown. Unfortunately, Chilton could not make it work, I doubt the filler was gonna save them. They were in trouble for some time, and while they enjoyed a few good years with the wingflow, their problems were deep rooted. Marketing is what they really needed.

[sumgaikid]

Late Long Island chiltons used a modified filler that had no hole in the blind cap. It lasted a short while, there was a valve affair in the blind cap that released similar to your thumb. You find these with drilled blind caps, sorta "converted" back to the old style, since these frequently failed. the barrel tube has a depressed relief path for the air to release the ink sac, very similar to Sheaffer's touchdown. Unfortunately, Chilton could not make it work, I doubt the filler was gonna save them. They were in trouble for some time, and while they enjoyed a few good years with the wingflow, their problems were deep rooted. Marketing is what they really needed.

 

 

As I've read from other sources,had Chilton successfully marketed their pens outside the

Northeast,they could've been as successful as Parker or Sheaffer.

 

 

John

[ToasterPastry]

Whatever the case, Brian, that is one absolutely incredibly cool (I'm running out of hyperbole here) filling-system. When asked what is my favorite part of the fountain pen, I'd have to say, hands-down, it's the filling-system. I've got two Dunn's, a Morrison plunger, a Snorkel, a Crocker hatchet (or whatever they called it), a Vacumatic, and a Ingersoll twist-filler. The wierder and more elaborate, the better. Of course, trying to wrap one's lips around that tiny blow-hole, and maneuver one's head down to the level of the ink bottle, is, at best, a major challenge. I love ink. But this level of intimacy concerns me. I doubt it was produced for sale.