33, The Over And The Under Feeds

[rhr]

The Over And The Under Feeds.

 

And here's a real reversal of methods from two of the top penmakers of the day, an overfeed from Waterman, patent no. 607,400, and an underfeed from Wirt, patent no. 651,735. It must have been by mutual agreement. ;~)

 

A "top feed" from Waterman is a technological step backward for him, and just goes to show how conservative he really was. He was hedging his bets. Meanwhile, Wirt stuck it out with the overfeed for a long time, but he finally relented. Various versions of an underfeed are illustrated, one with a single ink channel and a separate "T-shaped air-duct", but also an underfeed with one common air-and-ink channel, thus showing that he understood the true workings of a modern underfeed. If the father of the overfeed switched over to the underfeed, you knew that the overfeed was no longer at the cutting edge of the technology, and that the underfeed was now the new state of the art.

 

George Kovalenko.

 

Edited July 5, 2007 by rhr