Anybody know what a "Planck" nib is?

[davefeldman]

I just picked up a Pelikan 120 (the one manufactured by M&K in the 70's) at a garage sale. Anyhow, it came with a 14k gold italic nib that doesn't appear to be made by Pelikan, though it screws in perfectly--it is marked "Planck 14k-585". Anybody have any info about this nib? I can't find anything on Google.

 

Any and all help appreciated!

 

Dave

[Feanor]

It's a quantum nib. It won't write unless you close your eyes.

[rdh]

Max Planck. Famous German physicist. Nobel Prize winner who died shortly after WWII.

 

Dave

[sjs]

This is a nib whose line width is thinner than a Planck length, or approximately 1.61×10⁻³⁵ meters.

 

It is roughly equivalent to a Japanese fine. :roflmho:

 

EDIT: I am, of course, making this up, since the planck length is what Feynman would call "very small". Just thought I'd clarify.

Edited April 11, 2010 by sjs

[davefeldman]

Jokes aside (and they are funny). Anybody know what this is?

 

Dave

[George]

Jokes aside? They were serious.

 

Regards

George

[bigstick]

No idea, but I wouldn't let your cat anywhere near it.....

[GallBladder]

Hate to resurrect so old a thread, but it seemed better than starting a new one.

 

I just purchased a small lot of pens on eBay, mostly for a Vacumatic, but in the lot was a Pelikan 120. Once given a rinse and a few fills of water it wrote like a champ. The cool thing about the Pelikan 120 is that it came with a Planck 14k-585 nib, with a lovely italic nib. It writes beautifully with a little flex too.

 

I wonder if this is the same pen as the OP, or if it is identical?

 

David

 

p.s. If it is a different pen, then perhaps Planck was a nib maker sourced by Pelikan or Pelikan owners.

[miko]

You have a rare and wonderful find. Kenny Planck grew up in Iowa and found a job at Sheaffer during the Depression. He later moved to the Naugatuck Valley in Connecticut (of some pen making interest because it was a center of rubber processing and "vulcanite" production at the turn of the century). He established a telephone booth-sized pen shop at York and Chapel Streets in New Haven and specialized in his own proprietary music nibs mounted on Pelikan 120s. He was world famous and during the 60s and 70s he received orders from great conservatories around the world, including Warsaw, Cracow, Leningrad, Prague and other countries still behind the Iron Curtain. He was generous with his pen repair knowledge.

 

I would stop in the shop on my way home from the medical school 1 block away from his shop to watch him and learn about pens. I was so impressed that someone could do something so well in his tiny little shop that he would eventually be world renowned simply by word of mouth. That lesson always compelled me to strive for similar perfection in the surgery that I perform in my own career.

 

I still have 2 of his nibs. The Pels are long broken, but one is fit in an old Sheaffer and the other in a Pelikan 600. In addition to being great nibs, they evoke fond, old memories. Enjoy the pen.

[kimsdad]

No idea, but I wouldn't let your cat anywhere near it.....

 

Schrodinger's?

[Croma]

Please, could you post a picture of Planck Nib?

Thanks

[1000km]

You have a rare and wonderful find.

 

Excellent knowledge and a great story. Thank you.

Edited February 28, 2013 by 1000km

[sethk]

I just found this thread after reading about cartoonist Art Spiegleman's liking for a certain Planck nib:

 

http://www.nibs.com/ArtSpiegelman.htm

[Mags]

Miko, thaks for solving the mystery. This thread should definetly be pinned by a moderator to preserve the answer.