Hey guys,

I decided to ask this question after finding something at a flea-market last week. While poking around, I found a hooded Parker fountain pen. I think it was a '51', but I wasn't sure. I didn't get the chance to buy it because I was running low on cash. I would have bought it today, but I was feeling sick and couldn't get out of the house.

With any luck, I'll be able to buy it NEXT week - if it hasn't been sold by then.

Anyway, to the question - I pulled the pen apart and examined it. It was what I THINK was an aerometric-filler, or something along those lines.

I removed the cap and examined the nib. Looked in good-order. I unscrewed the barrel and checked the ink-sac. It looked fine. But I noticed that unlike the normal '51' aero-filler, which has a metal tube around the ink-sac and an oval-ish window about halfway down, this one had a metal cylinder around the bottom of the sac and a metal hoop encircling the top of the sac (which was of clear plastic).

What type of filler is this? And how many filler-types ARE there for the '51'? I wanted to know this for future reference.

(If I do manage to buy that pen next week, it shall be used as a practice-restoration piece).

---

The filler I saw looked like this one:



Picture borrowed from Michael McNeil's "For Sale" thread for the purpose of providing an example.

Four basically-

1) Vacumatic - with either an aluminum tube "speedline" filler or the plastic push rod type.
2) Button - the "Red Band" squeeze/button filler
3a) Aerometric - with the side squeeze filler
3b) Aerometric - with the "hoop" filler --- which you saw
4) Cartridge - like it says

there were variations on the aerometric filler size and design too.

Glenn-SC to the rescue again!! Thanks, man.

Wish me luck for this time next week when I go back to the flea-market armed with $50 and a clear idea of what I want to buy. With luck, nobody will have bought that '51' and I can come home next Sunday with a new pen! *Prays*

The hoop filler is mainly found on the 51 Special...
But is was also used on the standard 51 from about 1950 and was then changed to the cage filler without the black top plug in the late 1950s
Also most Parker 51 Demis (except early ones) will have a hoop filler...

yeah, to most collectors Aerometric is one type of filler. The shape of the wrapper being a nuance rather than a category.

regards

david

OR ......
It could be a Parker 21.

It might've been. I didn't check the filler-sleeve for any markings, so I can't remember. But it was a hooded Parker with a hoop-filler, of that I'm certain.

Does anyone know how the filling mechanism of the button filler works?

From what I read on Ernesto Soler's site Parker51.com the button filler works just like any other button filler but had a different sac. However, it was extremely hard to repair, usually demanding the complete replacement of the barrel assembly and was soon out of production..

The following is from Richard Binder's site
"Red Band “51” A short-lived (1947-1948) variant of the Parker “51”, fitted with a modified spoon filler arranged so that pressing a button at the end of the barrel levers the pressure bar into the sac. The original version had a red plastic threaded collar securing the filler mechanism; the color of this part identifies a given pen as the “Red Band” version. (The standard Vacumatic “51”, with its filler’s black anodized collar, became the Black Band model in the instruction sheet enclosed with new pens.) When the plastic collar proved too weak in use, Parker replaced it with a red anodized aluminum collar. The “business end” of the Red Band pens was fused together so that no field repair was possible; it may have been this engineering decision that forced the quick withdrawal of the model. See also “51”."