Hi
What type of pen requires to be filled with a syringe?
On this subject I'm particularly interested in pens manuf'd before 1952

So any pointers to manufacturers would be welcome

Thanks

Well, I guess you can fill eyedroppers and piston fillers with a syringe, but is not required, as their names show, their primary filling systems are others. Comes to my mind right now that some very old Waterman models had a crystal capsule that was the ink container, but they were sort of "clean" eyedroppers. If anybody else has ideas, please chime in.

You can also fill empty cartridges with a syringe and a needle, but this goes even further from the purpose given to them by the Creator.

Pens that don't have any built-in filling device are conventionally called "eyedroppers", even if one fills them with a syringe (or watering can, for that matter) instead.

"Syringe-filler" is the term normally applied to pens that do have a built-in filling device, in which the ink is drawn into the barrel by pulling back on a shaft connected to a piston head -- just like filling a syringe. It's a very old filling system, first used on fountain pens before the middle of the 19th century.

Thanks for that

The background behind this query stems from reading a snippet that Dylan Thomas kept a syringe in his desk drawer for filling his pen ~ that raised my curiosity on what pen the man used.

I have since spoken to a local guy who has done a lot of research on Dylan & he told me that DT was quite inept with anything remotely mechanical & using a syringe was highly unlikely. Apparently DT couldn't give a damn what he wrote with, & basically he would grab anything he could pencil, biro, pen, whatever. He would correct typewritten pieces with a pen / pencil. So as far as my source knew he had no favourite pen which he used.

The style of handwriting DT had seems he favoured to use a broad nib ... On one of his visits to America he was advised that he could make a bit on the side if he handwrote some poems & sold them in his reading lectures .. So Dylan copied them out in his best handwriting & flogged them to his audience .. I guess many thought they owned the original piece.

I love stories like this.

The syringe would have been to fill his eyedropper type pen(s) but by the time of his writing he would have had self filling pens freely available. He wouldn't have needed to be mechanically minded to do this, just old fashioned.

(As he is known to have 'lived like the devil, but write like an angel' the syringe could have been for something less worthy.)


Greg

The same thought occured to me, but the recount said the syringe was filled with ink .. besides he was too fond of the bottle