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Consumer Reports 1950 Buying Guide, Fp Best Buys


lallin

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I've had a bit of fun reading the 1950 Consumer Reports Buying Guide. Among the many products evaluated were inks, fountain pens and ballpoints.

 

The "Best Buy" gold-point fountain pens:

- Sheaffer Craftsman

- Venus President 0666H

- Waterman Stalwart 402

 

"Best Buy" steel-point fountain pens:

- Sphinx 27 (69 cents)

- Sphinx 800 (79 cents)

- Eagle Moderne ($1)

 

Stratford Regency, Wearever Deluxe and Esterbrook Renew Point pens were also deemed "Acceptable" in the steel-point category. The Esterbrook was most expensive at $1.65 without nib - add 85 cents for an acceptable tipped-nib.

 

Inkograph was included as a special category and not ranked among fountain pens or ballpoints.

 

Attached is an image of the introductory remarks.

http://i58.tinypic.com/30m8vb4.jpg

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Very interesting, lallin. Thanks for posting. Did they list all the pens they reviewed? If so, did they list them from best to worst?

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Yes, all tested pens had brief descriptions, with price and ink capacity being the major differentiators in categories (gold or steel nib). The listing was based primarily on value, so no rank ordering, orther than Best Buys. No gold-nib pens were deemed unacceptable. A few steel-nib pens were unacceptable - mostly because they lacked a hard-metal tip, just had folded over steel.

 

If a pen had issues, they were noted; for example the lever broke in testing one of the several Wearever Moderne's. The Parker Vacuumatic (discontinued but still widely available) was rated a better value than the 51 which had a significantly higher price. 51 had very high ink capacity, Vac only had high ink capacity.

 

Overall, there was sufficient information to make an informed decision about which pen to buy, depending on individual need. But, not the kind of reviews today's pen buyer might expect. No "buttery soft nib", "very flexible".

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Very interesting. Would it be possible to post the entire article? That would be very fun to read.

Thanks

...............................................................

We Are Our Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams

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I am unsure of the copyright status of the Buying Guide. I believe what I have uploaded falls within fair use; but, I'm not comfortable with scanning and uploading the entire article.

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lalin,

Yes, better to be safe than sorry. I saw that Amazon was selling the book and just ordered a copy. Thanks for pointing it out to us.

...............................................................

We Are Our Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams

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The Venus pens really were good value and have also held up well over time. The President had an open nib but there was also a really nice hooded nib version.

 

http://www.fototime.com/5970B656DCD0ADD/large.jpg

http://www.fototime.com/8BFA45FEEA907A5/large.jpg

 

My Website

 

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Hi,

 

An interesting read!

 

I was amused that ball point pen ink was criticised for not being as permanent as FP ink, and that BP ink had tendencies for bleed-through and the dreaded 'never truly dry'.

 

Bye,

S1

The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

 

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Very interesting. How far back does the magazine go?

 

“When the historians of education do equal and exact justice to all who have contributed toward educational progress, they will devote several pages to those revolutionists who invented steel pens and blackboards.” V.T. Thayer, 1928

Check out my Steel Pen Blog

"No one is exempt from talking nonsense; the mistake is to do it solemnly."

-Montaigne

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My earliest memory of ballpoint pens (late 1950s, maybe) was that they smelled really strong.

Edited by Manalto

James

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lalin,

Yes, better to be safe than sorry. I saw that Amazon was selling the book and just ordered a copy. Thanks for pointing it out to us.

Yes, Amazon is where I bought mine. I was doing a search on books.google.com. for information on Inkograph and this 1950 Buying Guide was among the hits; unfortunately, google only showed tiny snippet, due to copyright. I then used allbookstores.com to locate copies for sale.

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Very interesting article as that is as old as my dad. Consumer Reports has so much more formatting and images these days.

 

Yeah I see them on Amazon for like 8 bucks.

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Very interesting article as that is as old as my dad. Consumer Reports has so much more formatting and images these days.

 

Yeah I see them on Amazon for like 8 bucks.

 

That is an interesting point. Even consumer magazines have degenerated to collections of illustrations separated by small blocks of text; essentially, they have become free-form comic books. Publications that are text-rich, or (heavens!) altogether without illustrations have become specialty volumes for highly-educated niche audiences. But everyone with a partial high-school education used to enjoy reading text-heavy periodicals. Our median has shifted.

ron

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That is an interesting point. Even consumer magazines have degenerated to collections of illustrations separated by small blocks of text; essentially, they have become free-form comic books. Publications that are text-rich, or (heavens!) altogether without illustrations have become specialty volumes for highly-educated niche audiences. But everyone with a partial high-school education used to enjoy reading text-heavy periodicals. Our median has shifted.

ron

Part of the reason why I just bought over 100 year old booksets for Mark Twain, J.F. Cooper and R.W.Emerson. You can get them for like 4-5 bucks a book - in great condition even in leather - though sometimes you have to condition the leather ones. Even as I was going thru school some of my college textbooks were rife with images. Made me feel like an elementary kid. The meaning the understanding and the facts should be well written within the words. Images only where really required. Good writing shouldn't try to compete with a stupid magazine culture!

..Granted a good picture can speak many words. So I won't get too worked up about it. Just keep reading and writing!

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Consumer Reports has usually focused on value. Their "Best Buy" is not the best item, but the best functional item at the best (lowest) price.

"how do I know what I think until I write it down?"

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Consumer reports does focus on the best value for the price, at least if you look at their at-a-glance reviews. Their in-depth reviews do describe which models scored highest overall in everything but price if you're willing to go with the absolute best instead of the best bang for the buck, so to speak.

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Very interesting article as that is as old as my dad. Consumer Reports has so much more formatting and images these days.

 

Actually, while the monthly issues are quite different, the Buying Guide is not. The Buying Guide is mostly text and tables, with few, and simple, images. The tables are a big improvement, in clear, concise presentation of information, over the 1950 list format. The cover is the most striking difference in image usage.

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