Anyone Recognise This Design?

[chunya]

Hi

 

Does anyone recognisse this design of pen? I have this box of old pens that have been sitting in a drawer for a couple of years and am going through them to try and revive any that are revivable, but this one has me puzzled. It really is in a state, but I don't understand the design, and am wondering whether something is missing. As you can see the barrel unscrews so that it is 2/3 and 1/3, but why? I've slotted a sac over the feed, which looks as if it should take a sac, but other than physically pumping the sac with your fingers, there is no other way of drawing up the ink.

 

Although it does write nicely with a generic warranted 14k nib, it certainly isn't a top notch pen, and probably not worth the effort working on to get it back into some sort of shape, but I'm going to clean it up.

 

It's quite a big pen, 14 cm + capped, and I'm pretty sure that it's from an English maker, and that 'deco' clip I have seen before but can't pinpoint where.

 

Any thoughts?

 

 

 

Edited October 23, 2015 by chunya

[Cob]

That pen was manufactured by Lang's of Liverpool and bears some similarities to the bulb fillers they made.

 

I believe it should have a breather tube fitted. One indeed squeezes the bulb to fill the pen. It would be fun to fit a silicone sac so that one could see the extent of the filling.

 

Northlodge is the man who will know all about this one.

 

Rgds

 

Cob

[chunya]

Hi Cob,

 

Thanks for that, so the same people that made the Summits, then?

Being a bulb filler crossed my mind, but I couldn't understand the sgnificance if the split barrel.

 

ps.

 

 

With the Lang lead I found the following here on FPN, and it seems that mine is the simpler version ...

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/276948-anyone-familair-with-a-national-security-auto-tank/

 

...then that then took me to Paul Martins page.

 

Thanks again!

Edited October 23, 2015 by chunya

[TheRealScubaSteve]

Hi Cob,

 

Thanks for that, so the same people that made the Summits, then?

Being a bulb filler crossed my mind, but I couldn't understand the sgnificance if the split barrel.

 

With only part of the sac exposed, less potential to squirt ink?

[peterg]

You have an Autovac.

 

The operating concept is the same as the Vacumatic (but probably cheaper to make and avoids Parker patents). The bulb expels air down the breather tube and sucks ink in through the feed in exactly the same way as the Vacumatic. This method should ensure more complete filling as ink is not being expelled on compression.

[chunya]

Thanks both, so I need to find a suitable breather tube.

[northlodge]

The pen you link to #3 is a little different I think, it looks to have a small blind cap - which occasionally crop up on the auto-vac pens but are quite rare.

 

The breather tube should not prove too difficult to source, finding a replacement feed can be far harder (with the routed channel that spirals around the outside).

[Joe in Seattle]

Clip similar to Waterman 100 year pen.

[Daddy-O]

It is similar to my National Security Auto Tank. The clip appears identical as does the pattern on the cap. The middle section of my pen is transparent green and it is a button filler although the pressue bar (missing) is so short that I wonder how effective it would be. It may be better to treat it as a bulb filler as well.

 

[northlodge]

Daddy-O your pen is actually very different from the OP example. That one has a full length ink sac and the barrel is in two parts. Yours has a short ink sac (bulb) and the barrel is in three parts.

 

Yours is much less common, and appears to be from a short-lived stage in the Lang development process. that saw them trying to improve on the auto-vac design (like that of the OP).

 

I would say yours is well worth investing the effort into restoring it to top-notch condition

[Daddy-O]

Thanks for the advice Northlodge. I intend to restore the Autotank. It originally had a very short metal pressure bar of which only the U-shaped end is remaining. I made a temporary substitute using plastic from a credit card which actually works quite well. Another one to add to the list....