Origins Of The 10,000 Word Pen

[jcreilley]

Hello,

 

I recently got my hands on my first 10,000 Word Pen, and it's gotten me wondering: who EXCACTLY designed the 10000? I see certain Parker 45 elements like the tapered body, but the cap especially seems much more 'Eversharp-y' than Parker. It's sort of like a fusion of the Fifth Avenue and Symphony pens. It makes me wonder if Eversharp had been designing this pen before the buyout, and then Parker finished it off later. There's scarce information out there on the 10000, but it's definitely a pen that deserves more attention than it gets!

 

If anyone has thoughts or insight, it would be greatly appreciated!

[Ted F]

There is an article on that pen at http://parkerpens.net/parker-eversharp.html#10000.

[jcreilley]

That article certainly is helpful, but I wonder if the 10000 traces its design back to the pre-buyout Eversharp. It being created by the Eversharp branch entirely does hint in that direction though, certainly. The Slim Ventura was getting long in the tooth by that time, so it's feasible that the 10000 was to be the next successor in the line before Eversharp's failing.

Edited April 12, 2017 by jcreilley

[parkergeo]

If you look at the Parker 19 page on that same site, it states "One of the last fountain pens that Eversharp had designed was the somewhat strange Eversharp "10 000" (said to refer to the number of words one cartridge could handle)."

 

Parker wanted access to the Eversharp cartridge technology, so they bought the company, inherited the 10,000 Word pen, and then used it as the basis of development for future designs. The undercut hooded design of the 10k was reversed to a more conventional overbite hood and a plastic streamlined cap was added to create the Challenger, while another line led to the Big E (very similar to the 19 on the Parker side), later versions of which eventually inherited a removable nib assembly and joined the Parker 45 family.

 

On another note, has anyone ever seen a CA-type Eversharp ballpoint that took the plastic cartridges, rather than the thick or thin metal capillary filler? The website linked to above also states: "Scanning the competitors, Parker realised that the cartridge filler that worked best was patented and made by the Wahl-Eversharp company for their CA ball pens."

[jcreilley]

If you look at the Parker 19 page on that same site, it states "One of the last fountain pens that Eversharp had designed was the somewhat strange Eversharp "10 000" (said to refer to the number of words one cartridge could handle)."

 

Parker wanted access to the Eversharp cartridge technology, so they bought the company, inherited the 10,000 Word pen, and then used it as the basis of development for future designs. The undercut hooded design of the 10k was reversed to a more conventional overbite hood and a plastic streamlined cap was added to create the Challenger, while another line led to the Big E (very similar to the 19 on the Parker side), later versions of which eventually inherited a removable nib assembly and joined the Parker 45 family.

 

On another note, has anyone ever seen a CA-type Eversharp ballpoint that took the plastic cartridges, rather than the thick or thin metal capillary filler? The website linked to above also states: "Scanning the competitors, Parker realised that the cartridge filler that worked best was patented and made by the Wahl-Eversharp company for their CA ball pens."

Awesome! Thanks for the find, I knew there was something special about that pen!

 

As for the CA, there's article on PenHero that mentions two variants of the CA, one with a metal cartridge, the original, and another, updated version with a plastic catridge.

Edited April 15, 2017 by jcreilley

[parkergeo]

There is a family of related Parker-Eversharp items with the same unique (weird?) cap design. The picture below shows the FP, a black BP and two pencils. The ballpoint takes a thin refill (as opposed to some of the later Eversharps that moved to the Jotter-style refill) and has a triangular gripping section, as do both pencils.

 

[jcreilley]

There is a family of related Parker-Eversharp items with the same unique (weird?) cap design. The picture below shows the FP, a black BP and two pencils. The ballpoint takes a thin refill (as opposed to some of the later Eversharps that moved to the Jotter-style refill) and has a triangular gripping section, as do both pencils.

 

There is an article on Parker's buyout in an old issue of the Pennant, 1995 Fall-Winter edition I believe, that has some more info on it.

 

A company called Design Dynamic did a whole line of new pens for Parker-Eversharp. They all had the triangular sections of your pens posted above. The first pen out was a ballpoint called the 'Fountain-Ball' in 1958, with the 10,000 following in 1960.

 

This info makes it sound a little more like Design Dynamic is more responsible for the overall shape of the 10,000, and perhaps not Eversharp. Unless DD also took a page from Eversharp's design docs.

[jcreilley]

By the way, that red pencil looks pretty great, love the different approach to having an eraser!