Water Pen Purple - Olde Tyme Ink

[AAAndrew]

So, I originally posted this over in Pen History because I was trying to figure out a traveling dip nib holder I found this weekend. It's called a McClure's Water Pen.

 

I wondered why "Water Pen" and then as I was exploring with magnification what seemed like a reservoir on the underside of the nib that came with the pen, I noticed something that looked at first like an ebonite rod right under the S. Roeder Berlin, Helios Tintenfeder, No. 400 nib.

 

 

 

Then the penny dropped. I dipped it in water, swished it around and after a little coaxing, it began to write! Yup, it's a small rod of solid purple ink fixed under the dip nib. Instead of carrying around an ink pot, all you'd need is a little water. Water Pen! And once you're finished, just pull the section out, reverse it and tuck the nib back into the body to carry it around.

 

It took a little bit to get it started, but it is probably 100-year-old solid ink. But once it's going it worked quite well. And since it was inky-related I thought I'd share it over here, too. I'm trying to find out more information on the maker, pen, date, etc... Regardless, it's was a fun little discovery.

 

 

 

[amberleadavis]

Way cool! Thank you for sharing.

[Studio97]

That is just way too cool. A rare find.

[inkstainedruth]

Very cool indeed. And that color purple is pretty awesome (looks a lot like Noodler's North African Violet).

Thanks for posting the pix.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[martinbir]

That is fascinating. Since it is such an oddity, the idea cannot have caught on. Yet it seems so clever and apparently works. Maybe ink in ink wells was so ubiquitous that finding clean water for dipping was less easy than finding ink - perhaps a solution to a problem which did not exist. But a very ingenious solution all the same; one feels someone should have invented the problem anyway.

[Flaxmoore]

That is fascinating. Since it is such an oddity, the idea cannot have caught on. Yet it seems so clever and apparently works. Maybe ink in ink wells was so ubiquitous that finding clean water for dipping was less easy than finding ink - perhaps a solution to a problem which did not exist. But a very ingenious solution all the same; one feels someone should have invented the problem anyway.

Drinkable water shouldn't be a question. This wouldn't require anything that clean. Just water out of a puddle should have been sufficient. I know that's what they used in World War one with the trench pens, as unpopular as those were.

[Sasha Royale]

WONDERFUL ! It's like water color paint. I would never have guessed. Now, we have to devise a way to replenish the pigment supply because you simply HAVE to use this pen often.