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Sager Pens - S.m. Sager's Daughter


grandmasager

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Hey there everybody... I'm on a road trip with my 86-year-old grandmother and I have found out that her father was S.M. Sager... inventor as I'm told of such items as the Sager Graphomatic pen. Grandma Estelle says that her father was tinkering with writing istruments in the early 1920's because... cue grandma:

 

"Fountain pens filled with a lever that pressed down on a rubber sac, called the 'greishaber' pen, and over time the sacs that held the ink would rot and the pens would leak on the person's clothing. This was undesireable obviously, so my dad was trying to figure out a better way to fill a fountain pen. The Greishaber was an early fountain pen."

 

"The barrel of the (Graphomatic) pen was made of Lucite, after dupont invented lucite. And that eliminated the rubber sac that rotted all the time. The Graphomatic and Vacuumatic pens never leaked."

 

Sounds like there is some interesting innovation around using iridium instead of gold for some aspect of the pens also.

 

Anyhow... i did some googling for 'Sager Graphomatic' and found this forum. Thought maybe you all might find it interesting. :)

 

Cheers!

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Your great grandfather (Solomon Sager) called this the sackless pen. Many were produced and some have survived. They are sought after by collectors. I wish I had one. I do have a wonderful 14K Sager Sackless Transpero nib on a modern Cali pen. From what I remember when researching that nib, Sager was in Chicago in the 30s and there was a relationship between Sager and the Greishaber Pen Company (which you mention). Perhaps others will chime in with much more concrete research.

 

Thank you very much for sharing this story. The story of the sac and lever filler problems and his solution is a neat glimpse into your family history, and to the Sager Pen.

 

Phil

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Thank you for stopping by.

 

You grandfather had many patents:

See http://www.google.com/patents?q=Solomon+Sager+pen&lr=&sa=N&start=10

 

There was a Graphomatic Corporation in Chicago which was selling his pens. Others with more info will chime if for sure. Maybe some people here could post examples of his pens.

I would be cool to own one of these pens :)

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I looked up Sager pens after I read the original post, and Richard Binder has an entry in his glossary with photos of a sample pen and filling system (scroll down to Sager):

 

http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/glossary/S.htm

 

Besides being ingeniously designed, it looks like a pretty pen.

I keep coming back to my Esterbrooks.

 

"Things will be great when you're downtown."---Petula Clark

"I'll never fall in love again."---Dionne Warwick

"Why, oh tell me, why do people break up, oh then turn around and make up?

I just came to see, you'd never do that to me, would you baby?"---Tina Turner

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hey Phil, just looking at your restoration blog. Specifically, the 'Parker Vacuumatic Pen' ... grandma is saying:

 

'this is a patent that my father sold to the Parker Pen Company to help me go to college.'

 

Also, grandma again:

 

'I have some marble desk sets, one is a big green marble and one is black, but there's a marble ball into which a pen fits in. The mechanism is the same as the Vacuumatic and Graphomatic pens, but it doesn't have a cover on it; it has a long extension to make it look like a very graceful writing instrument."

 

"The green marble is so heavy you can hardly lift the fool thing. It really is a beautiful piece of work. It was one of the things that I uncovered when I uncovered a pair of boxes that hadn't been opened for 70 years.'

 

Anyhow... I will endeavor to post pics of these items when we get back from our road trip.

 

Cheers!

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I looked up Sager pens after I read the original post, and Richard Binder has an entry in his glossary with photos of a sample pen and filling system (scroll down to Sager):

 

http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/glossary/S.htm

 

Besides being ingeniously designed, it looks like a pretty pen.

 

Thanks, Enai, for the link to Richard's site. It is a pretty pen and most ingenious filling system. I have a Travelers and a Waltham with the same or similar filling system. Neither of these pens is even remotely as attractive as the Sager pen pictured on Richard's site. I should very much like to find a Sager pen.

 

Grandmasager, Thank you for your informative post. I look forward to the pictures.

-gross

 

Let us endeavor to live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry. -Mark Twain

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I'm just taking a quick late lunch break, so time for just one side note:

 

Not a lot of people are aware of it, but Dupont used the trade name "Lucite" for two different plastics. The second, for acrylic, is the better known; it is the earlier application, however, which is relevant to Sager pen production. Offhand, I don't think the original "Lucite" was celluloid -- rather, some other cellulosic plastic, whether cellulose acetate or something else (sorry, this is a rush post!).

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hey Phil, just looking at your restoration blog. Specifically, the 'Parker Vacuumatic Pen' ... grandma is saying:

 

'this is a patent that my father sold to the Parker Pen Company to help me go to college.'

I'm a little doubtful about this one. The patent for the Vacumatic filling system (U.S. Patent Nº 1,904,358) was issued on April 18, 1933, to Professor Arthur O. Dahlberg, an instructor in machine design at the University of Wisconsin. I have myself contacted the University and verified this information.

sig.jpg.2d63a57b2eed52a0310c0428310c3731.jpg

 

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hey Phil, just looking at your restoration blog. Specifically, the 'Parker Vacuumatic Pen' ... grandma is saying:

 

'this is a patent that my father sold to the Parker Pen Company to help me go to college.'

I'm a little doubtful about this one. The patent for the Vacumatic filling system (U.S. Patent Nº 1,904,358) was issued on April 18, 1933, to Professor Arthur O. Dahlberg, an instructor in machine design at the University of Wisconsin. I have myself contacted the University and verified this information.

 

Probably refers to this filler , definitly a similiar type of design but in 1937.

 

Regards

Hugh

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Probably refers to this filler , definitly a similiar type of design but in 1937.

That may be the reference, but it was Dahlberg's design that was the foundation for the Vacumatic -- Parker bought the rights to it and spent several years perfecting it before they test-marketed it in the Golden Arrow (1932, at which time Dahlberg officially applied for the patent, probably for protection from reverse engineering). If they also bought the Sager patent, they must have done so to protect themselves from competition; they never produced and marketed pens using it.

sig.jpg.2d63a57b2eed52a0310c0428310c3731.jpg

 

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Probably refers to this filler , definitly a similiar type of design but in 1937.

That may be the reference, but it was Dahlberg's design that was the foundation for the Vacumatic -- Parker bought the rights to it and spent several years perfecting it before they test-marketed it in the Golden Arrow (1932, at which time Dahlberg officially applied for the patent, probably for protection from reverse engineering). If they also bought the Sager patent, they must have done so to protect themselves from competition; they never produced and marketed pens using it.

 

If we assume "Grandma's" memory of the events are correct then the possability you raised is a definite probabilty. On paper the Sager design looks a reasonable one with definite "vac" similarities, clearly designed with the idea of offering a similiar product to the vac. I'm inclined to put Grandma's memory and product protection together......bingo.....history created !!!....now to prove it....

 

Regards

Hugh

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wow! Glad to have come across this thread. I have read through the thread with great interest, and over my years of collecting have been able to add a few nice Grieshabers and Sager pens to my collection.

 

Grand Masager, if you are still following the thread if you could ask your grandmother when Sager and Grieshaber joined together. There is not much known, we do know that Sager made some pens for Grieshaber (being the "Transparo" pens), and we often find Grieshabers or Sagers with nibs from the other. As to the desk set your Grandmother mentioned with the large marble ball I am looking to my right as we speak and I have an ad framed on the wall with the Grieshaber "Transparo" pens and one of the desk sets is the exact one you describe! I've been looking for one for a while but with no success, they are NOT common.

 

Look forward to your reply,

Pearce.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Anyhow... i did some googling for 'Sager Graphomatic' and found this forum. Thought maybe you all might find it interesting. :)

 

Here's a link to a 1942 ad for the Graph-O-Matic: http://books.google.com/books?id=1dYDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA189&dq=grieshaber+pen&as_brr=1#v=onepage&q=grieshaber%20pen&f=false

 

It would seem that the pen was at least distributed by Grieshaber.

 

 

Dave

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Anyhow... i did some googling for 'Sager Graphomatic' and found this forum. Thought maybe you all might find it interesting. :)

 

Here's a link to a 1942 ad for the Graph-O-Matic: http://books.google.com/books?id=1dYDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA189&dq=grieshaber+pen&as_brr=1#v=onepage&q=grieshaber%20pen&f=false

 

It would seem that the pen was at least distributed by Grieshaber.

 

 

Dave

 

Here's an ad with a direct link to Sager: http://books.google.com/books?id=rN8DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA207&dq=%22ink+battery%22&as_brr=1#v=onepage&q=%22ink%20battery%22&f=false

 

Is this the same pen as the Graph-O-Matic?

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Here's the Sager Inkmaster mentioned by Dave in the previous post.

The "Ink Stick" is still usable. A faint Blue ink but it works.

 

Steve

 

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_XpjXF6kqtEI/SudYpOlFrBI/AAAAAAAACMI/h7Rmut0PivM/s720/Sager_Inkmaker%20006.JPG

 

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_XpjXF6kqtEI/SudYsNdkOhI/AAAAAAAACMM/AxbjBYj3h8E/Sager_Inkmaker%20007.JPG

AWN%252520ADD.jpg
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This has been a wonderful thread full of fascinating information. I wish I had seen it 2 weeks ago. I JUST sold a boxed clear demonstrator with instruction sheet exactly like this to my pen guy DennisL.

".....Then he showed those men of will what will really was."

 

-Verbal Kint-

The Usual Suspects

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  • 10 months later...

Thank you for stopping by.

 

You grandfather had many patents:

See http://www.google.com/patents?q=Solomon+Sager+pen&lr=&sa=N&start=10

 

There was a Graphomatic Corporation in Chicago which was selling his pens. Others with more info will chime if for sure. Maybe some people here could post examples of his pens.

I would be cool to own one of these pens :)

 

 

I have a Graphomatic FP. It belonged to either my mother or grandmother. I see the clear lucite ink reservoir inside (with dried up ink in there). It's just been sitting more or less forgotten in a desk drawer for many years.

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  • 5 months later...

I found this thread because I have an early example of this pen and I would like to resurrect and use it. I have not been able to find any information about "Ink batteries", but see from the instruction sheet above that I can use bottled ink. The nib is very nice, with enough flex for character. It is not a pen that I can write very quickly with, but rather I have to write carefully forming each letter. This may well be because the feed is loose. The whole nib and feed have a tendency to sink into the pen body. I would like to try to find a new feed that will sit tighter in the section, so that I can use this as a writing pen, rather than a curiosity.

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