Parker Ballpoint Refill; History?

[Odysseus]

When the Parker company introduced their ballpoint pens, did they use the same colours they sell today?

I see on the US website that green is not sold anymore.

[Vendome]

When I was a kid, Parker used to make purple ballpoint refills, but they've gone the way of the dodo as well.

[usk15]

Parker introduce their ballpoint in mid 50's, I believe they have change the ink recipes thru the years...

The latest refill from them is Quinkflow, about 2 years old now.

[Tom Aquinas]

When I was a kid, Parker used to make purple ballpoint refills, but they've gone the way of the dodo as well.

At one stage I was an internal auditor and we had to use purple pens, I used a Parker 75 jotter with a purple refill. Slightly off topic but the esteem in which Parker is still held I saw yesterday at coffee shop. One elderly lady handed her Parker jotter...the original style which is still sold...to another elderly lady who upon seeing it said :"Ooh a Parker ." This was uttered with obvious admiration.

[pen lady]

Long, long ago when I was new to pens and didn't know any better, I picked up a 1st generation Parker Jotter in an auction job-lot. The one with the ribbed barrel and no metal at the "nose'' end. I put it into daily use and dropped it in a parking lot one day. It shattered and I went "oh well!" and threw it away .

[rowdy]

I believe when Parker introduced the Jotter (1954) they had blue, blue-black, black, red and green in three point sizes (M, F and Broad)

 

The refill apparently is essentially the same refill today as in 1954 with various improvements - better ball housing, tungsten ball (T-Ball 1957 onward), vent hole on the side of the plastic top from the original vent hole in top of refill (people used to stick paperclips in to see how much ink was left (I did it too) - apparently breaks the seal on the grease plug and leaked). I'm told a modern day refill will fit the 1954 to present era regular sized Jotters (there are mini Jotters around from back in the day and not sure if a regular refill will fit them)

 

I know in the 80's you could still get blue and blue-black but all they make today is blue, black and I think red (I can get them from my local B&M). You can also still find the B tipped refills (usually at local B&M stores). Staples only carries blue and black in fine and medium. Don't think green is available any more. Maybe in gel?

 

Hope this helps. Although as an aside with Parker moving the vent hole to the side I find these leak more often than they did with the vent hole on the top of the refill. Weird. Consequently when I don;t use a Jotter and store it away I remove the refill.

 

Rowdy

[Odysseus]

Modern refills in blue are so dark, they are almost blue-black

[Vendome]

Modern refills in blue are so dark, they are almost blue-black

 

Odysseus

 

I think it's a case of pot luck with the blue refills these days. I've got a mixture of U.K and French refills in my 15, 25 and Classic and they're all different shades, from Royal to Navy blue.

 

Jason