Why So Few True Piston Fillers Among American Pens?

[BamaPen]

If this topic has already been addressed completely, please just tell me how to find the thread...

 

Among US made vintage fountain pens, one finds a amazing collection of filler systems, but it is quite rare to find a true piston filler. On the other hand (or other side of the pond), piston fillers were fairly common in European pens, especially in German ones.

 

Can someone explain why American pen makers seem to have avoided this excellent filling system?

[katerchen]

Patents, Not Invented Here Syndrome ... I'm only guessing here.

 

Didn't Pelikan hold exclusive rights for piston fillers for a while given that a

 

*ahem*

Hungarian

<---

*ahem*

 

inventor created the system for Gunther-Wagner?

 

(The only American made piston filler I know of is a Bexley model and it's very recent of course)

[BaronWulfraed]

(The only American made piston filler I know of is a Bexley model and it's very recent of course)

 

The Scheherazade by chance? (I have one from Dec 2005)

[AltecGreen]

The Conklin Nozac of the 1930's was a piston filler and has some cache among collectors. Piston fillers were also never popular in Japan. There were a few in the 1930's but never took hold. As for Europe, piston fillers were primarily a German thing. Italy started using piston filler in the late 40's. It's not that common a filling system in other European countries. As for superior that's debatable. It has gained more of a cache among modern users.

[katerchen]

 

The Scheherazade by chance? (I have one from Dec 2005)

 

It's a Poseidon variant I think.

[praxim]

Deleted (misread an earlier post which already said what I was about to add).

Edited January 31, 2019 by praxim

[JonSzanto]

(The only American made piston filler I know of is a Bexley model and it's very recent of course)

 

 

The Scheherazade by chance? (I have one from Dec 2005)

 

 

It's a Poseidon variant I think.

 

I don't know about the other models, but the first version of the Prometheus was a piston filler.

[surprise123]

Hmm. I never noticed that American pens churned out so few piston fillers. I've mostly seen cartridge/converter pens. Even Japanese pens seldom go the piston route, most have a c/c or a shutoff eyedropper style filling system. The one exception to that is the Pilot Custom 92. Most piston fillers are European and Asian (think TWSBI).

 

American fillers, especially vintage pens, have been pretty much all over the place. From good old lever fillers to the Parker Vacumatic, Sheaffer Snorkel, Sheaffer Vac "Wire" fill, bulb fillers, coin fillers, crescent fillers, eyedroppers, aerometrics, even capillary fillers (Parker 61).

 

The one American exception, as people have already mentioned, is the Conklin Nozac with its piston mechanism and cork seals. I can't think of any other pen other than that which was made in America. Perhaps I'm blanking out, but I can't remember anything else.

[Parker51]

Rubber.

Americans liked rubber, not cork.

They generally favored simplicity and ease of production and ease of repair.

This last trait has served Amerca well for the last 100 years.

Many important products America has made have not been the best, but instead have been good enough, innovative, repairable and produced in greater quantities and at a lower cost than the products from their foreign competitors.

Historically Americans and America was ridiculed for this; for being the makers of razor blades as example, rather than the maker of excellent quality straight razors.

Germans have produced products with outstanding qualities, but which were not designed to be repaired, except at the factory. And those products sometimes where absolute failures, except in areas that matched the design specifications.