Manifold Nibs In 1919

[Le Vieux]

Has anyone information on what (and if) manifold nibs were present on the fountain pen market of 1919? In particular those installed on one of these 4 brands: Onoto, Kaweco, Swan and Waterman.

 

Many thanks!

[Bo Bo Olson]

Single sided carbon paper came in in 1867-8, before that the double sided, and the back side of the original proved the work. Each train otder was an original to the Captain of the Train, the Conductor and five copies, the last and least readable was kept by the Station Manager.

 

A business script similar to the late 1890's Palmer script was in use in Business well before, so, was taught and used for a clear clean writing. One had home learning books on Business script.....it was the aim of many a poor boy, to stand at a slanted desk 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, instead of breaking their backs.............at least in the US. Then parents had to pay if a boy went to HS, where up to 1870's was adaquate to be a clerk. By 'modern times' 1880's a 6-12 week, depending on how fast you learned, Business Collage was needed. They were like mushrooms, everywhere.

 

Fancy Copperplate or US Spenserian was for the signature or personal letters of the middle and upper classes. And only the boss had a desk....so he could be lazy.

 

II don't know Onoto.

I would expect Swan to have a spectrum of nibs from manifold to flexi. I know in the '30's they had from regular flex to flexi, but believe I've read they had a stiff nib also.

Waterman, not all Waterman nibs were flexi, even when they made them.

Kaweco used US made Morton nibs from 1900-1914 when they bought machinery and had American workers showing the Germans how to make Morton nibs..........which were rather flexible.

In they were once the biggest and best German brand, am sure they too, would have a nib for carbon paper.

 

.....but any large pen company would have had a manifold nib....if so ordered or would supply a big shop with one, in One Didn't Want the customer to buy another brand.

 

I'm not sure when Parker went over to pure nail....mid-late '30's?

[AAAndrew]

"Manifold" dip pens, as Bo Bo points out, go back to the mid-19th-century. Every manufacturer made one, and the typical name of the nib was "Manifold." Manifold paper is a very thin paper, similar to onion skin paper, used with carbon paper to make copies. The inventor, Cyrus Dakin, died in 1888 and Manifold was the name of the first and most popular of the copying papers out there. Even though the paper was thin, you still needed a stiff nib to make an impression on the bottom sheet with the carbon paper, and thus, the Manifold nib was born.

 

There are ads for no-name fountain pens (at 98-cents each!) with manifold nibs in 1919. I can only imagine that pretty much every major manufacturer of fountain pens in 1919 would have offered a manifold nib.

 

I wish this could be used to narrow down your search, but, unfortunately, it doesn't seem like it.

 

Here's an ad from Oklahoma, Dec. 1919 for Conklin pens with at least three manifolds mentioned.

 

Edited July 25, 2019 by AAAndrew

[PaulS]

not that it was one of the brands mentioned above, but C.S. appear to have made about five different models which are described in the index list of Steve Hull's book as 'Manifold' - regret don't have exact dates though no doubt prior to WW II, and some probably quite a bit earlier.

[Honeybadgers]

Single sided carbon paper came in in 1867-8, before that the double sided, and the back side of the original proved the work. Each train otder was an original to the Captain of the Train, the Conductor and five copies, the last and least readable was kept by the Station Manager.

 

A business script similar to the late 1890's Palmer script was in use in Business well before, so, was taught and used for a clear clean writing. One had home learning books on Business script.....it was the aim of many a poor boy, to stand at a slanted desk 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, instead of breaking their backs.............at least in the US. Then parents had to pay if a boy went to HS, where up to 1870's was adaquate to be a clerk. By 'modern times' 1880's a 6-12 week, depending on how fast you learned, Business Collage was needed. They were like mushrooms, everywhere.

 

Fancy Copperplate or US Spenserian was for the signature or personal letters of the middle and upper classes. And only the boss had a desk....so he could be lazy.

 

II don't know Onoto.

I would expect Swan to have a spectrum of nibs from manifold to flexi. I know in the '30's they had from regular flex to flexi, but believe I've read they had a stiff nib also.

Waterman, not all Waterman nibs were flexi, even when they made them.

Kaweco used US made Morton nibs from 1900-1914 when they bought machinery and had American workers showing the Germans how to make Morton nibs..........which were rather flexible.

In they were once the biggest and best German brand, am sure they too, would have a nib for carbon paper.

 

.....but any large pen company would have had a manifold nib....if so ordered or would supply a big shop with one, in One Didn't Want the customer to buy another brand.

 

I'm not sure when Parker went over to pure nail....mid-late '30's?

 

Sometimes your knowledge just flat out amazes me.

 

I do know that carbon paper of the day was very different to today's, which is much more robust, but also much thicker (and subsequently, kinda sucks butts to write on)

Edited July 26, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[Le Vieux]

Thank you to all, very helpful! I will try to narrow it down, based on your excellent comments. Again, many thanks!

[AAAndrew]

Up until very recently, because Manifold is the name associated with the earliest carbon paper (at least the earliest which was widely-sold), I assumed that Manifold Paper was carbon paper. Well, I was wrong. Manifold paper was a thin, onion-skin-like paper used on top of the carbon paper. You needed something thin on top in order to be able to exert enough pressure on the carbon paper. If you try and use old carbon paper with nice, robust stationery, it won't go through. The Manifold company made both, the "Manifold Paper" as well as the carbon paper. It became so common that it became a general term for this thin-paper-over-carbon-paper set up.

 

 

 

 

And, because I can leave no obscure thing alone, here's the obit for the inventor of manifold and carbon paper from 1888.

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Thanks HoneyBadger....but I am writing a western saga taking place in 1881-2, so had to put a train station in it....with basic personnel. Wages, the high tec geeks, Telegraphers and so on.

 

Hollywood is mostly so wrong about everything....................dance hall girls wore regular women street cloths, with a slight touch of make up......made $12.50 a week drinking Dove Tea and being stepped on dancing. (A female store clerk or seamstress (had to take work home with her too. & made $0.50 a day and starved into a night job if not living at home.).........what they did after work was their business. Outside of Deadwood.

Anywhere near a RR you could get an ice shaken cocktail. In better bars the 'free lunch' was a French Buffet.

 

That era was so close to modern...there were still office supplies used some 35 years ago that were invented @ 1880.

There is a Office Museum com that's well worth looking at.

 

Well, get to go back and add the manifold paper to the book. AAA has been a font of info for me.

[AAAndrew]

In 1916 "Manifold" paper was still a generic term for thin paper which could be used for carbon copies as well as any other uses for which you needed thin but strong paper.

 

[Le Vieux]

In 1916 "Manifold" paper was still a generic term for thin paper which could be used for carbon copies as well as any other uses for which you needed thin but strong paper.

 

 

My dear sir! I have perused your wonderful website and I have found it filled up to the brim with very good (and new to me!) information, on beginnings of steel pens and the like. I congratulate you therefore, for the kind opportunity to let pen lovers know such well-done research into the aforementioned.

 

Again thank you, and all the best to you, sir!

[AAAndrew]

You are too kind. I’m glad you enjoyed my ramblings.