J. P. Maginnis: "Reservoir, Fountain and Stylographic Pens"

[antoniosz]

I am sure several of you will enjoy this thorough review of the early developments in field of writing instruments:

 

From the Journal of the Society of Arts: Three 'Cantor' lectures given by James.P.Maginnis in early 1905 on 'Reservoir Fountain Pens and Stylographic Pens'. (1) Ancient Writing Instruments, (2) Stylographic Pens and Manufacture of Gold Pens (3) Fountain Pens. (4 MB)

 

Thank you Google.

 

PS> Gerry, it might be a good idea to pin this one.

Edited June 7, 2008 by antoniosz

[ignatz49]

Very interesting. Thank you, antoniosz.

[diplomat]

Thank you very much Antonio (& Google) for bringing this to our attention. It is a very enjoyable reading with some outstanding drawings.

 

It is striking that the lever filler, which I associate with old pens, was a future development, not really foreseeable from the paper. Then Mr Sheaffer's got some drops of genius!

 

Thanks,

[Peter from Sherwood Park]

Thank you -- this is a fascinating reference!

[twdpens]

To celebrate 100 years since Maginnis gave his lecture, WES President Dr Geoff Roe presented "Ink Reservoir Writing Instruments 1905 - 2005" (Transactions of the Newcomen Society, volume 77, number 1, 2007). You can buy a copy from the WES Online Shop (sorry, members only).

 

HTH,

 

Martin

[Nibble]

I am enjoying Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence and came across this reference to an early wiring instrument in chapter XXIII

 

Newland Archer, a wealthy New Yorker has married a very beautiful girl from a grand NY family. They are spending part of the summer near Newport, but Archer finds himself attracted to a married woman he knew before he was married. He escapes to Boston and meets Madame Olenska (she is still married, but separated from a European nobleman).

 

Needing to write a note while they are in a park, Archer lends Madame Olenska a writing instrument:

"You can write here." He drew out a note-case and one of the new stylographic pens. "I've even got a envelope—you see how everything is predestined! There—steady the thing on your knee, and I'll get the pen going in a second. They have to be humoured; wait—" He banged the hand that held the pen against the back of the bench. "It's like jerking down the mercury in a thermometer: just a trick. Now try—"

She laughed, and bending over the sheet of paper which he had laid on his note-case, began to write. Archer walked away a few steps, staring with radiant unseeing eyes at the passers-by, who, in their turn, paused to stare at the unwonted sight of a fashionably-dressed lady writing a note on her knee on a bench in the Common.

Hmm. There'll be trouble...

[jrantala]

The link to the original article doesn't seem to be working any more...

Edited March 11, 2010 by jrantala

[Lexaf]

The link to the original article doesn't seem to be working any more...

 

yes, same for me, it doesn't load...

Pity, I'd really love to see the article.

[tmh]

thanks your share, interested.

[rhr]

Antonios probably found the Maginnis Cantor lectures in Google Books, so if you live in the US, you also should be able to find a downloadable PDF of the lectures there. For copyright reasons, some of the Google Books PDFs are available only to residents of the US, so I can't post the link to the copy of the lectures in Google Books.

 

If you send Antonios an email, or a personal message through FPN, I'm sure he can be persuaded to correct the link on his blogspot and in this thread. And if not, he will surely be able to send you a copy of the PDF. I have various copies of the lectures, both digital and hardcopy, but this is Antonios's thread, and I don't want to step on his toes. It is incumbent upon him to keep the link alive, or to fill any requests for copies.

 

George Kovalenko.

 

[antoniosz]

I don't have handy the original links (that work in the US only) and my "storage" space is no more.

Email me. I dont promise a quick response these days, but I will reply ...

[rwilsonedn]

I believe you can get the original Google Books documents here: http://books.google.com/books?id=_7pJAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA228&lpg=PA228&dq=journal+of+society+of+arts+cantor+lectures+james+maginnis&source=bl&ots=Gr_ilLyqXj&sig=R2pmE6TaEAvR5A1IYwXi91_bimA&hl=en&ei=deznTr3vMOOjiQL9nfSOBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=journal%20of%20society%20of%20arts%20cantor%20lectures%20james%20maginnis&f=false

This is long, but it appears to have all three lectures in it if you search.

ron

[rwilsonedn]

I believe you can get the original Google Books documents here: http://books.google.com/books?id=_7pJAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA228&lpg=PA228&dq=journal+of+society+of+arts+cantor+lectures+james+maginnis&source=bl&ots=Gr_ilLyqXj&sig=R2pmE6TaEAvR5A1IYwXi91_bimA&hl=en&ei=deznTr3vMOOjiQL9nfSOBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=journal%20of%20society%20of%20arts%20cantor%20lectures%20james%20maginnis&f=false

This is long, but it appears to have all three lectures in it if you search.

ron

(sorry about the duplication, but I can't edit the original post)

If you download this file, the text is an image, so not searchable. The three lectures on writing implements are reprinted in the issues of October 20, October 27, and November 3, at the very end of the file. But much of the other information is fascinating for other reasons.

ron

[javad_v]

Very interesting, Thank you for it

[YouCollectMe]

Thanks to your research, I was able to find this among the enormous amount of writing instruments info indexed by Google. One can spend a whole life searching and still miss something.

[Greenie]

As of Jan 2018, all the above links seem to be broken. I recently looked up the Google digitized lectures and saved just the pertinent digitized pages to pdf files.

 

There is no way to post pdf on FPN, and it would be cumbersome to upload 55 or so pages one by one as jpg files.

 

I would be happy to email the files to anyone who requests them. They are really interesting, and I enjoyed reading a history of writing instruments that was so comprehensive, yet written before the advent of the lever filling fountain pen.

 

Perhaps Richard Binder, Jim Mamoulides, David Nishimura, or anyone with a web site that is likely to be around for a long time would like the pdf files to post so we can have a fresh link for all to be able to read this great historical information.

[AAAndrew]

Here are some direct links to take you to the page of the lecture notes.

 

Original announcement with detailed subjects covered under each lecture

 

Lecture I: Ancient Writing Implements (includes up through steel pens)

 

Lecture II: Stylographic pens and manufacture of gold pens

 

Lecture III: Fountain Pens , part 2 of that lecture

[SimonGuitton]

Still to be read and downloaded for free from archive.org:

 

Lecture 1: Ancient writing implements

https://archive.org/details/journalofsociety53soci/page/1124/mode/2up

 

Lecture 2: Stylographic pens and manufacture of gold  pens

https://archive.org/details/journalofsociety53soci/page/1144/mode/2up

 

Lecture 3: Fountain pens

https://archive.org/details/journalofsociety53soci/page/1168/mode/2up

Edited November 14, 2022 by SimonGuitton

[dipper]

Thanks @SimonGuitton for reviving this topic, and for sorting out links that work in 2022.

 

I am in the UK, and your links do work here. No barriers found, unlike earlier links that were blocked in some countries.