Fountain Pen History

A fountain pen is a type of pen with a reservoir inside to contain the ink.  The earliest record we have of a pen like this is from the tenth century, when the caliph of Egypt asked for a pen that wouldn't stain his clothing or hands.

He was given a pen that held ink in a reservoir and brought it to the nib through gravity.  However, this kind of pen did not become wide spread, and most writers still used reeds or quills.

Another type of reservoir pen is described in the 1630s by Daniel Schwenter, a German inventor.  His pen was made from two quills, one inside the other to act as an ink reservoir.

A cork was used to seal think inside, and ink was squeezed down to the nib through a small hole.  This pen, as well, remained a curiosity, due to the lack of full understanding of how air pressure worked in pens.  As well, most inks were full of sediment and extremely corrosive.

It wasn't until the nineteenth century that the first true fountain pen was developed.  Using a replaceable ink cartridge, this pen allowed the user to write smoothly, but there was no scratching or undesirable dripping.

A number of additional fountain pen patents appeared in the nineteenth century, and these pens went into production.  They remained unpopular until the gold nib, free flowing ink, and vulcanized rubber were invented, however.

Pens of this type turned up during the decade of the 1850s, and were much more popular than previous types.  Stylographic pens, now used mostly for technical drawing and drafting, were vary popular in the 1870s, and in the 1880s, mass produced fountain pens began to appear.  Waterman and Wirt were the biggest American producers, and Waterman was the leader in the market until the 1920s.

Almost all fountain pens up until this time were filled by unscrewing part of the pen and inserting ink with a dropper - an unfortunately messy and slow method.  These pens tended to leak at the opening of the barrel and inside their caps, making them hard to carry without creating a mess.

Around the turn of the century, self filling pens were invented, and were relatively successful.  However, the lever filler and button filler, introduced in the teens by Sheaffer and Parker respectively, changed pen technology entirely.  The modern piston filler was developed in 1925.

Leakage problems had been solved early on by using a retractable point and a cork or cap that let the ink reservoir be treated like a bottle.  These safety pens, and others that used screw on caps to seal the pen where extremely successful at fixing the problem of leakage.

In later decades, hard rubber was replaced by celluloid, allowing for greater variation in design and color.  Eventually the fountain pen became the most common kind of pen around.

In the 1940s and 1950s, fountain pens remained the dominant pen type.  After all, the early ball point pens were costly, tended to leak, and had an irregular flow of ink.

The fountain pen, by contrast, had been perfected by this time and was quite reliable.  However, as ball points became more well designed, they eventually took over for casual writing.

The fountain pen has now become a status symbol or collectible for many people, rather than a tool used every day.  However, that doesn't mean that fountain pens are only for this.  There are many people using fountain pens daily to create more beautiful, comfortable writing.