37, The Combo,

July 11, 2010

Although most of the fountain pen and pencil combos that we are familiar with come from the classic combo period of the 1920s and 30s, the first combo patents actually go back to at least the 1810s. But here's the trademark for one of the first fountain pen and pencil combos in the twentieth century. Frederick R. Wells's trademark no. 71,461 is for a "Combined Fountain-Pen And Pencil" from Nov 24, 1908, the word "Founcil" used since November 1907. It's not quite as good as the name "Penselpen", used by Julius Schnell since 1927 for the combos with his familiar airplane clip design no. 73,416. There is no Schnell patent for the combo concept, and no real US patent for the combo concept from the classic period. There are other patents for parts and portions of combos, but no combo patent as such, not the way we think of them, or visualize them. The closest that I could find was the British patent for the Dubel Servis combo. The US patent was applied for on Oct 6, 1923, but was never issued, probably because there was no new art. Also see the FPN topic about the first combos.

George Kovalenko.

If you want to perform the trademark searches, simply cut and paste, or type the trademark numbers into the search window in the Trademark Document Retrieval Portlet.

Edited July 11, 2010 by rhr

July 12, 2010

The first patents for a combo may go back to only the 1810s, but as the images in this thread by David Nishimura on Pentrace show, the first actual combos go back to the 1700s, the era of the Bion-type pen. The link to the post on Pentrace will be alive for only a few more weeks before the post scrolls off the message board, which has no archive, but I leave it up to David to decide whether those images should be cross-posted over here.

George Kovalenko.

January 26, 2012

Hi George, I was following the First Combos thread for a while, and got curious about the Founcil. It appears to me that the earliest fountain pen combo is the Eagle with the glass cartridge filling system and lead holder you show in that thread.

I saw on ebay a similar Eagle with a lever filling mechanism but there was not much information in the listing, the link to the auction is http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-EAGLE-PENCIL-CO-FOUNTAIN-PEN-PENCIL-COMBINATION-ALL-ONE-ALUMINUM-/330655492285?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4cfc9a68bd

I was interested on Founcil shown in that thread and am curious to know how it fills, it is probably an eye dropper filling pen.

What would be the earliest self filling pen - pencil combo after the glass cartridge filling Eagle?

Victor

Edited January 26, 2012 by sztainbok

January 27, 2012

Hi Victor,

Actually, if you read the "First Combos" thread closely, you'll see that the earliest fountain pen combos date to the Bion pen era, the 1700s, and the next one dates to the late 1810s. The Eagle with the glass-cartridge-filling system and lead holder is from the 1880s, or 90s.

As you said, the Founcil shown in that thread is probably an eyedropper filler. If you're still curious about the Founcil, check out the article in this thread. I found this article in The American Stationer just yesterday, so you must have been reading my mind. ;~)

Thanks for pointing out the Eagle with a lever filling mechanism on Ebay, but that one probably dates from the late 1910s, or the 20s.

I haven't really made a study of it, and there may be earlier ones, but the earliest self-filling pen and pencil combo might come well before the glass-cartridge-filling Eagle. The John Jacob Parker piston-filling pen in the UK in the 1830s has been found as a combo as well as a simple fountain pen.

I don't know whether we need to parse it so closely because anomalies can occur, and then nothing can come along for decades.

George Kovalenko.

Edited January 27, 2012 by rhr

January 27, 2012

Hi George, thanks for the information. I tried to follow your link and I end up in a Lion and Pen website with an error message that I am not allowed in that site. Would you know what to do abour it?

Thank you,

Victor.

January 27, 2012

I tried to follow your link and I end up in a Lion and Pen website with an error message that I am not allowed in that site. Would you know what to do about it?

Just click on "Reload". It might take a few tries. Sometimes even I get that error message.

George.