Stylographic Fountain Pens

[stephen_schachter]

I must admit i became interested in stylos (styloes?) when I found I could afford interesting examples at pen shows and on the internet.

 

Early manufactured pens began to be seen in the 1870s or a little before as indicated by the patent dates on the pens and in advertisements. To generalize, I'm sure too much, in the US there were pens made by Mackinnon that are distinguished by caps that screwed onto the body of the pen and pens made in and around Providence, Rhode Island that have slip on caps and extensions on the back of the barrel which could be used to post the cap. These pens were made by A.T. Cross, The Stylographic Pen Co., and the Brown Pen Co., I'm sure among others. Later on, especially after Mackinnon stopped making pens, the stylo began to look like other fountain pens, with a different front end. Plese see David Nishamura's web sit for more information.

 

The pen I've pictured here is one of the latter pens, though there is no maker's mare I can find. This pens is for me way cool because the spring that is usually made of metal is in this case made of hard rubber. I's hard to imagine how this was made, and how it survived without losing it;s elastisity. Go figure, but an interesting pen.

 

http://tinyurl.com/8hcsey5

http://tinyurl.com/92oopbm

http://tinyurl.com/9lu3kt5

http://tinyurl.com/9qg6twv

[Pickwick]

The coil which as you say is made of hard rubber is not a spring. This material becomes very brittle and a spring that size would be impossible to depress anyway.The spiral would have been designed to control ink and air flow. If you look at Richards Binder's website tiny steel springs were first used to depress the pin and allow ink to flow. Later the wire pin had a weight enabling it to drop back and seal off the ink flow when lifted from paper.

 

You have found a unique pen with an unusual design. Appreciated your photos.

[stephen_schachter]

Criticism is, of course, always welcome, but the point of my post was to encourage additional entries about interesting stylographic pens of any stripe.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

[Malcy]

I recently obtained a Tintenkuli which is a German made stylographic type pen I believe. I did a review of it here:

 

Tintenkuli Mit Rotring review.

 

They are very interesting pens. I came across a number of stylographic pens in an antique shop recently and was tempted but spent my money on a Parker True Blue. If you want to know where they were, pm me.

[stephen_schachter]

What a beautiful pen, especially for a black one. The red ring really jazzes it up!

 

It is interesting, from the review, to notice that this is a general purpose stylo meant to be used at an angle like the stylographic pens from an earlier era. However the pen's design is remeniscent of many German techincal pens from, for instance, Rapidograph, which are meant to be held mostly vertically. Is the Tintenkuli related to Rotring and/or Rapidograph? If so, then these companies would be doing what few, or no US companies did, make both general purpose and technical pens.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

[Jeff L]

Hi Stephen,

 

Here's an old pic of the Brown we discussed at the show. It's the middle pen.

 

 

 

 

Even when these pens aren't marked, the telltale sign is the technology used inside. Francis Cashel Brown used the same Sliding Yoke for these pens as he would later for Caws.

 

 

 

The patent referenced is #264854.

http://www.google.com/patents/US264854

 

 

At the time of the patent filing in 1882, Brown was already out of Mackinnon and Caws was still in the future. These pens are likely those that he sold as a promotion with the Fountain Ink Company. However, when he (and Alexander M Sutherland) sold out of Mackinnon, he had signed a non-compete agreement with the new owners of Mackinnon. So when he started selling stylos again under the Fountain Ink Co., they naturally sued him. The case went to the court and was decided in Dec 1882 in Brown's favor. The appeal was dismissed in 1883. I have the text if you want to see it.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I have a Rotring 0.5 that I don't use.

 

I liked your pictures and your info.

 

I had thought of putting one in my double set of westerns taking place in 1881, because then they were the up to date pen.

Like today and the I-pod, they were into being up to date back then just as much as today.

 

I'd thought of having my hero the traveling salesman use one, but gave him a stagecoach proof traveling ink well instead.

Edited October 11, 2012 by Bo Bo Olson

[Pickwick]

Criticism is, of course, always welcome, but the point of my post was to encourage additional entries about interesting stylographic pens of any stripe.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

My comment was by no means a criticism, merely an observation.

[OakIris]

Pardon my ignorance, but I have no idea what I am looking at here :embarrassed_smile: These pens look like mechanical pencils to me. Is that pointy cylinder that looks like a piece of lead actually the nib (or the equivalent of a nib)? How does it fill and how do they write? I am intrigued, perhaps especially because I grew up in Rhode Island where Cross patented his own version of this pen.

 

Holly

 

Edit - should have done a search before posting. Of course a search led me to Richard Binder's site where he had lots of info about the Stylographic pen. I will read it more carefully later but with a quick perusal I was able to answer all of my questions accept the last. So, how do these write??

Edited October 11, 2012 by OakIris

[stephen_schachter]

I never knew anything about Brown's pens until I spoke with you at the pen show, One of my very early finds is this F.C. Brown marked on the section the marking ready to be scraped off by the cap. I wasn't even sure it was same Brown until I compared the mechanism shown in the patent drawing. Plese let's see any additional information you have to share.

 

http://tinyurl.com/9r4ov6g

http://tinyurl.com/9mtrgfv

http://tinyurl.com/9g8a3gn

 

Holly,

To expose myself to ridicule, I think a stylo works pretty much the same as a nib pen: The tube touches the paper, the wire interior to the tube carries the ink down the tube via capillary action and onto the paper. The two tines of a nib work like the stylo tube, and the slit works like the wire carrying the ink down to the paper. Anyone else, please help.

 

Steve

[Malcy]

What a beautiful pen, especially for a black one. The red ring really jazzes it up!

 

It is interesting, from the review, to notice that this is a general purpose stylo meant to be used at an angle like the stylographic pens from an earlier era. However the pen's design is remeniscent of many German techincal pens from, for instance, Rapidograph, which are meant to be held mostly vertically. Is the Tintenkuli related to Rotring and/or Rapidograph? If so, then these companies would be doing what few, or no US companies did, make both general purpose and technical pens.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

The Tintenkuli company was renamed Rotring in the 1950s after the well known red ring on their pens. This example works well for normal writing with good flow even at an angle but no line variation. There were British manufacturers of this style of writing instrument. They were called 'ink pencils' in the UK and Conway-Stewart and ONOTO are two manufacturers that spring to mind. Another European manufacturer (linked to Rotring) was Koh-I-Noor who made rapidograph type pens for many years.

[OakIris]

Holly,

To expose myself to ridicule, I think a stylo works pretty much the same as a nib pen: The tube touches the paper, the wire interior to the tube carries the ink down the tube via capillary action and onto the paper. The two tines of a nib work like the stylo tube, and the slit works like the wire carrying the ink down to the paper. Anyone else, please help.

 

Steve

Good explanation, Steve.

 

What I was really asking, though I wasn't very clear, was are they fun to write with, are they smooth writers, etc.? The little I have read about them since seeing your thread indicates that the wire can be a bit delicate, and yet obviously some have survived all of these years. Those that are lucky enough to have one of these, do you use them as daily writers or are they more for looking at and admiring the design?

 

Although I am familiar with Rapidograph and similar technical pens, I never thought of them as actually being fountain pens, or at least as being related to fountain pens, but their design is obviously based on that of the Stylographic fountain pens. A fountain pen is supposed to have a "real" nib, right?!!? As you could tell from my previous post, I had never heard of Stylographics, but now I would like to get one to try it out, especially after seeing all the nice photos in this thread. Thank you for bringing them to my attention!

 

Holly

[stephen_schachter]

To try out a stylographic pen, the best thing would probably be to look at ebay for a classic forties Ink-O-Graph pen. Black or brown would be the least expensive. They have the rounded tip of a general purpose writer; they write smoothly, can be used to get through several carbon copies (ha!), but are not expressive as the line with does not change. When you get the pen, and it had not been "restored", remove the section and soak it for as long as you have patience. Then gingerly unscrew the tube holder from the section. If you are lucky the tube holder, needle and weighted wire will come out. If the wire is stuck in the tube, soak some more and it will probably be able to be freed. The put it all together with a new sack and you're ready to go. Good luck.

 

Stephen

[Jeff L]

Slowly adding to this thread.

 

Regarding one of the other pens we briefly discussed, the Stylographic Pen Co.,— although I've heard tell of other companies by that rather generic name, the pens that one usually encounters are those of Charles Walter Livermore.

 

 

 

They can be identified by their patent imprints. The dates will either reference Livermore's own patents or MacKinnon's (Jul 15, 1879) or George F Hawkes' (Jan 4, 1881).

 

As far as I know, Livermore is the only licensee of Mackinnon's patents and Hawkes assigned his patent #236222 to Livermore.

 

Livermore was sued by Cross early on, the case coming to court in 1881 with Livermore prevailing. I would conjecture that this experience may have contributed to Livermore's acquiring rights to other patents for further protection.

 

 

Livermore's early stylos had a separate needle unit that installed into the section, as opposed to a needle attached to the air-tube that descended from the barrel (Cross) or a free-floating weight (MacKinnon). He later used a design from Hawkes where the needle unit was within its own housing that served as an intermediate coupling between the barrel and section. The advantage of these separate units is that the spring is enclosed and thus protected from contact with the ink. Exposed springs, such as those in Cross pens, are more likely to corrode.

 

 

 

 

Most of the talk revolving around the differences between the major stylos usually centers on the weighted needle vs spring distinction. Actually, there was a lot more than that going on in stylo development. One area of focus was in the problem of ink-air exchange.

 

The tube that you see extending from the barrel is the air-tube. If you look closely, you'll see a hole in its side. The gold-filled cap at the other end is the air-cap. It's difficult to see in the above picture, but there is another air hole at the bottom of the threads where the air-cap screws on. Then there are complex ways in which the air is channeled through the section to the point. One early Livermore design called for a side aperture in the section that followed a tortuous path through the needle housing. There was another design, I forget where, that called for a double hulled barrel and a groove drilled between for ventilation.

 

 

 

And about those trade cards:

 

 

 

Livermore operated from Providence, RI but sold pens out of Boston and New York as well. His New York agent became an employee when Livermore setup his own office there in 1881. His Boston agent, Charles Woodbury Robinson, eventually moved to New York and then on to London and sold Livermore stylos there.

 

 

 

Robinson would develop his own patent years later but by then Livermore was dead. I don't know if Robinson remained associated with the company.

Edited October 14, 2012 by Jeff L

[OakIris]

To try out a stylographic pen, the best thing would probably be to look at ebay for a classic forties Ink-O-Graph pen. Black or brown would be the least expensive. They have the rounded tip of a general purpose writer; they write smoothly, can be used to get through several carbon copies (ha!), but are not expressive as the line with does not change. When you get the pen, and it had not been "restored", remove the section and soak it for as long as you have patience. Then gingerly unscrew the tube holder from the section. If you are lucky the tube holder, needle and weighted wire will come out. If the wire is stuck in the tube, soak some more and it will probably be able to be freed. The put it all together with a new sack and you're ready to go. Good luck.

 

Stephen

Sounds as if they can be pretty nice writers; as the pens I have now are mostly "nails," the lack of line variation is not an issue for me. Thank you also for the info about cleaning/restoring them. Can these pens be soaked in a water/ammonia solution or just in water? (Not sure what they are made of, but since you recommend soaking, obviously they are not made of casein.) Also, any idea of the sac size? (For some reason I had the impression that these were eyedropper fillers, no sacs involved.) It will be a while before I will be able to hunt for one of these, but this thread, and the photos that you, Jeff and Malcy have included/linked, have made me very interested in them.

 

Holly

Edited October 19, 2012 by OakIris

[Bo Bo Olson]

Thanks Jeff for your well researched information.

 

:hmm1: Grumble, grumble, might have to make my murderous Heroine have one of those 'new up to date' non dip pens.

 

1881.

[amk]

I have a few 40s/50s (I think) Inkographs and enjoy using them - a similar experience in some ways to using a modern rollerball, though much wetter writers. I wonder why the 'ink pencil' didn't take off the way the rollerball has - was it the fact that people wanted to write with line variation (the rationale behind flex nibs), with that style of writing being taught at school?

 

I'm also intrigued by the fact that both Rotring/Tintenkuli and Inkograph made FPs at the same time (and using pretty much the same bodies I think) as the stylographs. Hedging their bets? If so, it didn't really work - neither became a major FP maker and Rotring is still better known for its technical pens and drawing equipment.

[philm]

The exploded view of a Jacob Ullrich Stylo(early 1900s)

 

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y50/munsonhsr/Independent%20Stylograph/DSC_0001.jpg

 

and restored ~

 

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y50/munsonhsr/Independent%20Stylograph/DSC_0001-1.jpg

 

Phil

[stephen_schachter]

Phil, any experience writing with your restored stylo?

[philm]

Stephen,

 

Yes, I use it as I would a roller ball. The line for this one is fine to extra fine, but very readable. Good for numbers.....no problems since I restored it several years ago.

 

Here is a link to another that I worked on more recently, probably dated a bit later than the JUCO.

 

Phil

Edited October 23, 2012 by philm