Most Common / Popular Ballpoint Of The 1950S?

[Stephen2020]

Thanks for looking. Talking of 98s my plastic buttoned version arrived todayhttp://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/ODM2WDEyNTI=/z/66kAAOSwd0BVwkt2/$_57.JPG

[rminj]

Nice! That's exactly what I was looking for!

Stumbled across this page with a good Papermate chronology as well:

https://munsonpens.wordpress.com/category/paper-mate-pens/

 

Too bad there isnt any Deluxe Papermates on the 'bay at the moment :-/

 

OMG.. the Papermate Profile is what I used all through college in the 80s.. the Powerpoint refills were fast and put lots of ink on the Paper. I think they sadly discontuned the line when Newell Rubbermaid acquired them and it was too similiar to the Jotter.

 

 

[Sasha Royale]

When Dad saw the advertising for the tungsten carbide ball of the Parker "T-ball" jotter, he had to have one. They were popular enough that he could not find one for some time. Dad's T-ball jotter

had an "Arrow" clip. His other jotter did not. That was 1957, when we moved to the suburbs, and

I changed schools. Dad bought gift jotters for everyone, after that. Jotters were built tough !

[Stephen2020]

Nice! Here's mine with a couple other scripto ball pens:

 

And my first version papermate:

 

 

I have a couple of them two tone Scripto's now, is there any modern refill that can be adapted for them? I imagined I would be able to get a Lubriglide set up in them but the tip is even narrower than the Paper Mates!

[shadeone]

Funny you should ask because last night I stopped at Staples to get a handfull of refills to try in the scriptos and none of them worked. The opening on the scriptos is absolutely TINY. Going to try a couple other office supply stores for some more refills later today!
One of these days, Ill set up an excel sheet or something that has all the popular vintage ballpoints and what refills fit and dont fit...

[Stephen2020]

That would be some great info!

 

Here are mine, one with a box.

 

Edited December 18, 2015 by Stephen2020

[shadeone]

Nice!!!

Ok, so I found an online archive of old Sears catalogs... One would think that if it was being sold through Sears back then, it was probably a massively produced thing.
Here are the pages featuring ballpoints, giving a great rundown of some of the most popular models...

1947. BB Pen Company was evidently pretty big in the very late 40s and a couple years into the 50s. Tower was the Sears name for the Timex / US Time (previously Ingersoll) group. I guess they made pens too.
http://imageshack.com/a/img911/1623/srplCI.jpg

 

1952. Papermate!
http://imageshack.com/a/img903/9508/OKu8P3.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img905/2158/GiL191.jpg

 

1955. Papermate, Parker Jotter (of course), Scripto and Sheaffer.

http://imageshack.com/a/img910/8972/k7ibI8.jpg

 

1956. Parker, Papermate, Sheafer and Scripto.

http://imageshack.com/a/img905/3489/NTqxe1.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img908/4457/P4NSKY.jpg

 

1957. Same 4.
http://imageshack.com/a/img910/8628/vSulIQ.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img908/8193/XIC5YN.jpg

[Stephen2020]

http://oi68.tinypic.com/207pzdv.jpg

[Zookie]

Very, very, cool!

[shadeone]

My latest acquisitions...
Papermate Deluxe
Papermate Capri
Scripto Scriptomatic
Eversharp Fountain Ball
Pre-Eversharp Kimberly Pockette

 

http://imageshack.com/a/img911/4003/XrgR1B.jpg

Edited December 22, 2015 by shadeone

[shadeone]

Ok, this is cool. Its a soda fountain / Luncheonette from 1957 in New Jersey. Click for the full size version and you can make out Scripto and Waterman logos behind the counter!

http://www.shorpy.com/files/images/50s_drugstoreinterior.preview.jpg

[qvxb]

Shadeone,

 

Thank you for posting the images from the Sears catalogs. I knew about the Parker liquid lead pencils but was unaware that Scripto also made them. Here are links to two articles on the Parker pencil.

 

http://www.penhero.com/PenGallery/Parker/ParkerLiquidLeadPencil.htm

 

http://parkercollector.com/liquidlead.html

[Stephen2020]

I found out these Fisher refills work in the Scriptos, break off to the correct length, the nearest length was slightly longer but it works ok. I had to use pliers to flatten the first crimp near the spring. It is vintage but luckily the ink flows still. The tip fits through the end, no problem.http://oi65.tinypic.com/2vt2mh4.jpg

Edited December 29, 2015 by Stephen2020

[shadeone]

Stephen2020, those can still be ordered on amazon and even directly from fisher! I have some on the way to me right now. I will report back with all the pens that they fit in!

 

In the meantime, I was watching Hitchcok's 1958 movie, "Vertigo" and spotted a Papermate 98 with the metal button:

 

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img911/2308/6Gp8QH.jpg

[Zookie]

Still looking for a way to adapt modern refills. I've found absolutely no metal refills other than vintage ones or the Fisher 1 for all.

I also picked up some more for the collection, Papermates and a couple of Newton pens. Photos tomorrow.

[Stephen2020]

Shadeone,

That's good info! Nice capture of the 98.

 

Zookie,

I have since got a couple of vintage Unipeco refills, they fit straight into my Scriptos, unfortunately they work badly due to age.

[Zookie]

Some not so famous makers.

Two Newton pen salesman's samples, and a D&H Railway pen with an interesting advancing mechanism.

The "King Midas" pen has a makers mark that looks familiar, but I can't place it. The D&H pen is also unknown to me, but perhaps someone has seen this mark or mechanism elsewhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They may not be common, or even popular, but I sure would like to know more about them.

Thanks

[tinta]

I was born behind the Iron Curtain, completing elementary & most of middle school.

In my experience, during the mid 50s, the T-ball jotter was the must have ball-point. You could be beat up & "robbed" at school by other students for having one.

Happened to a good friend of mine.

 

Despite the fact that the biro was invented by Mr. Biro, a Hungarian, ball points of any kind were scarce.

I remember hanging around the Parliament buildings in Budapest (close to where I lived), waiting for the tour buses arriving from Western countries.

We had particularly good success mooching ball points off the French tourists. Can't remember what brands they were, but they were a heck of a lot better than the few Eastern European biros we could get locally.

 

Of course, if we were found with any ball-point at school, that pen was confiscated. Only the wretched school-issue bulb-filler fountain pens were allowed to be used.

Edited January 7, 2016 by tinta

[pajaro]

Zookie, I just obtained a Scripto Satellite as well! In that awesome "SeaFoam Green" that was oh-so-popular back then.

No refill inside though, so if you find anything that works as a replacement, let me know and I'll do the same!

The metal on mine is very dull, any suggestions as to a good polishing method?

 

Sea Foam Green was that light barf green that covered the walls of many government buildings, including Titan II ?ICBM control centers. I pulled many an alert there. Rrrrrraaaaalph.

[pajaro]

That's a lot of old ballpoints you guys have dredged up. I wonder if it's possible to know how many ink blobs those old ballpoints left on paper?

 

Papermate marketed a fountain pen made in West Germany that had the look of some of its 70s to 80s ballpoints. C/C model.

 

The best of the old ballpoints was the Jotter. It didn't leave all those blobs on your work.