34, The First Gravity Fillers

[rhr]

The First Gravity Fillers.

 

The first gravity-filler fountain pen, patent no. 630,526, is a jointless pen from William W. Stewart, the prolific inventor behind Mabie, Todd, & Bard. This pen is said to be self-filling, but still requires an external device for filling, a custom-made eyedropper that fits right over the whole nib and section.

 

And Harold N. Carpenter's "Fountain-Pen Filler", patent no. 887,919, is the first inverted-pen, gravity-filler ink bottle, a device for filling eyedropper pens directly from an ink bottle by means of a cap with a pneumatic rubber pump. The bottle was put into production by S. S. Stafford, and it could have been used to fill the pen in patent no. 630,526. Also see Carpenter's US patent nos. 1,082,711, 1,125,470, 1,152,601, and 1,152,602, and later on, the Namiki Pilot gravity filler fountain pen, patent no. 2,144,296, and gravity filler ink bottle, patent no. 2,132,313.

 

Who would have thought that one could patent gravity! Maybe someone should give Newton the heads-up. ;~)

 

George Kovalenko.