What Is Solid Ink And Solid-Ink Fountain Pen?

[4lex]

I was reading on the inventor Theodor Kovacs who patented piston filler that I believe Pelikan is still using. I read then when Pelikan bought this patent they also bought patent for solid-ink fountain pens from Eduard (Slavoljub) Penkala, Slovakian engineer of Dutch-Polish-Jewish descent who became naturalised Croatian (typical central European story, if he would be more famous we would have five nations claiming him as their own).

What I don't understand in this part of FP history is what is solid ink. Pardon my ignorance but how can ink be solid? Does it contain solid particles?

Thanks for your answers.

[amberleadavis]

When I read this title, I immediately thought of my printer. For more than a decade, I have used Solid Ink printers. Back when I worked for a printer repair company, we called these "Crayon" printers. Today, Xerox is the only company making these color printers. The solid ink is a wax that is melted and then applied.

 

http://www.fujixeroxprinters.in.th/downloads/uploaded/news%20room/47e1_solid-ink-print-blocks_new.jpg

 

As for Pelikan buying solid ink patents, Pelikan is an old and established supplier of pens for businesses and schools. Is it possible that the solid ink was actually what we now consider to be crayons?

[dcwaites]

There were some pens (I don't know it applies in this case) that came with a number of ink pellets. You would take one, put it in the ink chamber, fill with water to dissolve the ink pellet, and write.

[amberleadavis]

Oh yes, I think those were made by Swan.

[amberleadavis]

Found it - MT Swan Pen.

 

War and The Fountain Pen

http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/history/war_and_fp.htm

Also quartermasters, busy supplying the troops with food, clothes, and equipment, were not eager to lug millions of ink bottles to the battlefield. So ink makers produced powdered ink and packed it in tins; they also stamped the powder into ink pellets and tablets. In 1916, the Parker Pen Company, quick to sense a business opportunity, developed the “Trench Pen,” which a year later the U. S. War Department ordered in quantity. The Trench Pen was a conventional safety pen that had a compartment for storing ink tablets. A doughboy could pop an ink pill in the barrel of his pen, fill the barrel with water (all too easily found in trenches and shell holes), and write the folks back home. Parker sold a box of thirty-six ink tablets for ten cents. Many fountain pen companies in the United States and Europe soon came out with their own version of the “trench pen.”

 

http://www.richardspens.com/images/coll/swan_trench.jpg

[dcwaites]

Found it - MT Swan Pen.

 

War and The Fountain Pen

http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/history/war_and_fp.htm

Also quartermasters, busy supplying the troops with food, clothes, and equipment, were not eager to lug millions of ink bottles to the battlefield. So ink makers produced powdered ink and packed it in tins; they also stamped the powder into ink pellets and tablets. In 1916, the Parker Pen Company, quick to sense a business opportunity, developed the “Trench Pen,” which a year later the U. S. War Department ordered in quantity. The Trench Pen was a conventional safety pen that had a compartment for storing ink tablets. A doughboy could pop an ink pill in the barrel of his pen, fill the barrel with water (all too easily found in trenches and shell holes), and write the folks back home. Parker sold a box of thirty-six ink tablets for ten cents. Many fountain pen companies in the United States and Europe soon came out with their own version of the “trench pen.”

 

http://www.richardspens.com/images/coll/swan_trench.jpg

 

Let's not tell Kevin about these...

[amberleadavis]

I did tell him way back when I "con"vinced him to make powdered inks. I even sent you some dye tablets that allegedly work.

[dcwaites]

I did tell him way back when I "con"vinced him to make powdered inks. I even sent you some dye tablets that allegedly work.

 

You did. My desk ate them. I must undertake archaeological explorations.

[4lex]

Thanks for your answers. Researching this further I think the most likely answer tis that the patent was for fountain pens able to use india ink.

[PeterTaylor]

I own a small tin that has Solid Ink with an enameled background on the lid. It seems to be divided into sections that take sticks of 'solid ink' the size of a pencil lead. There is one stick inside it that is 1.5mm in diameter that you can use like a pencil lead and which writes in blue. Maybe it is a pencil lead and in this case Solid Ink refers to lead of a copying pencil nature...

[Noihvo]

[amberleadavis]

Hey, did our OP ever check back in?

[sciumbasci]

Aw heck now i want one.

 

Why can't I buy a modern replica of a trench pen??

[amberleadavis]

Well, you can buy an eyedropper. Then purchase some De Atramentis Ink thinner and then drop in the solid dye tablets that are sold to color eggs at this time of year.

 

Amber the enabler.

[Runnin_Ute]

Well, you can buy an eyedropper. Then purchase some De Atramentis Ink thinner and then drop in the solid dye tablets that are sold to color eggs at this time of year.

 

Amber the enabler.

At least you know and can admit it. Many can't.

[alfredop]

Also Aurora made a pen using ink tablet, the Etiopia. Moreover in a flea market I did found some solid ink (in the form of powder if I remember well) made by Pelikan.

 

Alfredo

[Sasha Royale]

Found it - MT Swan Pen.

 

War and The Fountain Pen

http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/history/war_and_fp.htm

Also quartermasters, busy supplying the troops with food, clothes, and equipment, were not eager to lug millions of ink bottles to the battlefield. So ink makers produced powdered ink and packed it in tins; they also stamped the powder into ink pellets and tablets. In 1916, the Parker Pen Company, quick to sense a business opportunity, developed the “Trench Pen,” which a year later the U. S. War Department ordered in quantity. The Trench Pen was a conventional safety pen that had a compartment for storing ink tablets. A doughboy could pop an ink pill in the barrel of his pen, fill the barrel with water (all too easily found in trenches and shell holes), and write the folks back home. Parker sold a box of thirty-six ink tablets for ten cents. Many fountain pen companies in the United States and Europe soon came out with their own version of the “trench pen.”

 

http://www.richardspens.com/images/coll/swan_trench.jpg

I originally came to FPN looking for information on the Parker Trench Pen. The War Department has records of ordering one million for use by the US Army. I doubt that anywhere near that quantity was delivered. I knew it was a version of the "Jackknife", but even the Parker Museum did not have a photograph of one. Does anyone have a photograph of a Parker Trench

Pen ? Or even an actual Parker Trench Pen ?

Edited March 30, 2017 by Sasha Royale

[sciumbasci]

Also Aurora made a pen using ink tablet, the Etiopia. Moreover in a flea market I did found some solid ink (in the form of powder if I remember well) made by Pelikan.

 

Alfredo

Ah, the Ethiopia! My dream pen. When 3D printers will come cheap, I'll print myself a nice replica or two.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

Well, you can buy an eyedropper. Then purchase some De Atramentis Ink thinner and then drop in the solid dye tablets that are sold to color eggs at this time of year.

 

Will that even work worth a dam? If so, why not just dilute the dye with more water in the first place?

 

Such an ink would all wash away very quickly anyway, right?

[dcwaites]

The problem with making ink tablets or other solid ink is the strength of the dyes used to make them.

 

The packets of Thistle powdered ink that I bought some years ago had enough powder in them to be compressed into 1 pill. However that amount would make 300 mls of fountain pen ink. So you would need to take about 1/300th of that amount of ink, and combine it with a totally soluble filler that would not interfere with the ink or pen in order to make a pill big enough to handle with your fingers.

 

The same would apply to the little canister of Webster/Diamine iron-gall Blue Black ink powder that I have, or the Simpson's powdered inks.

 

The trench pens were, as Amber suggested, basically an ED filler, with a container for the ink tablets.

 

I would be interested in knowing what other substances were in the ink tablet or solid ink to act as a bulking agent or filler.