Feeds-Simple And Complex

[Bo Bo Olson]

The Germans did have telephone inventors; may have been two of them....but the German industrial money was shorter sighted than the US. There was a program on German TV about everyone and his brother who invented the Telephone and a few other inventions elsewhere and earlier than who ever got historical credit.

 

Gray was a major inventor before and after his telephone patent arrived two hours late. Alexander Graham Bell, seemed to be one shot, like the guy who invented the plastic nozzle for the bug bombs that is still used for about all spray out of a bottle items. I don't remember that man's name, but he got tired of getting DDT sprayed all over his fingers back in WW2 in the Pacific, and invented that nozzle. During the 34 years his patent ran, through licensing, he made $137 or so million real silver dollars; back when the Dollar was All Mighty. A fact that stuck in my mind ever since I read it back in the Dark Ages shortly after his patent ran out. It may have been in Life Magazine.

 

Unfortunately, while ideas are easy enough...it's the money making that is the hard part. Or illegal, such as a spring loaded quarterstaff.

In Munich at the American University there, back in the when, my German Teacher invented a blow up sombrero. So he could watch soccer in the rain.

[Pen Engineer]

Now. Bo Bo, you are an unfathomably deep well of wisdom....

 

I used to work for Wella and improving the spray coming out of the nozzle (not much the nozzle itself) had been part of my tasks. I took the nozzle as a given, just like a nut or bolt. We mucked around with the gas-spray mix... interesting

 

yes, making bucket loads of money from inventions... was never good at it. As a young ingeneer, my focus was finding solutions and getting all excited. Now, things are a bit different. An extra surplus dollar (silver or not) would be nice. It appears to me, that those who have the money just keep their eyes open until they find an idea invented by someone, buy them out cheaply, and off they go.

 

OOOOOH! Have to stop writing about this...

[Pen Engineer]

  On 10/10/2016 at 3:40 PM, Pickwick said:

 

Thank your for your response. The conclusion you come to sounds very logical. By the way, If we ever decide to prove this theory, maybe we might consider organizing an expedition to the Himalayas along with other members. Remember to bring plenty of ink for my pen along with paper, and we'll enjoy a picnic together on top of Mt. Everest! If you prove Rotring wrong then I'll be in a position to sue them for expenses incurred!

what a great idea!

 

count me in

 

... just one problem: we need to bring a heated chamber for the fountain pens to keep the ink above freezing point. Anti-freeze would change its properties too much and Rotring would find a way to get out....

 

... and perhaps, make the heated chamber large enough for some of us to watch the experiment and keep the red at a palatable temperature.

[Pen Engineer]

  On 10/10/2016 at 2:02 PM, PenIngeneer said:

But, then again. I have been thinking about a pressurised sealed ink capsule, similar to the space ball pen. It would make ink (in this capsule) very expensive... however, that started already when they started selling ink in cartridges...

 

about the ink capsule... I think it can be done, selling price AUS $8.95. I always wondered about this AUS before the $. Is there a hidden A-US in there?

 

Does anyone have any thoughts on the ink capsule idea?

 

Staying in the US, it happened more than once that I was asked if Australia is an State of the US. When I explained the next question was: "Why then do they speak English?"

[praxim]

I hope you answered quizzically in German

[Bo Bo Olson]

The American education system often leaves much to be desired, the more modern it has become. The bell curve and pass and fail.

 

There is the Kansas 1880 or 1890 test to get out of 8th grade that most seniors now could not pass....thinking about it a lot of seniors from the late '60's would have gotten a D. I'm sure I would have gotten a C. Would have failed the Latin section, of course. After 8th grade it was time to get a job, if your parents were not middle class. Middle class paid for HS, so their child could get a job as a Clerk.

 

Geography of the US was major** then, and they knew the world was round back then....not so sure about modern Education in the US teaching that fact.

** I thought I had good knowledge....but what was important in 1890 is not now or in the '60's. Height of each state's 'mountain', all navigable rivers and industries. Major scenic site. Lots that I was not up with, and I'd read and lost a most interesting 1890's book on that when I was 11.

 

I was most impressed by that Test. HS was for the rich.....as proved by the fact that football was played.....risking being crippled was not something the poor could afford.

 

I have a copy of a late 1890's almanac and Ruby was just as popular as American football. The New York City HS football got nearly as much coverage as the 5-6 rich man's collages that played football. No other collage played. Just Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown and two others.

 

 

Unlike the German schools that divide kids out by assumed intelligence and 'class' (and that is still done), into three schools, often we lop them all together, and the slow drag the some of the smart down, due to boredom. Teachers can not control the class room because there is no discipline allowed.

The Vice Principal having a long paddle with holes in it to hurt more, certainly was a threat I took seriously back in 1960.

 

Between quotas and parents, children that should have been flunked in 1st and second grade, so they had a chance to catch up....are not. So they remain behind the learning curve clogging up the class rooms.

What the hell has a parent to do with Jr. being pushed into the next higher class when they have failed the lower? Status....and a failed parent ruining his child.

A principal having to meet a pass quota, passes a kid on to failure. Those who can, do. Those who can't teach. Those who can't teach screw up in administration.

We have no apprenticeship program to get the bored lesser achievers out of wasting space.

 

Many Americans continue their education after HS by watching quiz shows .....quiz shows are now popular in Germany also.

 

Some 15 or so years ago, I watched on German TV some American woman in America think there was a war going on still in Germany....not knowing the difference between WW2 and the Cold War. And she had the right to vote.

 

America is very provincial. We do have the best propaganda in the world, and believe it completely.

The first American Myth was the Boston Tea Party. The tax on tea had been repealed. Three Tea Smuggler ships lay on Boston Wharf with over priced smuggler bought tea. The ex-treasurer of Harvard, Sam Adams fired for stealing 15,000 pounds (a fortune) raised the drunken rabble; dressing them out of 'his' own pocket as Indians. Two smugglers tea was tossed into Boston Harbor. John Hancock's 'smuggled' tea was not. With a sudden short market he broke close to even.

 

In the second richest man in America after Ben Franklin; Hancock owed the British Government 100,000 pounds in smuggling fees. He paid the rabble rouser Sam Adams to cause trouble. Hancock then bought 15,000 pounds worth of arms from the French, to start the war he so needed. That's all he chipped in too.

 

IMO he'd not left the arms unguarded, and IMO the shot heard around the world was fired by a Hancock henchman. He needed the war. Having become the second richest man in America by leaving things to chance.

Hancock only signed the Deceleration of Independence after the peace treaty was signed....so he'd not be hanged if they lost. The big signature (space) was because everyone left him the space for being US's first Arms Dealer.

The Minute Men were probably armed with fowling pieces (shotguns), in it was outside the 'mountain men' of North Carolina, a myth of the American Rifleman. The well to do might have a hunting rifle...the normal poor would be lucky to own a shotgun. Most big game hunting was done with dogs. In order to get the Americans into the American Army, they were promised land.

The well to do winners, did not give them any of their lands, nor of 'crown' lands that they already stole along with the Tory lands....but the land of the Indians.

It was a rich man's war...the poor had no legal documents that need a stamp on them...Stamp Tax. The Tory Government charged the American Colonists well less than 1/2 (1/3rd?)the taxes of the represented in British Government British taxpayers paid..

 

What really caused the Revolt was a lot of very bad weather, and having to quarter and feed British soldiers, in their houses, that brought the lower middle class and underclasses into the Revolt. Little to no food, and some stranger with a big apatite eating for free.

 

The Whig military commanders attempted to change the Government in GB, to conservative Whig instead of that wildly liberal Tory Government. They did not surround the stupid fort where G. Washington put himself on Long Island, like any 12 year old boy would have done. They did not use their ships to prevent Washington from escaping to Brooklyn....then having lost that battle....to being trapped on the Island Manhattan....again, the British ships only went half way up the Island, allowing G. Washington to escape to New Jersey.

 

There were 100,000 Loyalist refugees in NY that the British High Command refused to use. They wanted a change in Government.

Much later they used 'some', a (little)battalion called a Legion under the turncoat Arnold. Some support in Connecticut.

 

That allowed Patriot rabble to 'ethnically' cleanse and steal the pewter candle sticks, horses and lands of those honorable to hold to their oath to the king. The torture (poking out or pouring hot wax on eyes), murder and rapes were swept under the carpet.

The poking out of eyes and cutting off of ears was paid for by the British Government to the Loyalists that evacuated to Canada after the war. They paid a lot for what the 'Patriots' did.

Two Tories were with the Iroquois in Wyoming Valley....so Tories were labeled as baby scalpers. The winners write the history.

 

Do read 'Oliver Wiswell' by Kenneth Roberts it really opened my eyes when I was 16 in the early 60's.

Edited October 12, 2016 by Bo Bo Olson

[Pickwick]

  On 10/12/2016 at 7:33 AM, PenIngeneer said:

what a great idea!

 

count me in

 

... just one problem: we need to bring a heated chamber for the fountain pens to keep the ink above freezing point. Anti-freeze would change its properties too much and Rotring would find a way to get out....

 

... and perhaps, make the heated chamber large enough for some of us to watch the experiment and keep the red at a palatable temperature.

 

My Dear Friend,

 

I passed on your above suggestions to the expedition committee and you have been unanimously nominated as our illustrious leader, should we of course ever get around to it. I do have a tendency to be a procrastinator and have a long yearning to form "The Procrastination Society". If I ever get around to this ambitious project, you will of course be the first one to know about it!

[Pen Engineer]

  On 10/12/2016 at 8:18 AM, praxim said:

I hope you answered quizzically in German

... would not do this... he was a taxi driver and very friendly...

[Pen Engineer]

  On 10/12/2016 at 3:52 PM, Pickwick said:

 

My Dear Friend,

 

I passed on your above suggestions to the expedition committee and you have been unanimously nominated as our illustrious leader, should we of course ever get around to it. I do have a tendency to be a procrastinator and have a long yearning to form "The Procrastination Society". If I ever get around to this ambitious project, you will of course be the first one to know about it!

oh! leader... ahm... don't know what to say... and suddenly ran out of ideas... but dearly love to join your procrastination society, once it started... I guess, I would be a good candidate... started fixing the shower eight years ago and four weeks ago I paid someone to finish it. Pretty good eigh?

 

Why do you think that no one picked up the idea with the ink capsule? I could get excited about it.

 

Your dear Friend

[Pickwick]

  On 10/14/2016 at 10:18 AM, PenIngeneer said:

oh! leader... ahm... don't know what to say... and suddenly ran out of ideas... but dearly love to join your procrastination society, once it started... I guess, I would be a good candidate... started fixing the shower eight years ago and four weeks ago I paid someone to finish it. Pretty good eigh?

 

Why do you think that no one picked up the idea with the ink capsule? I could get excited about it.

 

Your dear Friend

Yes, with regard to your shower, you showed initiative in getting someone else in to fix it, and wouldn't disqualify you for the illustrious "Procrastination Society".

 

Your idea of a capsule may work in any given pen wouldn't it?

 

Getting this discussion back on a modicum of sanity, my dear friend, I've taken some time examining the feed in my Rotring Initial. It is a precision piece of engineering. I attempted to take it apart for a closer examination, because exploring the website I found one owner had discovered the pen performed at the height with the converter filled as Rotring claimed.

 

The feed is in 3 parts and unless I make an attempt to punch it out {otherwise I'm unable to pull out the feed which fits into a sleeve, which in turn fits into a flanged collar, and the whole unit then fits into the section, I am only able to give a description for your appraisal.

 

The feed has two wide grooves out near its edges and runs to the edges, and there is a very fine groove which aligns with the nib. The feed has a fine pin which is grooved and follows the groove feeding the tines of the nib. The sleeve has a tube the same diameter as the feed pin which when pushed in sits flush at the top, which in turn accepts the converter. The sleeve also has to grooves either side just below the curves of the nib, and there is another one at the bottom.

 

It looks as though once the feed and nib are fitted into the sleeve, they are in turn fitted into a flanged collar and pushed into the section.

 

If you should find difficulty in interpreting what I feel is a poor effort, I will endeavor to make a working drawing should it prove more useful to you. Bear in mind, I'm only able to draw what I can see. However given your background I'm in no doubt you will be able to come to a conclusion in figuring out where the sleeves grooves might terminate.

 

Yours in eager anticipation!

[Pen Engineer]

  On 10/14/2016 at 8:41 PM, Pickwick said:

Yes, with regard to your shower, you showed initiative in getting someone else in to fix it, and wouldn't disqualify you for the illustrious "Procrastination Society".

 

Your idea of a capsule may work in any given pen wouldn't it?

 

Getting this discussion back on a modicum of sanity, my dear friend, I've taken some time examining the feed in my Rotring Initial. It is a precision piece of engineering. I attempted to take it apart for a closer examination, because exploring the website I found one owner had discovered the pen performed at the height with the converter filled as Rotring claimed.

 

The feed is in 3 parts and unless I make an attempt to punch it out {otherwise I'm unable to pull out the feed which fits into a sleeve, which in turn fits into a flanged collar, and the whole unit then fits into the section, I am only able to give a description for your appraisal.

 

The feed has two wide grooves out near its edges and runs to the edges, and there is a very fine groove which aligns with the nib. The feed has a fine pin which is grooved and follows the groove feeding the tines of the nib. The sleeve has a tube the same diameter as the feed pin which when pushed in sits flush at the top, which in turn accepts the converter. The sleeve also has to grooves either side just below the curves of the nib, and there is another one at the bottom.

 

It looks as though once the feed and nib are fitted into the sleeve, they are in turn fitted into a flanged collar and pushed into the section.

 

If you should find difficulty in interpreting what I feel is a poor effort, I will endeavor to make a working drawing should it prove more useful to you. Bear in mind, I'm only able to draw what I can see. However given your background I'm in no doubt you will be able to come to a conclusion in figuring out where the sleeves grooves might terminate.

 

Yours in eager anticipation!

Pheeoooh! I am so glad that my spark of initiative does not disqualify my. I had two restless nights...

 

That would be the intention, that it would replace a standard cartridge or converter and fit in any FP which can take one... I guess, the converter was born (Need is the mother of invention) when FP manufacturers decided to milk writers... make the FP cheaper in production and sell ink at an exorbitant cost. Is it this what they call win-win?

 

 

Anyhow, the main contributor for leaking FPs when raising them into higher echelons is the possible and most likely volume of air in the reservoir, because this air expands when the surrounding air-pressure drops, which happens when one lifts a FP. The atmospheric pressure drops the further one moves away from the surface of Earth.

 

Thus, the higher you lift your FP the more the air-pressure difference between atmosphere and air inside the reservoir increases. The pressure inside the reservoir wants to find equilibrium and if it can't, it pushes the ink out. Naughty. I have written about this. Click on click and it takes you there.

 

Consequently... when there is no air in the reservoir (because it it full with ink), there is nothing that can/wants to expand, subsequently, no mess. Further to this train of thought: The smaller the reservoir, the less ink and air can be in it.... the capacity (volume) of a converter is about half of that of a Parker/Lamy cartridge... that's why smart Montblanc has small cartridges.

 

Obvious from this follows the law of elevation for FPs: "Fill your reservoir!" or if you don't trust this: "Empty your reservoir."

 

Ahm... A drawing says more than a thousand words we ingeneers love to say... thus,

 

Having said the above, I look forward (with bated breath) to examine your drawings.

Edited October 15, 2016 by PenIngeneer

[Scrawler]

  On 9/14/2016 at 2:16 PM, Tas said:

This page, in fact the whole site, is a mine of information and knowledge.

 

Make coffee first though, it is very thorough . . .

That took a couple pots of coffee. It was certainly worth it, not just for the information derived, but also for the processes he describes.

[Pen Engineer]

  On 10/15/2016 at 4:41 PM, Scrawler said:

That took a couple pots of coffee. It was certainly worth it, not just for the information derived, but also for the processes he describes.

OOH thanks

 

Love the bits around your post: The pen is an extension of my mind

 

and Location:A clearing in the forest, Canada

 

sounds idyllic... can I come for a visit?

 

BTW... how do you prepare your coffee? I am a bit of a fusspot when it comes to things like coffee...

[Scrawler]

  On 10/16/2016 at 9:25 AM, PenIngeneer said:

OOH thanks

 

Love the bits around your post: The pen is an extension of my mind

 

and Location:A clearing in the forest, Canada

 

sounds idyllic... can I come for a visit?

 

BTW... how do you prepare your coffee? I am a bit of a fusspot when it comes to things like coffee...

I am in the boreal forest of Eastern Ontario. I have map coordinates, not a real address. There are 77 people living in my "village", which is spread over about 20 square miles. I use a stainless steel Paderno coffee press. If you wish to visit you should wait till next spring because it will be winter soon, and people who are not used to the kind of winter we get find it a little difficult. Besides you probably don't want to help stack the firewood. http://i751.photobucket.com/albums/xx153/FPWriter/DSC07542_zps7urglmuu.jpg

[pen tom]

beautiful picture. I always loved fall in the north lands

[Pen Engineer]

  On 10/16/2016 at 1:44 PM, Scrawler said:

I am in the boreal forest of Eastern Ontario. I have map coordinates, not a real address. There are 77 people living in my "village", which is spread over about 20 square miles. I use a stainless steel Paderno coffee press. If you wish to visit you should wait till next spring because it will be winter soon, and people who are not used to the kind of winter we get find it a little difficult. Besides you probably don't want to help stack the firewood. http://i751.photobucket.com/albums/xx153/FPWriter/DSC07542_zps7urglmuu.jpg

I photoshopped away the stacks of timber and yes, really a nice foto. (just joking)

 

How did you end up there?...assuming that you have not lived there all the time.

 

I come from the north part of the Black Forest and images (without the timber stacks) are familiar to me.

 

sounds like a good way of making coffee... so, do people fly helicopters to get around?

 

Why does the timber need to be stacked? It burns as well by any other... ahm... being stacked or not.

 

Do you have snow already?

 

till soon!

[Bo Bo Olson]

Wood is stacked so the air can seep around the logs/quarters and dry it. Stacked only the bottom logs get wet from the ground. Eventually you get dry wood to make a fire with less smoke....less need of a chimney sweep, or the danger of chimney or wood burning stove chimney fires.

Dry wood splits easier.

 

Those are real 'country' style stacked wood piles. But then again, it's not my back.

With my bad back, I'd have an electric generator and modern electric tools,...though wonders can be done with a chainsaw.

 

A cord of wood should be stacked on the side of the house ...there is less chance getting lost in the blizzard looking for firewood.

[Scrawler]

  On 10/17/2016 at 7:47 AM, PenIngeneer said:

I photoshopped away the stacks of timber and yes, really a nice foto. (just joking)

 

How did you end up there?...assuming that you have not lived there all the time.

 

I come from the north part of the Black Forest and images (without the timber stacks) are familiar to me.

 

sounds like a good way of making coffee... so, do people fly helicopters to get around?

 

Why does the timber need to be stacked? It burns as well by any other... ahm... being stacked or not.

 

Do you have snow already?

 

till soon!

We are in danger of getting off topic. Maybe we should take this somewhere else. As of the end of this month I will have been here 19 years. We get around with cars, 4-wheel motorcycles, light aircraft, snowmobiles and snowshoes. I bought this piece of forest because I wanted a retreat of peace and quiet to do my work. I retreated so much that I decided to sell my city house and use the funds to expand the little shack that was here into a house large enough that I would not feel shut in in winter. The firewood is piled like that when the trees are first cut, then after a year the wood will be stacked into even, regular cubes and covered. This helps it to dry to a point that it burns well. When it is stacked it will be on raised palates to keep the bottom dry so it does not rot. When the rest of the tree trunks are cut up I will have about 5 years worth of wood for my stove. The snow has not started yet, it is just a bit rainy. The first snow to settle will be here in 30 days time. So I have that time to finish cleaning up and finish the out door work. I am familiar with how the Black Forest used to be as one side of my family are scattered around that part of the world.

[Pen Engineer]

  On 10/17/2016 at 11:56 AM, Bo Bo Olson said:

Wood is stacked so the air can seep around the logs/quarters and dry it. Stacked only the bottom logs get wet from the ground. Eventually you get dry wood to make a fire with less smoke....less need of a chimney sweep, or the danger of chimney or wood burning stove chimney fires.

Dry wood splits easier.

 

Those are real 'country' style stacked wood piles. But then again, it's not my back.

With my bad back, I'd have an electric generator and modern electric tools,...though wonders can be done with a chainsaw.

 

A cord of wood should be stacked on the side of the house ...there is less chance getting lost in the blizzard looking for firewood.

Thank yo Bo Bo. I alway are impressed about your wealth of knowledge. Did you ever live in such an environment? It's getting winter over there, too. I used to go to work on cross country skies...through the Schrebergärten and often up in the hills behind the Schloss during the weekends. From Rohrbach there was a staircase with about 550 steps to go up there. I loved it.

 

  On 10/17/2016 at 12:04 PM, Scrawler said:

We are in danger of getting off topic. Maybe we should take this somewhere else. As of the end of this month I will have been here 19 years. We get around with cars, 4-wheel motorcycles, light aircraft, snowmobiles and snowshoes. I bought this piece of forest because I wanted a retreat of peace and quiet to do my work. I retreated so much that I decided to sell my city house and use the funds to expand the little shack that was here into a house large enough that I would not feel shut in in winter. The firewood is piled like that when the trees are first cut, then after a year the wood will be stacked into even, regular cubes and covered. This helps it to dry to a point that it burns well. When it is stacked it will be on raised palates to keep the bottom dry so it does not rot. When the rest of the tree trunks are cut up I will have about 5 years worth of wood for my stove. The snow has not started yet, it is just a bit rainy. The first snow to settle will be here in 30 days time. So I have that time to finish cleaning up and finish the out door work. I am familiar with how the Black Forest used to be as one side of my family are scattered around that part of the world.

Thank you Scrawler for letting me into your world. If you want to, we can continue in the message section. I am really wondering what you do out there. I mean, really curious. I had thoughts like you but never did it. One does not need to go far in Australia.

 

Black Forest used to be... so true. Last time when I was over there, 1990, it had lost so much. tourism and parklands. Even during my last years in Germany I prefered to hike around in the Vosges, the French equivalent.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Thank you.

In the mountains of New York.....when I was a boy. I learned to chop wood with out chopping off a foot and use a maul and wedge....pre chain saw....for what we were doing. Chainsaws were rather new back then...and not everyone had one. It wasn't farm life then....wood for the fireplace not for cooking....farm life came later at my Grandfathers Mississippi farm....three months of farming is enough for anyone.

 

I read a lot....in I'm writing the worlds longest City Slicker western I have to know everything about 1880.

I'd often but more in Germany seen wood/coal burning kitchen stoves....but have not cooked on them....do know how though. Fireplaces are nice but better if there is another heat source also. .... unless you have a real proper made house and a sweater.

 

Those tile kitchen/'living' room sit on the side of them stoves is something one should have for bad times......sigh....all I got is my Weaver....on my balcony. I'm forced to be optimistic.

Edited October 20, 2016 by Bo Bo Olson