Early fountain pens. (Approx 1890-1910).

[HLeopold]

I picked up a great Paul Wirt Eyedropper today Dated 1903

Here's a pic...

 

Nice looking pen, but where is the picture of the nib?

[AllWriteNow]

Here sorry not a great pic

[Dave Johannsen]

Here sorry not a great pic

 

Is that a Waterman's nib? I can't read the imprint in your photo, but I usually associate nibs without breather holes to early Wirt (and are often unimprinted except for a laurel wreath). The only thing that springs to mind when I see the photo that you posted is a very early and scarce Waterman's nib (known for the "horseshoe" slit). If the nib is a Waterman's, you've got something pretty uncommon there, and it may pay to look for a Waterman's collector who may pay dearly for such a nib (would more than cover the cost for replacing the one in the pen with a correct Wirt nib). If on the other hand the nib is a Wirt, thanks for showing me something that I hadn't seen before. Regardless of the nib's "correctness" the pen is an absolute stunner! Congratulations.

 

 

Dave

[AllWriteNow]

I'll get a better pic today.

It says " WIRT No.2"

 

Steve

[Dave Johannsen]

I'll get a better pic today.

It says " WIRT No.2"

 

Steve

Steve:

 

Thanks for the education on this - I'm happy to learn something new!

 

By the way, I like your avatar(?). Are you a Marine? I left active duty in 1991, though the Marines have never left me.

 

 

Semper Fi,

 

Dave

Edited August 22, 2007 by Dave Johannsen

[AllWriteNow]

Not a Marine.

Just like the camo pattern!

 

Thank you for serving Our country!

[Johnny Appleseed]

The lack of ink holding in early feeds is why you see some pens with double feeds, a feed that covers not only the usual bottom of the nib, but the top of it as well. It was an attempt to get enough ink to the nib to handle peak demands for ink. (Mabie Todd Swans used a lot of double feeds long after most had stopped using them.)

 

I don't think the double feed was to get more ink for peak demands. The over-feed was originally developed in the early days of feed design, when people were trying all sorts of different methods for feeding ink to the nib. The underfeed method did not completely take over until the early 1900s - I have a Sears catalog page from 1902 with lots of Paul Wirt over-feed eyedroppers. Overfeeds also were used to help reduce evaporation (I think Wearever introduced a bunch of metal overfeeds in the 1930s-40s era with that in mind).

 

John

[HLeopold]

The lack of ink holding in early feeds is why you see some pens with double feeds, a feed that covers not only the usual bottom of the nib, but the top of it as well. It was an attempt to get enough ink to the nib to handle peak demands for ink. (Mabie Todd Swans used a lot of double feeds long after most had stopped using them.)

 

I don't think the double feed was to get more ink for peak demands. The over-feed was originally developed in the early days of feed design, when people were trying all sorts of different methods for feeding ink to the nib. The underfeed method did not completely take over until the early 1900s - I have a Sears catalog page from 1902 with lots of Paul Wirt over-feed eyedroppers. Overfeeds also were used to help reduce evaporation (I think Wearever introduced a bunch of metal overfeeds in the 1930s-40s era with that in mind).

 

John

 

Very possible, nothing in the design was set in stone so they would try just about anything. Plus there is the patent problem, nothing like being sued out of business for using someone else’s idea.

[Vintagepens]

Where overfeeds excel is in maintaining ink flow to a flexible nib. If the overfeed is flexible -- as virtually all of them are -- it will flex with the nib, as opposed to the typical underfeed which will stay put as the nib flexes up and away, interrupting capillary flow.

[AllWriteNow]

I picked up a few more early ED pens I also acquired a nice ED Stylographic pen marked "HARVEY"

Left to Right

2 MANOS Twist Fillers

EVERREADY ED

NEW LINCOLN ED

WIRT Over Feed ED

A traveling dip pen? Aluminum Nib marked TENACITY PEN Co. Pittsburgh

WIRT ED with Straight Split Nib