About MB Traveller LE 1924

[Mr.Rene]

Greetings all,

Any idea about  with a new filling mechanism featured exclusively in the Traveler?

What is the innovation?

Best regards,

René.

[JCC123]

 

[a student]

10 hours ago, Mr.Rene said:

What is the innovation?

 

Short answer to that question: NONE

 

The pen has a vacuum filler mechanism as distinct from the usual piston mechanism used in the 149s. Perhaps for Montblanc it may well be a first but the Conid (the bulkfiller) as well as some pens from Taiwan and Mainland China offer pens that are vacuum fillers. There may be others as well. This video shows the traveller being filled up.

 

The thread link by @JCC123 in the preceding post offers an interesting discussion including a link to the more rare, and of course way more expensive, edition of the traveller

Edited October 25, 2024 by a student
typo

[NoType]

49 minutes ago, a student said:

 

Short answer to that question: NONE

 

The pen has a vacuum filler mechanism as distinct from the usual piston mechanism used in the 149s. Perhaps for Montblanc it may well be a first but the Conid (the bulkfiller) as well as some pens from Taiwan and Mainland China offer pens that are vacuum fillers. There may be others as well. This video shows the traveller being filled up.

 

The thread link by @JCC123 in the preceding post offers an interesting discussion including a link to the more rare, and of course way more expensive, edition of the traveller

@a student Well, I beg to differ; there must be some innovation involved, considering Montblanc received a patent for the pen and filling mechanism.  @JCC123 posted this in the “100th Anniversary editions” thread:

 

And as @JCC123 says,

“anyone interested can find the patent here: https://www.patentguru.com/US20230331027A1”

 

None of the above is to say that there is no similarity between Montblanc’s version and other filling systems like that of the Conid you mention, as well as Pelikan’s Level L65 and L5: https://www.pelikan-collectibles.com/en/Pelikan/Models/Level-Series/index.html, the similarity first noted by @Michael R. in the “100th Anniversary editions” thread on 5 July, with concordance by @Lam1 on 6 July in the same thread.

 

I just took a small exception to the contention that Montblanc’s filling system does not involve any innovation.

[a student]

1 hour ago, NoType said:

Well, I beg to differ; there must be some innovation involved, considering Montblanc received a patent for the pen and filling mechanism.

 

Thank you for your post, and you may wll be right. Prima facie, the "innovative" bit seems to be to make the process more cumbersome and a bit of a ritual. That said, the traveller 2024 filling system appears to be just one form of a vacuum filler

Edited October 25, 2024 by a student
typo

[NoType]

11 minutes ago, a student said:

 

Thank you for your post, and you may wll be right. Prima facie, the "innovative" bit seems to be to make the process more cumbersoms and a bit of a ritual. That said, the traveller 2024 filling system appears to be just one form of a vacuum filler

@a student And thank you for being so gracious and patient about my demurral.  Rereading the “100th Anniversary editions” thread in the July timeline I saw several of your posts and realised that you must be well acquainted with the finer details of the Meisterstück Traveller 1924 pen and filling mechanism, so forgive my belabouring the obvious.

 

I concur with your points in your latest post.

 

[a student]

1 hour ago, NoType said:

@a student And thank you for being so gracious and patient about my demurral.  Rereading the “100th Anniversary editions” thread in the July timeline I saw several of your posts and realised that you must be well acquainted with the finer details of the Meisterstück Traveller 1924 pen and filling mechanism, so forgive my belabouring the obvious.

 

I concur with your points in your latest post.

 

Greatly appreciate your kind response. 

 

Personally, I am a little disenamoured with the patent process in general. As all know every year the camera brands obtain multiple patents. And these "innovations", doubtless, are incorporated. Yet in practice most go unnoticed to the person actually using the cameras- even the replacement of a brass top plate by an aluminium one may get patented. All that the knowledge of new patents actually helps with is in judging the likelihood of the launch of the newer iteration of the existing model. Of course this is just my view.

[NoType]

On 10/25/2024 at 1:44 AM, a student said:

All that the knowledge of new patents actually helps with is in judging the likelihood of the launch of the newer iteration of the existing model.

@a student This is an excellent point about the frivolity underlying the patent process in many instances — well taken — which therefore demands viewing successful patent applications dispassionately and objectively with consideration of merit and usefulness.  I concede that many examples, such as the technology of Montblanc’s new pen and filling system, may not pass this test of their worth in real world application.

[Mr.Rene]

I see...so..the filling system recall me Pelikan Level Filler...

Regards...

R.

[NoType]

1 hour ago, Mr.Rene said:

I see...so..the filling system recall me Pelikan Level Filler...

Regards...

R.

@Mr.Rene Yes, it seems to be similar.

[dbs]

22 hours ago, Mr.Rene said:

Greetings all,

Any idea about  with a new filling mechanism featured exclusively in the Traveler?

What is the innovation?

Best regards,

René.

This is the second major innovations Montblanc ever made for its modern fountain pen. The first one is Heritage 1912 mechanism. This vacuum filling mechanism has been floating on the paper for more than a decade and this time, it is finally out. However, with a rather shocking price.

 

I wish Montblanc can make a cheaper version (like Heritage 1912) so people in low living condition can enjoy too, instead of blindly claiming "NONE".

 

 

[Dillo]

This seems to be a very interesting filling mechanism. It's double chambered like the Pelikan Level and Visconti Double Reservoir Power Filler. It seems to me that the special ink bottle cap that comes with the pen is a necessary part of the filling mechanism. This makes it quite a bit more like the Pelikan Level because in a way the filling system of the pen is not fully self-contained. This sort of thing does make me somewhat itchy in a way because if the external parts get lost, that can be a bit of an issue. Sometimes the external pieces also fail with time. There is also an external cleaner mechanism that Montblanc makes and includes with the pen. When you attach it, it opens up the center valve between the two reservoirs so that you can flush the pen out fast. It appears to be quite a mechanically complex pen.

 

That said, I do think it's pretty cool and interesting. For the asking price though, I can buy a few other pens for the price that will probably make me happier. I've come to really appreciate pens that either have the filling system completely self-contained or eyedropper pens because you either don't have external pieces to worry about and make sure you keep track of or the external pieces (eyedropper) can be picked up anywhere and substituted with many things out there like syringes, pipettes, and other liquid transfer tools. (As a side note, you can refill the Pelikan Level with a blunt steel needle of the same gauge as the one in the special Pelikan Level ink bottle. When you push the ink in, make sure you pull air out of the pen before you pull out the needle).

[Opooh]

On 10/27/2024 at 4:48 AM, Dillo said:

This seems to be a very interesting filling mechanism. It's double chambered like the Pelikan Level and Visconti Double Reservoir Power Filler. It seems to me that the special ink bottle cap that comes with the pen is a necessary part of the filling mechanism. This makes it quite a bit more like the Pelikan Level because in a way the filling system of the pen is not fully self-contained. This sort of thing does make me somewhat itchy in a way because if the external parts get lost, that can be a bit of an issue. Sometimes the external pieces also fail with time. There is also an external cleaner mechanism that Montblanc makes and includes with the pen. When you attach it, it opens up the center valve between the two reservoirs so that you can flush the pen out fast. It appears to be quite a mechanically complex pen.

 

That said, I do think it's pretty cool and interesting. For the asking price though, I can buy a few other pens for the price that will probably make me happier. I've come to really appreciate pens that either have the filling system completely self-contained or eyedropper pens because you either don't have external pieces to worry about and make sure you keep track of or the external pieces (eyedropper) can be picked up anywhere and substituted with many things out there like syringes, pipettes, and other liquid transfer tools. (As a side note, you can refill the Pelikan Level with a blunt steel needle of the same gauge as the one in the special Pelikan Level ink bottle. When you push the ink in, make sure you pull air out of the pen before you pull out the needle).

I agree, the filling and cleaning system, although it is very ingenieus, sucks. It is no progress but a voyage back in time. In early days of fountain pens one needed auxilary pieces to fill a pen, cartrigges, pistonfillers etc solved this problem. Only positive point is that you can thoroughly clean the traveller.

they had better contacten Conid, their Bulkfiller is also super for cleaning and they have a mega reservoir, but they don’t need auxilary pieces to do the job.

[Dillo]

I think that the worst part of it is how complicated the extra parts are. It's going to be really difficult to deal with this pen many years down the road when those things are lost. That's so different from classic eyedroppers because even though they need other items, you can just pour ink in somehow, and there's a ton of ways to do that. What's going to make this even worse is that it's so expensive that there aren't going to be many out there. That's going to make it extremely difficult to find parts and extras and pieces for it so it can be filled.

[stric75]

@NoType except Pelican Level filling system was impossible to clean in conventional fashion. It appears that MB tried to dddress the issue of cleaning it. Needless to say, I find this traveler by MB to be unnecessarily complicated. 

[Opooh]

3 hours ago, stric75 said:

@NoType except Pelican Level filling system was impossible to clean in conventional fashion. It appears that MB tried to dddress the issue of cleaning it. Needless to say, I find this traveler by MB to be unnecessarily complicated. 

Like I Saïd, Conid Bulkfiller does the job without any accessoires.

[stric75]

On 1/5/2025 at 2:13 AM, Opooh said:

Like I Saïd, Conid Bulkfiller does the job without any accessoires.

Ditto

[Lam1]

Lots of pens do the job without any accessories. But the Conid bulkfiller has a very different filling system, which has no resemblance to this one.
 

[a student]

On 10/25/2024 at 10:34 PM, dbs said:

This is the second major innovations Montblanc ever made for its modern fountain pen. The first one is Heritage 1912 mechanism. This vacuum filling mechanism has been floating on the paper for more than a decade and this time, it is finally out. However, with a rather shocking price.

 

I wish Montblanc can make a cheaper version (like Heritage 1912) so people in low living condition can enjoy too, instead of blindly claiming "NONE".

 

 

 

I just remembered seeing a retractable nib fountain pen of the 1912 variety, a piston filler and not a cartridge feed, at F.P. Journe the watchmaker in Geneva, well before the MB innovation if memory serves. But that colourful piece would I suppose be closer to "jewellery" as distinct from a pen meant for writing and would be competing with fountain pens from Breguet and the like. 

 

I don't doubt that MB may have incorporated "innovations" in its new Traveler (one item it sure is a bit tricky to travel with but what do I know).  The level of some innovations truly amaze me though. A book shop I have used a lot from time to time has apparently decided to "patent" its innovation: a Help Desk- the relevant bit of mail may be seen below as this one is truly difficult to believe:

It’s 2025. New Year, New you? We get it, it can be hard to know where to begin. We took the liberty of approaching the Philosophy Help Desk (patent pending) in order to get a look at our options – and the kindly Blackwell's booksellers there suggested some new books (and some old) to help us on our way.

[beamcorp]

Definitely not a traveler type pen with all the complexities and extras.