Einstein's Pen

[andybiotic]

I still think the bit above the clip of that pen in Einstein's pocket is a tad too short to be a Pelikan 100N... Perhaps another less well known German pen at around that time?

 

Any idea, Bo Bo? You are the expert on vintage German pens!

[tdeecy]

Einstein said that because he spent six years thinking about what would happen if a person were riding on the very front of a beam of light and thrust his arm out in front of him, he flunked math. Okaaaay!

[Uncle Red]

Here's the current link to Einstein's Taper Cap

http://www.museumboerhaave.nl/object/vulpen-van-einstein-met-briefje-van-ehrenfest-v34180/

[Patrician]

I think it looks like a Tropen Scholar. Einstein's clip looks a bit thick and has a slight upward bend.

 

http://www.njuskalo.hr/image-w450/stare-stvari/nalivpero-tropen-scholar-1954g-slika-907499.jpg

 

I think so, too. It looks like the very popular Tropen pens. Some had quite flexible ss nibs and others even more flexy gold ones.

 

Here's the current link to Einstein's Taper Cap

http://www.museumboerhaave.nl/object/vulpen-van-einstein-met-briefje-van-ehrenfest-v34180/

 

The amazing thing is that he wrote his most significant works with that Waterman pen and then gave it as a present and a sign of recognition to the friend Ehrenfest who read and proofed his work. After his first wife did it, this is.

[kps]

Though I agree it looks like a Tropen or Goldfink (and am definitely not an expert on any of these), this gallery at Martin Lehmann's pelikan-guide.com shows that there do exist Pelikan 100N variants with shorter cap tops and thick clip rings.

[CAG_1787]

I'm afraid I can't add what particular pen that is, though thismight be of some passing interest.

[fncll]

Einstein said that because he spent six years thinking about what would happen if a person were riding on the very front of a beam of light and thrust his arm out in front of him, he flunked math. Okaaaay!

 

Except, of course, he didn't flunk math. Just one of many myths. He was actually doing differential equations and more at 15...at one point he considered becoming a mathematician.

 

Einstein was a singularly fascinating and normally flawed man. I can't recommend the Isaacson biography often enough. Even to those with a casual interest...

 

 

And he could tie his shoes, just in case that myth finds its way here

[tdeecy]

Thank you for the info. Tell me more about the Isaacson bio?

 

TC.

[georgeb]

Link to book on amazon.com

 

http://www.amazon.com/Einstein-Life-Universe-Walter-Isaacson/dp/0743264746/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334959929&sr=1-1

[andybiotic]

Sorry for bring this up again, but I really want to figure out what pen that is in Einstein's jacket pocket

 

Is it remotely possible that it is a Conway, does it HAVE to be a German pen? I think the blind cap really looks something like the Conway 286, where the top is slightly pointy though it is slightly shorter than the on in Einstein's pocket... :hmm1:

Edited May 4, 2012 by andybiotic

[asaha]

Maybe just a pen cap :roflmho:

 

You know, we can not predict genius' behaviour :roflmho:

[UDog]

You're all wrong. It's a Pilot Varsity, of course.

[andybiotic]

Maybe just a pen cap :roflmho:

 

You know, we can not predict genius' behaviour :roflmho:

 

 

That would be so unexpected! That evil genius! :roflmho:

 

Wouldn't it be funny if Einstein had planned it all, thinking "I bet people in the future will be guessing what pen I am carrying but never suspect that I am tricking them by clipping only the cap of a random no name pen!! :roflmho: "

[impossiblebird]

Though I agree it looks like a Tropen or Goldfink (and am definitely not an expert on any of these), this gallery at Martin Lehmann's pelikan-guide.com shows that there do exist Pelikan 100N variants with shorter cap tops and thick clip rings.

It reminds me of a Kaweco I have lurking somewhere, with a nib that proved not quite as flexy as some silly sausage thought it might be.

[bernardo]

I don't think it's a Pelikan; the top is just too short. I would go for a cheaper variant, knowing that Einstein was a very simple man, not looking for luxuries of any kind.

[esterbex]

Einstein said that because he spent six years thinking about what would happen if a person were riding on the very front of a beam of light and thrust his arm out in front of him, he flunked math. Okaaaay!

 

Except, of course, he didn't flunk math. Just one of many myths. He was actually doing differential equations and more at 15...at one point he considered becoming a mathematician.

 

Einstein was a singularly fascinating and normally flawed man. I can't recommend the Isaacson biography often enough. Even to those with a casual interest...

 

 

And he could tie his shoes, just in case that myth finds its way here

 

 

 

Link to book on amazon.com

 

http://www.amazon.co...34959929&sr=1-1

 

 

 

 

Thank you both for this...book on the way!

[Robinkeys]

YES! Einstein truly was a genius! Just saying, though, the man with the white glasses in the back really freaks me out. :blink:

[ScienceZach]

A bit tangential, but it warmed my heart to see people conversing intelligently about the theories of general relativity and the consequences of the Standard Model and other such strange, wonderful things.

[maryannemoll]

Methinks it's a no-name pencil holder. :roflmho:

 

I had fun reading this, you guys.

[kamerawork]

A few years ago I successfully found a twin to Herr Dr. Einstein's Longines pocket watch for my son, a physics graduate, and took up as a next quest a duplicate of Einstein's fountain pen. This discussion thread turned up in my first Google search. It seemed inconclusive, but I was unable to find any better image of Einstein holding his FP UNTIL ......

after using the bathroom in an antique mall I turned around to be confronted with a poster of Lotte Jacobi's 1982 photo of him doing calculations, dressed in a leather jacket, tablet on his knee and pen in hand.

The pen is marked with three distinctive rings at the base of the cap, and fairly tall crown on the cap. Looking at Pavoni May 19, 2013 post in the Montblanc Forum, it seems to me that Einstein's pen is a Soennecken. I thought it might be a 510, but don't see one with a correspondingly tall crown. In any event I'll attach a section of the Jacobi photo as well as some others that seem to confirm the opinion of a commenter below, that the pocket decor at the awards ceremony was his everyday user. If we can definitively decide on a model number for th epen then I can move foreward on my quest.