An unusual Laughlin

Laughlin is not one of the better-known American pen manufacturers, though they came up with some unusual and innovative designs -- not so much in the way of styling so much as gadgeteering.

When I saw this Laughlin at a show earlier in the year, it caught my eye as a somewhat oddly proportioned screw-cap dropper-filler. And then I noticed that the cap was two-piece.

After unscrewing the top and playing with it a bit, I discovered that there was a spring-loaded inner cap inside. You can see how it all goes together in the picture below. The cap would not have been intended to be taken apart by the user, at least not on a regular basis. I bet a lot of curious users ended up dropping and losing the little coil spring, though. 

"A lot" would have been relative to the number of total owners, though, which likely wasn't that many. This is the only example of such a cap that I've seen, and surely it met with little commercial success. It offers no better sealing than a conventional fixed inner cap, and where a fixed inner cap gives a nice crisp feel to the closure when the cap is screwed all the way down, the spring cap makes the last half-turn or so decidedly mushy and draggy.

There is no patent imprint on the pen. A bit of searching, however, uncovered US1075631, awarded to Harry B. Dods in 1913 and assigned to Diamond Point. How it ended up used on a Laughlin, who knows?

A Moore sleeve-filler in safety disguise

Most collectors think of Moore as a rather staid company, especially in the hard rubber era. For the company's first couple of decades, it's pretty much only their classic safety pens, virtually all in black hard rubber. But there are exceptions -- rare, but all the more intriguing as a result.

The pen shown above would seem to be yet another Moore safety. Upon closer examination, though, it turns out to be something completely different: a sleeve-filler, and one of notably distinctive design. 

The sleeve that covers the barrel opening doesn't slide. Rather, it is retracted by being turned: it is threaded onto the end of the barrel. Other aspects of the pen's construction are similar to what is seen in  Moore's safeties.

The sprung pressure bar is stamped "LICENSED UNDER/PATENT 781.649" -- Robert A. Hamilton's US patent of 1905. So far I have not found any mention of other pens made under this patent, nor indeed any mention of this particular model in Moore catalogs or advertising (noting for accuracy's sake that the company was still called the American Fountain Pen Company at the time of its manufacture). There is an old thread at the FPN website discussing thumb-fillers of various kinds, where this patent was noted without any actual examples being identified.

The Van Winkle Pen Company

It's not every day you see an early 20th-century taper-cap with a glass barrel. A patent application for this design was filed on October 24, 1910 and US patent 995307 was duly issued on June 13, 1911. The core part of the invention was the use of a metal tube between two barrel end pieces, over which either conventional pearl slabs could be mounted, or a glass tube allowing for insertion of printed advertising. This was the brainchild of Ralph F. Van Winkle, of Erie, Pennsylvania.

The patent date is imprinted at the end of barrel, next to the trim band. You'll also notice that there is a hole at the end of the barrel. Yes, this taper-cap is also a blow-filler. 

The ad below appeared in Commercial America, vol. 8, no. 4 (October 1911), p. 35.

Another Van Winkle product was the No-Dip Penholder, another blow-filling design -- basically a fountain pen for use at the desk, utilizing ordinary dip pen nibs.

This ad appeared in Commercial America, vol. 10, no. 1 (July 1913), p. 31. By this time the Van Winkle Pen Company had moved to Franklin, Pennsylvania, which is also the location indicated on our taper-cap pen at top. Unfortunately the company was out of business shortly thereafter. A brief entry in Geyer's Stationer of October 14, 1915, p. 11 reports the demise the previous week of R. F. Van Winkle of Franklin, PA from a brain tumor, noting that he had been in "poor health for more than two years, and because of this was forced to relinquish his business interests and retire to private life. The Van Winkle Co. was then disbanded."

The Conway Stewart "pump-action" pen

One never knows what might be lurking on a table at a pen show. This unprepossessing black hard rubber pen caught my eye with its unusual shape and obvious quality. On closer inspection, its imprints identified it as a very early Conway Stewart, but not a model I recognized.

 

The nib bears no name, and is ventless. Underneath, its front part is roughened -- a holdover from gold dip pen nibs that was eliminated from fountain pen nibs during the 'teens. 

The screw cap has an imprint with an arrow at its top to show which way to turn it to unscrew, another typically early feature. The feed is notable, consisting of two flat fingerlike projections, with a narrow rectangular projection below. The projections are so flat they reminded me of the Wirt safety, and sure enough there is a axial post inside the cap that extends under the feed when the cap is on, making contact with the rectangular projection, which can slide back and forth. Clearly it was originally spring-loaded, and the post would push it down and seal the central hole in the feed when the cap was fully tightened.

Once I got home, I took a look at Steve Hull's Conway Stewart monograph, Fountain Pens for the Million. Sure enough, on page 15 our mystery pen appears: The Conway Pump-Action Pen. At the time the book was written no actual examples were known to the author, but the engraved illustration turns out to be an accurate depiction in all details.

 

Coincidentally, on the same page there begins a discussion of how Conway Stewart made no pens of their own from the company's founding up through 1909. Elsewhere it is noted that a substantial number of pens sold by Conway Stewart during their early years were American-made. Could this pen have been a Wirt product? The shutoff valve and the ventless nib certainly point in that direction.

The reciprocating valve on Wirt safeties is different, as it uses a weight rather than a spring. The flat feed is gold and one-piece, not hard rubber. Just as was the case with stylographic pens, a weight is less likely to break than a spring. Though our Conway does not appear to have seen a great deal of use, its gold spring had broken (a replacement was made from corrosion-resistant stainless steel).

Wirt's patent was issued on December 13, 1910 as US978419. Actual manufacture and sale started earlier -- judging from advertising and trade journal mentions, around the time the patent application was submitted on October 31, 1908.

The Wirt safety patent is written rather narrowly, making quite specific claims for a metallic feed and the form of the valve. No mention is made of alternative feed materials or the possibility of using a spring, so while the Wirt design is tantalizingly similar, it is also sufficiently different that the Conway's design may well be covered by another patent entirely which I have not yet been able to identify. Perhaps that patent is British, as a close examination of all the US patent databases turns up nothing.

Fairchild figural pencil: Winchester 1890

This figural magic pencil I hadn't seen before. It's a Fairchild in the shape of a rimfire round, gold filled with a silver "bullet".

Between its proportions and the prominent "WINCHESTER" visible once the pencil is extended, it is clear that the round represented is a .22 Winchester Rim Fire (WRF). This pencil was likely made as a promotional item at the time the round was introduced in 1890. Its dimensions are about half again as large as an actual round, however, with the "bullet" around 0.3 inches in diameter.

Opposite the "WINCHESTER" imprint is the Fairchild mark, along with a patent date of September 23, 1879. Several Fairchild patents were issued on that date, all design patents for different novelty pencils, but none for a pencil like this. Perhaps premarked components originally made for different figural pencils were utilized for this special-order design. Another possibility is that the date refers to  a Winchester patent for a method of manufacturing hollow-point bullets, US219840, though this seems less likely.

An early multi-nib dip pen

This unmarked silver dip pen was recently acquired from a seller in England. It is very slender, and the pointed end is reminiscent of the peg often found attached to quill knives, used to split the quill.

The pointed end can be taken out of the barrel and reversed. There is a gold nib on the other side -- and two more in the reversing plug at the other end of the barrel.

The nibs are untipped and clearly hand-made, of a form typical for precious metal nibs of the 18th and early 19th century. Why it was necessary to have three nibs in one instrument is a mystery. The nibs do not appear to differ much in width or other qualities.

Unusual Moores

I've been collecting Moores in my typically unsystematic way for quite a few years, putting away pre-lever-filler examples that catch my attention as interesting and unusual (OK, so it isn't as unsystematic as all that). This week two such pens turned up, shown above.

The top pen is doubly unusual, in that it is an eyedropper-filling stylographic. Many fountain pen makers also offered stylos, which are typically far less common than nibbed pens. Moore stylographics are rare indeed, with most made in the form of safety pens, the stylo tip retracting into the barrel in the same manner as in Moore's regular safeties (photo here).

A distinguishing feature of Moore stylographic safety pens is the orange dome on their caps -- just as is seen on the second recently-received pen. In this case, however, the pen is neither a stylo nor converted from one, for inside the cap there is the central safety post -- a feature lacking in Moore stylos, for obvious reasons. Aside from the orange dome, the pen is a normal Midget safety from the late 'teens or early 1920s, with a Moore rather than an American Fountain Pen Co. nib.

A re-imprinted Duofold Senior

The Parker Duofold Senior shown above has several unusual features, all of which would seem to be old and original. Capped, the pen appears to be a completely standard Mandarin from around 1927.

The nib, however, is a Lucky Curve #7 of the sort found on Senior-sized non-Duofold pens of the pre-streamline era. It sits atop a Vacumatic-era comb feed. Comb feeds are often found retrofitted to Duofolds originally equipped with "spearhead" Lucky Curve feeds, but with either an original Duofold nib, or with an arrow-imprint nib marked on the heel with a star to denote the Duofold guarantee. One just doesn't see #7 Lucky Curve nibs used as replacements.

This all makes more sense upon examination of the barrel, which bears two imprints. One is the expected later 1920s Lucky Curve imprint, which has largely been polished away. The other is the typical 1930s one-line generic Parker imprint with no model name, which only shows modest wear and is clearly legible. The pen can best be characterized as a downgraded Duofold Senior, assembled from surplus parts to be sold without the Duofold name or guarantee. Given the comb feed and the lack of a date code on the barrel, this assembly likely took place around 1933-34.

Other downgraded Duofolds are known; a pristine Lapis Blue Senior set was sold at an Ohio pen show auction a few years ago, if I remember correctly, though that pen bore but a single barrel imprint, with the Lucky Curve banner but without the Duofold name. And a double-imprinted Big Red was the topic of discussion some years back in one of the online forums. Such pens are rare, though, so this Mandarin is a welcome discovery.

ADDENDUM: Opening up the pen revealed the petrified sac shown in fragments below. It is lightly stenciled "PARKER ANODE", strongly suggesting that this is the original factory-installed sac. The pressure bar is also original, and two-piece (Parker button-fillers assembled later in the 1930s were fitted with a three-piece pressure bar instead).

Overall condition of the pen as it came to us was excellent, with only a few small spots of ink inside the cap.

An unusual Fairchild combo

The Fairchild combination dip pen and pencil shown above recently came to us from the wild. The seller described it as a pencil and was apparently unaware that it also had a nib -- a #6 Fairchild by all appearances original to its holder, still covered with a vivid green ink from its last usage.

Although it appears to be a standard combo with slide-out nib, twist-out pencil nozzle, and pull-out extension taper, inside there is the mechanism from a magic pencil. Pull the end knob, and the nozzle extends. Once the nozzle is fully extended, the taper can then be pulled out to its full length. Push the end knob in, and the nozzle retracts back into the barrel.

This isn't all. If the pencil nozzle is extended and the sliding ring is pushed forward to extend the nib, the ring only goes so far before hitting a stop (position shown below), after which further extension of the nib effects automatic retraction of the nozzle.

The end knob unscrews to reveal a lead reservoir, still retaining a few pieces of lead. They measure .048 inches in diameter, noting that the nozzle is clearly marked "8".

The extending taper is marked on opposite sides with the maker's mark and the patent date of September 15, 1874. This refers to US patent 155008, issued to Richard M. Collard. In Jonathan Veley's American Writing Instrument Patents 1799-1910, nine of Collard's writing instrument patents are listed. Four are listed as assigned to Fairchild (287907, 291297, 291879, 300346), but not 155008, which could well have been assigned or licensed without leaving any visible public record. The claims of this patent do not cover the entirety of the construction, only the feature enabling automatic retraction of the nozzle upon extension of the nib, along with some details of internal construction.

One discovery inside another

Experienced Waterman collectors have long been familiar with the giant mottled hard rubber straight-cap illustrated in Fischler and Schneider’s “Blue Book” (Fountain Pens and Pencils: The Golden Age of Writing Instruments, first ed. 1990), where it was described as significantly larger than all known #8-size straight-caps, and possibly being #10-size. This pen was discovered some 30 years ago, purchased at a California flea market along with a large group of Waterman Ripples. No similar pen has turned up since. The pen remained in the collection of its original finder for many years until being sold to a European collector. The dispersal of that collection several years ago made possible yet another discovery.

The pen was originally found without a nib and is comparable in size to Watermans that carry a #10 nib at 15.6 cm long closed, with a cap easily wide enough to accommodate a nib of that size. Nonetheless, the section and feed are clearly sized to hold a #8 nib, not a #10 – not even an early ventless, example. Nor could the pen be as early as Fischler and Schneider dated it, for the barrel imprint includes the August 4, 1903 patent date as does the feed. Though it has gone unremarked to date, the feed is unique: neither three-fissure nor spoon feed, it is narrow and rectangular in section with ink-trapping channels running parallel and on either side of the central feed channel. These ink-trapping channels do not open to the sides and are only vented to the underside by means of short slots that are almost entirely hidden inside the section; these slots appear to serve the same function as the holes found on the underside of the largest Waterman spoon feeds where the holes connect to the semicircular side cutouts. This design is otherwise unknown and does not appear in any Waterman patent – though it is boldly imprinted with the dates for spoon feed patents 625722 and 735659, from 1899 and 1903. As noted in a previous post ("An unusual Waterman feed") the slots would seem to be most closely connected to Weidlich's US patent 760,829 of 1904. The feed was carefully removed for photography then replaced in the exact position as found. The ink residue on both section and feed left no doubt that the feed had not previously been removed.

On first examination a small axial pillar was noted inside the barrel, loosely mounted. Since it was apparent that the posting end was made from a separate piece of hard rubber, I attempted to unscrew it. To my surprise and astonishment the pen was revealed to be a pump-filler – the “pillar” being the weight-holding shaft, the applied metal weight having disintegrated to powder as is often seen.

Although the pen is extremely large the pump itself is not comparably oversized. Instead, the inside diameter of the barrel is reduced at the back by means of an insert – the separate piece probably the result of using tube rather than rod stock for the barrel. The ink residue again indicated a pen untouched for decades. One final anomaly is the barrel imprint, which is upside down when the pen is held in the right hand in writing position. I have seen only one other Waterman with such an imprint: a prototype pump-filler, acquired several years ago along with a number of other experimental non-production items from the granddaughter of a Waterman employee – an employee whose identity I was unfortunately unable to trace.

Why the inverted imprint? I think both pens may have belonged to the same person, someone who played a central role in design and engineering at Waterman – and who was, in all likelihood, left-handed. The prime candidate is none other than William Irving Ferris, the engineering genius responsible for nearly every significant Waterman innovation from the 1890s on, and most prominently, the spoon feed and the pump-filler (more on Ferris here; I have had no success to date in determining if Ferris was indeed left-handed).

For the moment, this is only speculation – though it is hard to imagine who else could have been responsible for this pen’s unique combination of extraordinary features. If it was not Ferris, it would have to have been someone just like him: yet as far as we know, Ferris was one of a kind – as is this pen.

NOTE: The photos above were taken in 2009, immediately after the pen was first thoroughly examined and its special features noted. They are being shared with the full permission of the pen's current owner. I have since confirmed that all its previous owners were entirely unaware that it was a pump-filler. The delay in publication is my own fault as I mistakenly believed I had already posted on it.

Wirt Jointless

 

Not long ago I acquired a nice Wirt dropper-filler -- a classic slender black chased hard rubber overfeed straight-cap, with 1882 and 1885 patent dates on the barrel.

Yet there was something more lying in wait. Look at the picture at top and the picture below, and you'll see there's a little step at the very mouth of the section. And the section doesn't seem to have a threaded joint separating it from the barrel . . . .

With a careful application of water (just at the section mouth, avoiding spotting of the hard rubber elsewhere), a bit of patience, and some careful wiggling, the nib unit came out as shown below.

A "jointless" design, very close to Parker's, patented in 1899 (US patent 622,256). I don't know of any advertisements for this particular Wirt model, nor is it familiar to the Parker experts I've been able to consult. Perhaps Wirt licensed the design, though it could also have been a case of trying it out unofficially to see if it was worth licensing.

December 2020 Update: Another Wirt jointless has turned up and is described here.