An unusual 1880 patent Cross stylographic pen

This unprepossessing Cross stylograph arrived along with a group of early Cross nibbed fountain pens -- the centerpieces of the lot. Upon closer examination, however, this conventional-looking stylo turned out to have some unusual features.

The writing tip is typical enough on the outside, but the gold needle is stepped, with a thicker body and a thinner end. Needles are normally made from wire of constant thickness. Then there is the oddly fastened retaining wire through the hard rubber shaft.

Once the end cap at the other end of the barrel is unscrewed, there is something else out of the ordinary: a metal ball. Trying to figure out how the pen worked, I pushed down on the needle to see if it was spring-loaded. It was, but not in the usual way where the needle moves and the central shaft stays fixed. Here the entire central shaft was spring-loaded, and when it was pushed back into the barrel, the little metal ball at the end was pushed off its seat as well. Clearly they formed a single assembly, with the ball hooked to the central shaft via an attached loop and hook.

What was this supposed to accomplish? My initial thought was that this was some sort of early valve design, where the pressure of writing would move the needle back and allow the ball valve to admit just enough air to keep the ink flowing. Such overelaborate valve designs are found in many early fountain pen patents of this same era, though few actual examples are known. In this case, however, the possibility was immediately ruled out by the length of the needle -- not long enough to protrude, nor to be pushed back in use -- and the excessive stiffness of the spring. Fortunately, this guesswork did not have to be relied upon, since the pen bears good clear patent imprints for June 29, 1880. Issued on that date to A. T. Cross was US patent 229,305.

Several variations are shown and described, with the same central concept. The actuation of the mechanism is not via the needle, but rather via the ball -- which is a knob, not a valve. The patent explains that the arrangement "provides convenient means for clearing the fine tube at the lower end of the ink-chamber, or at the point of the pen, from interfering sediment or ink deposit, without the necessity, as heretofore, of either opening or partially opening the ink-chamber". The inks of the 1870s and 1880s were not always optimally free-flowing, hence this attempt to create a pen with a self-unclogging mechanism -- a "tube-clearing spindle", in the parlance of the patent. In case of a stoppage, the end cap was to be unscrewed and the little ball pulled and allowed to snap back into place. Whether this would have squirted ink out the nozzle is not noted in the patent, though it seems all too probable.
Cross patented numerous stylographic pen mechanisms, not all of which are known to have been produced. This is one that I do not recall having seen before.

An overmarked stylo

Quite a few penmakers offered stylographic versions of their standard fountain pens. Such pens tend to be uncommon, since nibbed pens were much more popular, so I was happy to add this big and colorful flat-top to my stylo collection.

Adding to its interest is its imprint -- or rather, imprints. The barrel was originally marked "WEIDLICH PEN CO./CINCINNATI, O. U.S.A." and was then overstamped "SWENSEN PEN CO./LOS ANGELES, CALIF."

There weren't a lot of West Coast pen companies back when this pen was made in the late 1920s or first part of the 1930s. Swensen is a company I've been meaning to look into for some time. It is listed as a Racine, Wisconsin company up until 1919. It had relocated to Los Angeles by 1921, and remained in business at least into the 1950s. "Venus" was one of Swensen's trademarks from an early date, but there does not seem to be any connection with the American Lead Pencil Company's yet earlier trademark for "Venus" wooden pencils, nor is it clear what happened when American Lead Pencil began making "Venus" fountain pens in the 1940s.

Like many smaller regional companies, Swensen likely did little if any manufacturing of their own.

Dunlap patent stylographic pen

This stylo bears an imprint for Louis E. Dunlap's US patent of November 18, 1884, number 308,144. Dunlap had been the manager of Livermore's Stylographic Pen Company at 290 Washington Street in Boston, but appears to have struck out on his own in the midst of the what seemed to be a booming market for stylographic pens. The exterior of the pen is typical enough for stylographics of the era, but let's take a look inside.

The needle assembly is a press-fit into the point section. When pulled out, it is just as described and illustrated in the patent: a spring-loaded needle, with the spring action provided by a helically-cut section of hard rubber tube -- not vulnerable to corrosion, like a metal spring, nor likely ever to break from fatigue given the short working travel of the needle and the robust proportions of the hard rubber coil.

Advertisements and obviously-paid magazine writeups of the Dunlap pen appear in a burst in 1885. At some point in 1886 the ads stop appearing; the American Stationer for the second half of 1886 is not available online as yet, but there are several ads in the issues of the first half of the year, and none in the years following.

How long Dunlap remained in business is hard to tell. The company moved from its original address at 296 Washington Street in Boston to 280 Washington at the beginning of 1886 (American Stationer, vol. 19, Jan 28, 1886, pp. 93-4). The Boston Almanac and Business Directory for 1888 (vol. 53, p. 433; copyrighted in 1887) lists Louis E. Dunlap under "Pens" at 280 Washington, and the same entry -- just his name, in the "Pens" category -- appears in the following two years' volumes unchanged. The year after (vol. 57, p. 444, for 1892, copyrighted 1891) the address is 277 Washington, and in the two years thereafter the address changes to 7 Milk. I have not been able to find any mention of Dunlap in the American Stationer after 1886, so it seems probable that even if Dunlap continued to sell his remaining stock for some time afterwards, his company was really only a going concern for a couple of years. The pens are certainly not easy to find, though even with the imprints obscured, you can't mistake the interior construction. Dunlap later applied for a patent for an improved ink pellet, which was issued to him in 1897 (US patent 590,139)

Dunlap had assigned half of his stylographic pen patent to Herbert W. Thayer of Franklin, Massachusetts, so it is possible that Thayer was Dunlap's silent partner in the pen venture. Thayer later became involved in local and state politics, and he is described then as being a manufacturer (A Souvenir of Massachusetts Legislators, 1904, p. 162). Thayer died in 1908, trampled by a runaway horse startled by the sight of an electric car (New York Times, Jan 16, 1908).

Three unusual stylographic pens

A notable recent addition to my stylo collection is shown above. The overlay is English-hallmarked sterling silver, and the pen itself was sold as red hard rubber. On receipt, however, it turned out to be red casein (the section and tip are in fact red/orange hard rubber), explaining the darkening of the cap and forepart of the barrel, as well as the (undisclosed) puckering and cracks in the cap characteristic of casein exposed to too many moistening and drying cycles.

The overlay bears the maker's mark of Charles Westwood and Sons, a Birmingham silversmith who supplied overlays to a number of British penmakers. The date stamp is for 1910/11. Otherwise, the only mark is found on the posting end: "Rd No. 569229/10", which would correspond to 1910 -- unfortunately, the relevant record at the British National Archives is not yet digitized. The posting end also displays the ends of what appears to be a single long metal crosspin, and upon closer inspection this pin would appear to anchor a black hard rubber barrel liner which extends all the way to the barrel mouth. Casein, of course, would not have held up to being used as a reservoir -- this pen is an eyedropper-filler -- so the pen's makers prudently lined the barrel with impermeable hard rubber.

Another newcomer to the collection is this safety. Yes, a stylographic safety: turn the end knob, and the stylograph tip retracts into the barrel. This too is English-made, though this example came from Canada. The triple-C logo that appears twice on the box top is that of the Copp, Clark Company -- a Canadian firm that still exists, though it has now left its original core focus on publishing, stationery, and board games to concentrate on financial services. In the Canadian Almanac and Miscellaneous Directory for the Year 1915 (a 1914 Copp, Clark publication), a full-page ad for the British-made National fountain pens appears on p. 527, listing Copp, Clark in Toronto as the sole agent for Canada. The Security Safety is not illustrated, but receives prominent mention: "THE 'NATIONAL' SECURITY SAFETY FOUNTAIN PENS can be carried in any position, and are non-leakable. Made in 4 Nos., as follows. . . ." Despite this ad, the Security Safety does not appear to have been a popular item on either side of the Atlantic. Neither my Canadian nor my British correspondents have seen another, though perhaps now that this one has been shown around, more eyes will be watching when the next turns up.

Though the first of its brand I've seen, the National is not my first safety stylo. That honor goes to the Moore shown above, which I've owned for quite a few years. I've never seen any mention of it in ads or catalogs, and most collectors are surprised to learn of its existence -- though it is by no means unique, as I have seen at least two other examples.

The collapse of B. B. Stylo

The Bird Bill Pen Company (previous post here) had little success with its namesake product, but found a solid seller in its stylographic pen, the B. B. Stylo. At the beginning of the 1920s it all seemed very promising, yet in the space of some two years something went wrong and by the end of 1924 the company had gone bust.

Office Appliances, Dec 1921, p. 122

There are still many pieces missing from the puzzle, but the reason for the collapse now seems clear. While B. B. Stylo was making pens, the real action was in flogging its overpriced stock to naive investors. It seems the prime culprit was Arthur A. Smallwood, an operator best known for his machinations in the early film industry ("greedy" and "scheming", in a modern historian's assessment, along with his brother Raymond C.). Smallwood's connection to the company becomes visible only relatively late in the game, when he joins Albert S. Zimmerman and his son Albert I. (replacing his mother, Cora D.) as a B. B. Stylo director in the 1922 Brooklyn and Queens, New York, Copartnership and Corporation Directory (p. 390). Yet the shenanigans had already begun years before, as the following ad from the New York Herald (Nov 2, 1919, p. 20, col. 2) demonstrates.

Held and B.B. Stylo

Most pen collectors have never heard of John Held and the Held Fountain Pen Manufacturing Company. Held's pens are not often seen, and they are best known for their distinctive "swing-filler" -- a short metal lever that does not pull away from the barrel, but pivots sideways instead. Despite years of effort, pen historians still have not been able to find any record of a patent or patent application for this lever, which also appears in identical form on pens made by B.B. Stylo and Williamson. The example below is a B.B. Stylo; the lever assembly is an elegantly simple design consisting of a piece of rod stock bent to shape, with the lever end stamped into a rectangular section. It is threaded through the pivot hole in the side of the barrel, and its end is snapped into place into a matching pivot hole on the other side. The lever is lightly sprung so that its end snaps into a shallow recess, preventing accidental movement once the pen has been filled.

Held was talented, multifaceted, and tirelessly enterprising. Much biographical information has been unearthed by Pete Sacopulos, who published a short article on Held in the summer 2010 issue of The Pennant (online access requires PCA membership), but one big question has been why Held pens all seem to bear a New York imprint. Held himself lived in Salt Lake City, Utah, operating a shop there that sold and repaired fountain pens and offered engraving services and stationery. None of the biographical sources I have found give any indication of any New York connections, and census records from 1900 to 1930 consistently place him in Salt Lake City, though it should be noted that only the 1920 census lists his profession as a manufacturer of fountain pens (the 1910 census has him as an engraver and stationer, which certainly does not preclude involvement in other related ventures).

Livermore in Providence

A. T. Cross may be the best-known early pen manufacturer in Rhode Island, but Livermore was another company making large numbers of stylographic fountain pens back in the early 1880s. The die-cut trade card shown above lists a Boston address, while other flyers place the Stylographic Pen Company in New York City; nonetheless, Livermore appears to have been based in Providence, the other addresses being those of agents and distributors.

 

The bronze Medal of Excellence shown above was awarded in 1879 by the American Institute to Charles W. Livermore "For Stylographic Pens". Pen companies bragged about the prize medals they had won, but surviving examples are rare indeed.

Shortly after beginning working on this post, I ran across the brief notice above. Dating from 1885, it states that Livermore's Providence factory was a four-story brick building at the corner of Arnold and Brook Streets. This really caught my eye, and after a quick look at Google Maps, it seems pretty clear that the factory site can be none other than Brassil Park -- the very same playground that my daughters go to nearly every day from their nearby school!

UPDATE: The most probable site of Livermore's factory appears not to be the park, but immediately across the street to the south. The park was occupied up until 1955 by the Arnold Street Primary School; across the street stood the Hennessey Laundry building -- a four-story brick structure.

UPDATE: ID confirmed as the Laundry Building -- according to the kind reference librarian at the Rhode Island Historical Society, the 1886 and 1887 editions of the Providence City Directory list C. W. Livermore at 44 Arnold St, in the business section under Pen and Pencil Case Manufacturers. The name section of the directory lists Charles W. Livermore, Stylographic Pen Co., at the same address. Livermore died in Warwick in 1889, and it's not clear what happened to his pen business afterwards. In the 1892 directory, 44 Arnold Street was listed as housing a "steam laundry" as well as two other businesses. I will try to get to the Historical Society library next week to see what more I can find, and perhaps to the Providence City Archives as well.

ADDENDUM: Though I did not mention it in the original post, Livermore himself had a rather interesting life. From Walter Eliot Thwing, The Livermore Family in America, 1902, pp. 658-9:

He was the general superintendent of the Spencer Repeating Rifle Works in Boston during the early '60's, perfecting the famous rifle used in the Civil War. He became an ardent worker for the eight-hour league, and for a few years was a member of the common council of Boston from Ward 11. At that time he lived on Shawmut avenue, corner of Lenox street. After the war was over he moved to New York City, and opened the first "dollar store" that became prominent on Broadway. Later on he moved to Metuchen, N.J., and introduced there the artesian drive well, of which many at the present time bear his name.

When the Lehigh Valley railroad passed through that town he sold his property, and after being elected judge of that district, and serving three years, he returned to Providence in 1871, identifying himself again with the manufacture of jewelry, under the firm name of Rathburn, Leonard & Livermore, until the death of both of his partners, when he continued the business alone for a short time. He was the first person publicly to introduce a successful fountain and stylographic pen, and that which bears his name has come to be very extensively used in this and foreign countries. He established agencies for its sale in the principal cities here and in Europe.

What isn't mentioned in this account, though, was Livermore's role while on the Boston City Council in the recovery and preservation of the wreck of the Pilgrim-era ship, the Sparrow Hawk -- a wreck whose traditional identification has recently been confirmed by an in-depth technical study. Contemporary accounts of the excavation and display of the wreck on Boston Common may be found here and here. Livermore eventually donated the Sparrow Hawk to the Pilgrim Society in Plymouth, as described in the December 1888 issue of the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, pp. 216-19 (Livermore describing himself as "much broken in health" and "desirous of finding the most suitable permanent resting-place for it").