July 1, 1914.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



533 



The Making of a Fountain Pen. 



THAT gold iniiiL- of valuable information, the Bureau of 

 Foreign and Domestic Commerce, of Washington, re- 

 cently announced that the export of fountain pens from 

 the United States reached a total of 309,200 for the last fiscal 

 year; over half of these pens, or 169,000, going to England, 

 about 50.000 to Canada. 30,000 t" France and the rest being 

 scattered all over the globe. 



V^cry few people have any conception of the extent of the 

 fnuntain pen industry in the United States. The Waterman 

 company alone had an output last year of 2,500,000 pens; and as 

 these pens retailed at anywhere from $3 to $4, it is safe to say 

 that the market value of this company's product for 1913 was 

 (somewhere frou' $8,000,000 to $10,000,000. .Xnd it is probably 

 safe to say that, including all makes and brands of fountain 

 pens made in this country, the yearly product would rcacli 

 7,000,000 or 8.00i),000 pens. So that it will be seen at a glance 

 that the fountain pen, which, with the exception of the gold 

 pen point, is entirely of rubber, has become quite an important 

 article of manufacture in the hard rubber industry. 



It often happens that there is vastly more detail to a small 

 article than there is to a big one. For instance, there is a great 

 deal more detail to a w-atch than there is to a bath tub. Now the 

 fountain pen can.be .slipped into the pocket and not be felt and 

 yet there is a great deal of labor involved in its constructimi. 

 The process of its manufacture is interesting enough to serve as 

 an excuse for going a little into detail as to how these pens 

 are made. 



ROLLING THE RUBBER INTO SHEETS. 

 The rubber goes through the usual processes of washing, dry- 

 ing and mixing, the proportion of sulphur being about 33 per 

 cent, of the wi;ight of the rubber. From the mi.xing mill the 

 rubber is passed through sheeting rolls, as shown in ^Figure 2, 

 and the sheets are cut into strips which form the barrel and 

 cap of the fountain pen. These strips are rolled on small 

 spindles of the required diameter, the rolling being done on a 

 heated, smooth steel table. Foil is wound over the rubber, and 

 the spindles, with their rubber covers, are deposited in steel 

 boxes and buried in powdered soapstone. These boxes are put 



in vulcaniiccrs, the open steam cure being 300 degrees for about 

 14 hours. 



The rubber should be hard enough to keep its shape and yet 

 must have sufficient resiliency so that all the joints will fit to- 



Fic. 2. Rolling the Rubuer out into Sheets of the Re- 

 quired Thickness. 



gether ink-tight. In other words, it w'ill not do to vulcanize the 

 pens too hard. 



While considerable machinery is used, there is much hand work 

 tliat requires exceptional skill, for, with the exception of the 

 chasing, all the work after the pen has been vulcanized requires 

 a combination of delicate mechanisms and skilled workmanship. 



Fig. 1. Component P.\rts of the Fount.\in Pen. A Is the Cap; B, the B.\rrel; C, the Point Section; D, the 

 "Spoon" Feed; E, the Pen Point; .\nd F, a Sectional View of the Assembled Parts. 



