158 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[February i, 1904. 



THE FOUNTAIN PEN INDUSTRY. 



ALTHOUGH fountain pens have been in use long enough for 

 the earlier patents to have expired, it has only been with- 

 in the last half dozen years that the trade has begun to assume 

 really important proportions. At the present time the manu- 

 facture of fountain pens is an industry employing many hun- 

 dreds of workmen, the advertising of fountain pens calls for a 

 large expenditure of money, and their sale is quite an item in 

 the business of stationers and other stores. These pens can be 

 had for almost any price, from $1 up to $25 or S30, but the stand- 

 ard grades, which have become widely known, are rarely retailed 

 for less than §2.50. The increase in cost comes with additional 

 size to the gold pen and extra workmanship upon the holder. 



A visit to a factory in New York city which employs more 

 than 100 hands was an interesting experience. This establish- 

 ment purchases its hard rubber cones or tubes and finishes them 

 to suit the various brands, but is considering the advisabil- 

 ity of putting in i:s own rubber machinery and making its pens 

 entire from the crude product up. Its gold pens are made 

 entirely in the factory and careful labor and delicate machinery 

 are required. From the bar of gold to the finished pen requires 

 a score of different processes and, in some steps, highly skilled 

 workmanship. The gold after being melted and alloyed with 

 the proper metals is cast into a brick or block which is after- 

 wards rolled out into a long thin ribbon and from this under 

 high pressure dies the pens are cut in various sizes. After this 

 they are trimmed and pointed, split, shaped, polished, and 

 marked. When the pens are heated to a malleable point a 

 tiny fragment of irridium, so small that the workmen must use 

 a magnifying glass to see it, is welded on the point. When the 

 pan is later split, this fragment of irridium, small as it is, must 

 be sawed exactly half in two. This delicate operation is accom- 

 plished by a smooth disc of copper revolving like a circular saw 

 at a high speed. Later on, each section of the irridium 

 tip is ground under magnifying glasses so that it has eight 

 equal faces on the exposed side that will touch the paper. This 

 requires extremely careful workmanship and of course adds to 

 the cost of the pens of the better class. 



The turning of the hard rubber handles is almost exclusively 

 lathe work and requires expensive tools if not such delicate 

 workmanship. Tools dull very rapidly in turning hard rubber, 

 and only the finest steel can be used. Thecores must be turned 

 to an exact size, must be made to fit perfectly and accurately in 

 every part, and must be highly polished. In many pens they 

 are ornamented with chasing and in the more elaborate holders 

 gold and silver bands or embossing are added. The security of 

 the pen, however, must be in the perfect adjustment of the 

 parts that prevents leaking and regulates exactly the proper 

 flow of ink. Only accurate workmanship on the rubber tubes 

 can secure this. 



Accurate statistics of the fountain pen manufacture are not 

 compiled up to the present time, and as the trade has doubled 

 in the last five years, past figures are not reliable enough to 

 quote. From the first of September until the holiday trade 

 flags, is the busy season for the manufacturers and during this 

 period, according to the estimate of one manufacturer, who has 

 been in the business for a dozen years, the output of pens in 

 the United States is about 30,000 per week. Of this number 

 the leading maker and most widely known brand makes per- 

 haps one third. None of the fountain pen manufacturers, how- 

 ever, makes his own rubber cores and in many instances some 

 of the brands or styles which are most extensively advertised 

 have no factory but are made up at the establishments which 

 manufacture rival styles for different competing firms. 



The industry has, however, become something of import- 

 ance to the hard rubber trade, and as improvements from year 

 to year are making the fountain pen more perfect and bringing 

 it into more general popularity it will continue to increase in 

 importance. The fountain pen is a feature of business and no 

 longer a fad. It has achieved commercial recognition. It is 

 only one of the many forms in which 'the demand for rubber 

 goods shows the yearly necessity for increased supplies of 

 rubber. 



It may be added that a careful attempt was made, in the cen- 

 sus of 1900, to estimate the production of fountain pens in the 

 United States, but strict accuracy was not possible, owing to 

 the fact that such goods are produced, in many instances, in 

 establishments making other styles of pens or pencils, and a 

 separate account was not kept of the different classes of prod- 

 ucts. It appears, however, that New York leads in the produc- 

 tion of fountain pens, while Ohio is second in the industry. 

 The total production for 1900 is reported at 830,384, and the 

 selling value at $707,023. The number credited to New York 

 was 489,024, of the selling value of $417,123. These values, of 

 course, are the result to the factory, and not the retail prices. 



Fountain pens were manufactured in England as early as 

 1835, but they were not satisfactory enough to warrant their 

 use to any extent. Their first successful manufacture in the 

 United States dates back only to iSSo^or a little before. Orig- 

 inally, in England, there were two types of these pens, known 

 as the Schaeffer pen and the Parker hydraulic pen. Schaeffer's 

 pen had a reservoir for ink in the holder, and the ink was ad- 

 mitted to the pen by the pressure of the thumb on a project- 

 ing stud. Parker's pen also had a reservoir in the holder, 

 which contained a piston operated by a screw stem and a nut 

 in the end of the holder. The lower end of the reservoir being 

 dipped in ink, the piston was drawn up by rotating the nut, 

 thus filling the reservoir. The ink was rejected as required by 

 a reverse motion of the thumb nut. 



The early attempts to construct fountain pens were generally 

 confined to the invention of contrivances such as internal 

 tubes, ducts, valves, or springs, which were operated upon by 

 the action of the nibs, and which forced the ink from a feeding 

 pipe upon the pen, assisted by air admitted to the top of the 

 holder to take the place of the exhausted ink. Pens depend- 

 ent upon such mechanism were very erratic in their work, as the 

 ink flowed either too slow or too fast. After many experi- 

 ments to secure a continuous and properly regulated flow of 

 ink into the pen, it was found that the best results were ob- 

 tained by the use of a tubular holder tightly closed at its upper 

 end, and at the lower end fitted with an ordinary nib pen made 

 of gold, with an ink feeder lying adjacent to the pen to attract 

 the ink from the reservoir. As the ink in the process of writing 

 is withdrawn, the air enters at the lower end of the holder and 

 ascends in globules through the column of ink to fill the space 

 left vacant. 



There are many varieties of fountain pens made in the United 

 States, but the basic principles underlying all are practically 

 the same, the retention of the ink by atmospheric pressure and 

 the furnishing of a supply ready for use throughout many hours 

 of continuous writing. In the United States alone, in ten 

 years, 185 patents have been granted for inventions under the 

 heading " Fountain Pen," as follows : 



1893. .16 

 1894. .12 



1895.. 14 

 1896.. 16 



1 897 .15 



1898. .22 



1899. 25 

 1900. .22 



1 901. .21 

 1902. .22 



During the same period 29 patents were granted with the 

 titles "fountain pen attachments," "fountain penholders," 

 " fountain marking pens," etc., and several patents for " reser- 

 voir pens," and the like. 



