What's A Fountain Pen?!

fmdog44

Well-known Member
Location
Houston, Texas
Watching Storage Wars two ladies brought a box of fountain pens to an old dealer for an appraisal. They had never seen a fountain pen so they were amazed when the old man pulled one apart to show them how they worked.
 

I kind of remember my parents having one. I also took it apart. There was a small rubber tube that the ink flowed from after you used a tiny lever to pull the ink in from a bottle. Stained my fingers.
 
I never used a fountain pen it would have been a nightmare for me being lefthanded.

I remember my grandmother using a dip style pen and a bottle of white ink to put captions under the photos in her album with black pages and little black corners.

s-l225.jpg
 
We used the fountain pen with inkwell in grade school. Later, they came out with the pen that had an ink
cartridge in it.
 
My father had a fountain pen of the type that contained a rubber bladder you filled with ink from a bottle. I can remember using fountain pens that took plastic ink-containing cartridges that you screwed into them.
 
We used fountain pens in school..we had inkwells , and we had to spend an hour a week practising our handwriting using the fountain pen!!

Seems around 3rd or 4th grade we traded in our pencils in English class
I went nuts and collected two oatmeal cans full
Mostly Sheaffer, and some Parker
And ink stains everywhere


After that it was T ball jotters
 
Dipping pen with removable point into inkwell, then fountain pen that filled with a little lever from an ink bottle, then cartridges, then scripto bottles that had a little well to make it easier, then FINALLY the t-balls mentioned above. Thumb & first two fingers of r hand were always ink stained.
And a strange tradition: last day of school before summer vacation, fifth graders would smash their ink bottles on the sidewalk in front of school.
 
I used one for years and then came along the ball point pen. Parker pens were a top line pen.

View attachment 61679

I remember the first ball point pens coming out. They were expensive.

The first one I saw was made by Reynolds Aluminum.

I traded a good pen for it and it didn't work so good.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Reynolds




Milton Reynolds (1892–1976), an American entrepreneur, was born "Milton Reinsberg" in Albert Lea, Minnesota. He is most famously known for the manufacture and introduction of the first ballpoint pen ... With roller balls repurposed from the metal beads used in war-surplus bomb sights and barrels machined from aircraft ...Developing the Gravity ... · ‎The Reynolds ... · ‎Pen Wars · ‎Reynolds the aviator
 
I never used a fountain pen it would have been a nightmare for me being lefthanded.

I remember my grandmother using a dip style pen and a bottle of white ink to put captions under the photos in her album with black pages and little black corners.

s-l225.jpg

Hi Aunt Bea,I'm also a lefty, used a fountain pen when I was much younger.It was difficult to say the least Sue
 
I recently purchased a fountain pen at my local A.C. Moore. Haven't used one since the late 1960's. It feels great and I like the look. So much more style than a ballpoint. I also remember when they came out - not cheap.
 


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