Improvements in Holders for Pens.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Feb., 1887.
Specification Accepted, 1st Mar., 1887.
[Communicated from abroad by HENRY BEROLZHEIMER, of the City, County and
State of New York, in the United States of America, Merchant.]
Improvements in Holders for Pens.
1 JAMES YATE JOHNSON of 47 Lincoln's Inn Fields in the County of Middlesex
Gentleman do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in .and by
the following statement
This Invention relates to what is known as a "gravity" or "drop" holder that is
to say, a holder in which the pen is combined with a sheath or case in which it can
move back and forth within prescribed limits and with locking or retaining mechanism
(preferably spring-controlled) whereby it is held either in its protruded or in its
retracted position.
The nature of the invention and the manner in which the same is or may be carried
into effect can best be explained and understood by reference to the accompanying
drawings in which :—
Figure 1 is a longitudinal central section of a holder embodying the invention the
penholder proper being represented in its retracted position.
Figure 2is a like section with the penholder proper in its protruded position.
Figure 3 is a perspective view of the penholder proper detached.
Figure is a perspective view of the stopper and mechanism for operating the
same detached.
Figure 5 is a perspective view of the complete device with the penholder proper
protruded and locked in position by the stopper.
The device consists of a tubular sheath or case A which is the handle; a tubular
pen-holder proper B loose within the sheath and free to slide back and forth therein;
a stopper fitted to, and adapted to close the mouth of the sheath; a pressure cap D,

page_text: a retracting spring E, a spring case F fitting and secured in the rear end of the
sheath, and a pusher" G, which in this instance is a rod, passing through an aperture
in the bottom of the spring case (in which it can slide) attached at its rear end to the
pressure cap, and jointed or linked at its front end to the stopper C. The part C is
thus hung to the "pusher" somewhat after the fashion of a bell-clapper and when
pushed forward away from the mouth of the sheath, can be tilted or pushed to
one side.
The "pusher" rod passes through the interior of the tubular penholder proper.
Under the arrangement shown the stopper C is spring controlled and normally held
in a position (as shown in Figure 1) in which it closes the mouth of the sheath, thus
preventing ink from getting out or dirt from getting in. When the device is held
mouth downward and the pressure cap is pushed forward, the stopper is thereby
caused to drop away from the mouth of the sheath, and the penholder proper then
descends by gravity as far as permitted, pushing to one side the stopper. At the point
in the penholder opposite which the stopper comes when the former has dropped as
far as it can, there is formed a notch or indentation a into which the stopper when
pressure is removed from the pressure cap is drawn by the stress of the retracting
spring thus locking the penholder in the protruded position. Thus the stopper serves
also as a detent to hold the penholder proper in either of the two positions represented
in Figures 1 and 2 respectively.
Having now particularly described and accertained the nature of the said Invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I claim is.
The combination of the handle A, the tubular penholder B having a notch or
shoulder a the stopper C the pressure cap, the retracting spring, and the pusher rod G
as and for the purposes herein before described.