IMPROVEMENTS IN FOUNTAIN PENS
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frank Wirth at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 4th October 1881. A communication
from the Hannover Gummi Kamm Company, of Hannover, in the Empire of
Germany.
FRANK WIRTH, of the Firm of Wirth and Company, Patent Solicitors, at
Frankfort on the Main, in the Empire of Germany. "IMPROVEMENTS IN
FOUNTAIN PENS." [A communication from the Hannover Gummi Kamm
Company, of Hannover, in the Empire of Germany.]
This Invention relates to improvements in fountain or reservoir pens, and is
carried into practice in the following manner, that is to say, I provide a tube or
reservoir, screwed to the lower part of which there is a tapored portion having at
its end a tubular pointed piece made of metal. In that portion of the tapered
piece which is screwed to the reservoir there is a screw-nut, and within the said
reservoir there is a narrow tube which has a head sufficiently wide to be screwed
to the opposite or upper end of the reservoir and is provided with screw-threads
for this purpose. A thin rod secured to a cap passes through the said narrow tube,
also through the tapered portion at the lower end of the reservoir and through the
pointed piece. This rod, which almost entirely fills the narrow tube, is provided
with screw-threads at the part which passes through the aforesaid nut, the threads
being cut away at several places to provide passages for the ink. The said rod is
also provided with a shoulder which is capable of entirely closing the said passages
or channels. The rod is of such a length that it can be passed through the tubular
metal pointed piece to a sufficient extent to remove any particles of paper or other
material which may have choked the same. During the act of writing however the
rod does not come in contact with the paper, it serves solely for the purpose of
clearing the tube from any objects that inay clog the same, and to effect the
closing and opening of the aforesaid passages when required.
The reservoir-tube is filled with ink after the rod has been unscrewed from the
nut and the narrow tube from the said reservoir.
By tightly screwing the parts together the pen is completely closed at the upper
and lower parts so that the ink cannot flow out. If however the rod is slightly
unscrewed, air is free to enter at the upper part of the pen, and as the channels

page_text: produced as hereinbefore described by the partial removal of the screw-thread are
opened, ink can flow out through the same to the metal point. By unscrewing the
rod more or less the outflow of ink is increased or diminished and the thickness of
the strokes can be regulated at will, this arrangement being of considerable
advantage when the pen is to be used for making pen and ink sketches. The 5
aforesaid narrow tube extends nearly to the lowest point of the reservoir tube for
the purpose of preventing an outflow of ink at the top when the pen is placed in a
horizontal position or its point is held upward.
I may in some cases provide the nut at the top of the pen instead of at the lower
part thereof, in which case the rod must be provided with threads in a position to 1
correspond therewith.