Improvements in Ink Holders for Pens.
Year: 1893

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Ink Holders for Pens.
1 CHARLES WALTER VOSE of Chatham, County of Barnstable, State of
Massachusetts one of the United States of America, Accountant do hereby
declare the nature of this 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 has for its object the production of a novel, cheap, durable, and
efficient device adapted to be readily applied to any usual double or split pointed
pen, whereby it may be made to safely contain a very considerable quantity of ink
and gradually, as needed, supply its contents to the paper.
Reporters, copyists and others writing constantly for a long time lose very much
time, owing to the necessity of stopping their writing in order that they may dip
their pens into the ink. In accordance with my invention I have devised a flexible,
non-corrosive, and non-metallic ink-holder which embraces the pen at two points,
one above and the other below the broad open eye at the upper end of the nib-
slot, and, stretched across the concaved side of the pen, leaves between the holder
and pen a chamber for the reception of quite a quantity of ink-enough to serve
for a page or more--the ink in quantity being supplied to the eye where it
intersects the nib-slot, so that it readily enters said slot and works down to the
points of the nibs as the pen is used. The ink-holder by embracing the nibs
prevents the escape of the ink, except when the nibs are pressed against the paper
and opened or manipulated more or less, as in actual work on paper.
The device is readily detachable when the user desires to wipe the pen and lay
it aside, and it is readily applicable to the pen when the latter is to be again used.
Figure 1 shows in top view one form of steel pen with one of my improved ink-
holders applied thereto;
Fig. 2, an under side view thereof.
Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section.
Fig. 4 shows the ink-holder detached; and
Fig. 5 is an edge view of the ink-holder, all the figures being enlarged.
My improved ink-holder a is composed of a piece of sheet-rubber or equivalent
flexible elastic material, preferably about a sixteenth (more or less) of an inch
thick.
The holder is made broader at one end than the other, and is of pear shape,
substantially as indicated in Fig. 4.
The ink-holder has two holes or slots 23 at or near its opposite ends so shaped
as to leave narrow loops 4 5.
In use the ink-holder may be applied to the pen in such mauner that the broader
end of the holder, having the slot 3 and loop 5, will embrace the pen p above its
eye e, while the part having the hole 2 will embrace the nibs or spring-points pl

page_text: manner described, and this same flexibility and elasticity serving, also, to hold the
device on the pen under tension and in position. The holder so applied crosses
the concaved under side of the pen, as best shown in Figs. 2 and 3, leaving a space
or chamber between it and the body of the pen and extended from above to below
the eye e, in which chamber may be put, at one dipping of the pen in ink, a
considerable quantity of ink, enough to last for pages. The loop 5, crossing the
upper sides of the nibs below the eye e, prevents the escape of the ink too rapidly,
and as the nibs in use are moved to open the feeding-slot e¹ between them the ink
is permitted to descend only in quantity needed from the chamber referred to, it
entering the slot from the eye e.
An ink-holder of the kind described may be pulled off the pen when the pen,
with the pen-wiper grasped between the thumb and finger is being wiped to
remove the ink in usual manner, and at such times the ink will be absorbed by
the pen-wiper, leaving the detached holder clean and dry, ready to be laid aside
until to be again used, or it may be returned to the pen.
If the user desires, the pen when being cleaned of its ink to be laid aside may
be squeezed between the folds of the pen-wiper and the ink be forced out of the
chamber referred to, leaving the ink-holder on the pen.
The loop at the upper end of the ink-holder by its friction against the pen keeps
the looped or lower end of the holder up to its work, thus making it unnecessary
to notch the pen for the retention of the holder.
A metallic ink-holder would not possess the advantages of the non-metallic
holder, because it would be liable to corrode, and so, also, a metallic holder is
liable to be bent out of shape, is heavier, and stiffens the pen, and cannot be
readily applied indiscriminately to any pen, whatever its particular shape or style.
While the outline or shape shown for the ink-holder and for its slots is very
desirable, yet this invention is not limited to the exact shape shown.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner 'the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
An ink-holding attachment for pens, it consisting of a piece of elastic, flexible,
and non-metallic material suitably slotted to form loops to engage the pen at
opposite ends of its eye and adapted to be held in place by its elasticity when
stretched upon the pen, substantially as described.
Dated the 21st day of February 1893.
WM. BROOKES & SON,
55 & 56, Chancery Lane, London, Agents for the Applicant