Old Familiar Memories - Photo 109

Fountain Pen

M. Klein and Henry W. Wynne received US patent #68445 in 1867 for an ink chamber and delivery system in the handle of the fountain pen. That some form of pen with an ink reservoir was available in Europe in the 17th century is shown by contemporary references. In Deliciae Physico-Mathematicae (a 1636 magazine), German inventor Daniel Schwenter described a pen made from two quills. One quill served as a reservoir for ink inside the other quill. The ink was sealed inside the quill with cork. Ink was squeezed through a small hole to the writing point. In 1663 Samuel Pepys referred to a metal pen "to carry ink." Noted Maryland historian Hester Dorsey Richardson (1862-1933) documented a reference to "three silver fountain pens, worth 15 shillings" in England 1649-1685. By the early 18th century such pens were already commonly known as "fountain pens." Hester Dorsey Richardson also found a 1734 notation made by Robert Morris the elder in the ledger of the expenses of Robert Morris the younger, who was at the time in Philadelphia, for "one fountain pen."