Re: Phoneme winnowing continues

On Friday, June 6, 2003, at 08:52  AM, Mark J. Reed wrote:

> HT = Henrik Theiling
> JC = John Cowan
>
> HT> 'Fountain pen' sounds dangerous for clothes.  What is it?
>
> http://www.cross.com/prod_listing.asp?dept=28
>
> Instead of a ball (which slides up into a progressively wider cylinder
> as you apply pressure, allowing the ink to flow around it), a fountain
> pen  has a flat metal nib that is split down the middle.  As you apply
> pressure the two halves of the nib spread apart to allow more ink to
> flow
> onto the paper.
>
> HT> And what's its operative range? :-)
>
> JC> Only a few mm.
>
> Eh, a good pen will hit a target a half-meter away. :)  I'm not sure
> why
> they have the ink-squirting feature, though; perhaps forcing the
> ink out helps clean the cylinder?
Neither of my pens "squirt" ink, though I can evacuate the reservoir to
clean the nib. The Pelikan is a piston-filler; you turn a knob at the
top of the pen which moves a piston up and down to empty the reservoir
or fill it back up. The Parker is an Aerometric (tm) filler; you
squeeze the ink sac to either empty or fill the reservoir. I'd like to
get a lever-filler someday; those are the pens which people usually
have in mind when they think of a fountain pen. They can indeed squirt
ink (though that's not why I want one). Lifting the lever puts pressure
on the ink sac which then expels ink. Releasing the lever sucks ink up
into the sac (if the nib is dipped in ink).

> JC> It was the main writing technology between the abandonment
> JC> of the quill and the prevalence of the ballpoint.
>
> Though fountain pens have largely been replaced by ballpoint and
> felt-tip pens, they are still in use.  I know several people who
> prefer them, and the President uses one to sign bills into law.
> The shape of the strokes is distinctive (many would say more
> elegant), and it's considered a mark of class to be able to use one,
> since it requires a small amount of skill to avoid making a mess
> (hence Charlie Brown's struggles in the Peanuts strip).
It is a bit harder to control a fountain pen, but not much. The social
distinction of a fountain pen comes not from being able to write with
one but being able to afford one in the first place. For that reason,
many of the pens which are made today (Montblanc, Cross, etc) are not
very good as pens, but are great as accessories. I prefer vintage pens
(pens made before 1960), since those pens were manufactured with the
idea that they will be used as pens and not as status symbols. They are
typically lighter and smaller, and are therefore easier to handle and
don't fatigue the user. The best pens were made in the 1930s by firms
such as Pelikan, Parker, Sheaffer, Conway Stewart, and Waterman (among
others). Good pens continued to be made through the 50s, but a lot of
companies went out of business during WWII. The European pens tended to
have fine or extra fine nibs which were semiflexible -- good for
copperplate style scripts. The pens I prefer have a fine to medium nib
that is somewhat more rigid. It actually makes my handwriting look
better to write with a fountain pen.

Only a few companies now really pay careful attention to the functional
aspects of a fountain pen (Pelikan, Pilot, Namiki, maybe Parker), while
companies which once made outstanding pens now turn out expensive crap
(most notably Montblanc; I don't know anything about Cross, though I
suspect them to be posers).

Dirk
--
Dirk Elzinga
Dirk_Elzinga@byu.edu

"I believe that phonology is superior to music. It is more variable and
its pecuniary possibilities are far greater." - Erik Satie

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