Ink pen
An ink pen is a writing instrument similar to a fountain pen with a piston mechanism, but instead of a nib it has a tubular steel nib . His name led to today's acronym Kuli for the ballpoint pen .
functionality
Tubular springs contain a movable steel needle inside, this metering pin is firmly connected to a metering piston at the top of the ink tank, which also serves as a mass. The dispensing pen is only slightly rounded at the bottom of the writing tip. While writing, the pen is flush with the bottom of the tube; when you lift it, it protrudes just under a millimeter.
Its purpose is to narrow the ink path so that the ink flows as needed by capillary forces . If the device is not used, the ink path can be refilled by gently moving the entire device up and down.
The lines drawn with the ink pen are of the same thickness in every direction. The typeface differs from that of a pen and is similar to that of a rollerball with a writing width of 0.5 millimeters or that of a tension pen . This is important for technical drawings, but a disadvantage compared to the fountain pen for stylish letter writing.
The ink pen is quite robust; If it falls down, it can get stuck in a wooden floor and remain undamaged. Today the term ink pen is also used synonymously for devices with plastic tubular nibs and for the rollerball pen .
history
Such a device was patented for the first time in March 1876 by the Canadian Duncan MacKinnon in the USA as a fountain pen (today's English term for a fountain pen ; US patent 174,965). It was later distributed by MacKinnon as the MacKinnon Pen or Fluid Pencil . Another patent was filed by the American Alonzo T. Cross in January 1978 (US Patent 199,621).
The ink pen was on the market in Germany from around 1928 to at least 1958. In the late 1920s there were imports of ink pens. On the local market, however, the “ink pen” was mostly synonymous with the Rotring brand writing instrument of the same name , which came onto the market in 1928.
For technical use, the ink pen was developed from the ink pen , which became known in particular under the Rotring brand name Rapidograph . Until the use of computers in the 1980s, the ink draftsman was the usual tool for technical drawings.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fernando Linares García: Dear Rotring .
- ↑ Kosmos Handweiser für Naturfreunde , Issue 9/1929, contains the full-page advertisement on p. II with the claim: "I am the ink pen". The writing instrument was available from the importer C. Ohlendorf in Hamburg at a price of 7.50 marks including postage.
- ↑ Die Kunst , No. 5, February 31st, 1930, contained a small, colored advertising insert for the "ink pen".
- ↑ Strasbourg monthly booklet , issue 9/1943, contains an advertisement on page 6 with the heading “Your ink pen like to bathe!” With the signature “Ink pen - only genuine with the red ring”.