Sleeve filler

The sleeve filler, also called thumb filler, is one of the many filling systems experimented at the beginning of '900, in particular it was adopted by Holland around 1905 and by Waterman that used it from 1910 to 1915. This loading system is based on the displacement of a sleeve that wraps the barrel of the pen to hide a large opening made on one side of it. Moving the sleeve, which protects the opening, gives direct access to the pressure bar (on which a relief button was usually mounted at the opening), which can be so pressed using the fingertips.

The presence of the sleeve that wraps around the barrel at the opening, however, makes the size of the body of the pen uneven, which are therefore often unpleasant from an aesthetic point of view. Moreover, the mechanical complexity of the pen and its general fragility are greatly increased, since the pens of that period were made from hard rubber, a material not particularly resistant to mechanical stress. For this reason this filling system had a reduced diffusion and was soon abandoned.

A second version of this filling system, much more sophisticated, was adopted by LeBoeuf in 1930. In this case it didn't have a sleeve, but it was the whole barrel of the pen (made this time in celluloid) that could be unhooked from the nib group, sliding on an inner cylinder made of metal, on which there was lateral opening for the direct pressure on the sac. In this case, a uniform cylindrical shaft was obtained that had no lists, not even for the housing of the lever.

In a similar form, at least on an aesthetic level, this loading system was adopted also by the Parker for the aerometric used in the 51 (which, however, provides for multiple pressures for the presence of a breather), while a substantially identical system is still used today by some converter (for example those of the Pilot low end fountain pens).

Related Patents

• Patent n° US-428969, of 1890-05-27, requested on 1889-04-29, of Norman C. Stiles, Unbranded. Fountain-pen.

• Patent n° US-781649, of 1905-02-07, requested on 1904-05-20, of Robert H. Hamilton, Eclipse. Fountain-pen.

• Patent n° US-784528, of 1905-03-14, requested on 1903-12-24, of Thomas P. Ambrose, Hicks. Fountain-pen.

• Patent n° US-794836, of 1905-07-18, requested on 1905-04-01, of Thomas P. Ambrose, Hicks. Fountain-pen.

• Patent n° US-799897, of 1905-09-19, requested on 1905-03-24, of William I. Ferris, Waterman. Fountain-pen.

• Patent n° US-800129, of 1905-09-19, requested on 1905-01-18, of Robert W. Gorham, Good Pen Co. Self-filling fountain-pen.

• Patent n° US-807500, of 1905-12-19, requested on 1905-05-09, of William W. Sanford, Sanford and Bennet. Fountain-pen.

• Patent n° US-818803, of 1906-04-24, requested on 1905-06-08, of Otto E. Weidlich, Weidlich. Fountain pen.

• Patent n° US-821940, of 1906-05-29, requested on 1906-02-17, of John A. Holland, John Holland Pen Company. Fountain-pen.

• Patent n° US-828973, of 1906-08-21, requested on 1905-10-10, of William W. Sanford, Sanford and Bennet. Fountain-pen.

• Patent n° US-879296, of 1908-02-18, requested on 1907-08-19, of Frank H. Mooney, C. E. Barret & Company, Mooney. Self filling fountain pen.

• Patent n° US-950817, of 1910-03-01, requested on 1909-08-23, of William I. Ferris, Waterman. Fountain-pen.

• Patent n° US-1019930, of 1912-03-12, requested on 1911-06-16, of Francis W. Vaughn Jr., Henry J. Upton, Vaughn-Upton. Fountain-pen.

• Patent n° US-1038068, of 1912-09-10, requested on 1912-02-16, of George F. Barrett, Unbranded. Fountain-pen.

• Patent n° US-1042695, of 1912-10-29, requested on 1912-04-20, of James W. Laughlin, Laughlin. Fountain-pen.

• Patent n° US-1042804, of 1912-10-29, requested on 1912-02-09, of James W. Laughlin, Laughlin. Fountain-pen.

• Patent n° US-1051670, of 1913-01-28, requested on 1912-06-10, of Claes W. Boman, Eagle. Fountain-pen.

• Patent n° US-1078513, of 1913-11-11, requested on 1911-07-08, of George S. Parker, The Parker Pen Company. Fountain-pen.

• Patent n° US-1124592, of 1915-01-12, requested on 1913-11-17, of Henry R. Coit, Coit Ready Fill Pen Company. Fountain-pen.

• Patent n° US-1169603, of 1916-01-25, requested on 1911-11-04, of David W. Beaumel, Beaumel. Fountain-pen.

• Patent n° GB-191516665, of 1916-10-12, requested on 1915-11-25, of Cecil Bristow, Swan. Improvements in or relating to Fountain Pens.

• Patent n° US-1247169, of 1917-11-20, requested on 1917-02-16, of Frederic E. Storer, Sterling Fountain Pen. Fountain-pen.

• Patent n° US-1307630, of 1919-06-24, requested on 1916-11-14, of William A. Haskins, Unbranded. Fountain-pen.

• Patent n° US-1804522, of 1931-05-12, requested on 1929-07-03, of Frank T. Walsh, LeBoeuf. Fountain-pen.

• Patent n° US-1851257, of 1932-03-29, requested on 1930-05-03, of Eugene Le Boeuf, LeBoeuf. Fountain pen.

• Patent n° US-2148853, of 1939-02-28, requested on 1938-04-26, of Homer J. Bessette, LeBoeuf. Fountain pen.

• Patent n° FR-1020261, of 1953-02-04, requested on 1950-06-15, of George Shey, Unbranded. Porte-plume réservoir.