Chilton

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Chilton and Crocker are two of the most interesting between the many companies born in the golden age of American fountain pen that disappeared with the difficulties encountered in subsequent years. The first was created by the son of the founder of the second, that was absorbed in it. Past the golden age of the '20s Chilton, like most other producers of the time, suffered heavily the great depression of 1929. In the '30s sales deteriorated, and production continued to decline until the final exit from the market in 1941.

Despite the high quality of its fountain pens, certainly not lower that of the far more famous Waterman, Sheaffer and Parker, Chilton never shone for in marketing capabilities: the spread of its pens never came out of the United States, and in the USA the distribution remained localized in the North East of the country. Chilton pens were beautiful, functional and with great technical quality, but because of their low diffusion they did not had the success they deserved; therefore are quite rare and much sought by collectors.

Chilton
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In 1902 Seth Sears Crocker founded in Boston the Crocker Pen Company. At that time companies were founded almost always following the completion of some technical innovation, for Crocker this was a new filling system called blow filler as based on compression of a rubber sac to be carried out by blowing into the body of the pen by a hole on the bottom.

Crocker produced good quality pens and its the filling system was effective, even if it was somewhat uncomfortable to use; so soon it was replaced by the so-called hatchet filler, a loading system realized using a lever attached to the back of the pen, made in this way to circumvent Sheaffer patents. Seth Crocker left the business in 1920 and his son, Seth Crocker Chilton took over the conduct of the company that was moved from Boston to New York.

In 1923 Seth Chilton Crocker entered directly in the fountain pen market founding in Boston a new company with its own name: the Chilton Pen Company. The following year he launched the first model of the new company. It was a ordinary flattop hard rubber pen, but it was using an ingenious pneumatic filling system evolved from the blow filler invented by his father. That mechanism was essentially a precursor of the touchdown filler that Sheaffer will introduce just over 20 years later.

The pneumatic filling system used by Chilton is based on compression made by sliding the outside shaft of the pen over a internal metal cylinder which encloses the ink sac like a pump piston. The sliding barrel is equipped with a hole on the bottom that must be hold closed with a finger in the process of pushing it down for compression, but once opened it allow the expansion of the ink sac and the subsequent filling.

The mechanism was simple, functional and robust, and allowed Chilton pens to use ink sacs with significantly larger dimensions than those of competitors, so that the pens were promoted with the slogan Twice the ink. However the shape of pens was not proportionate because to block on the sliding barrel the cap had to be extended over the full length of the nib section, and that should be quite long because it was used to hold the pen when filling it. So the pens were having quite an excessive cap length.

The first Chilton pens were made in black or mottled hard rubber, but as early as 1926 new models built in celluloid were produced, using the classic Jade green and Pearl Black colors. In these early years all Chilton production came from the Boston plant, and the models of this period are often referred to by the name of this city.

Alla fine degli anni '20 (il momento esatto del trasferimento è incerto, taluni lo indicano nel 1926, altri nel 1929) la Chilton trasferì gli impianti produttivi da Boston a Long Island (New York) inglobando anche i resti della Crocker. In questo periodo vennero prodotti nuovi modelli in celluloide con nuovi colori, e sviluppata una seconda versione del sistema di caricamento, in cui non era più il fusto esterno ad essere usato per la compressione, ma un contro-cappuccio metallico azionato tramite il fondello. In questo modo le dimensioni del cappuccio potevano tornare ad essere più proporzionate.

Una Chilton della produzione di Long Island

All'inizio degli anni '30 vennero anche adottate, seguendo lo stile streamlined introdotto dalla Balance, delle forme affusolate. I modelli di questo periodo, prodotti in 15 variazioni di colore ed 8 dimensioni diverse vengono comunemente chiamati Long Island. Si attribuisce più o meno questo periodo anche la nascita dei modelli cosiddetti Lox-Top per il particolare meccanismo che impediva che il cappuccio potesse svitarsi quando la penna era inserita nel taschino, cosa che veniva realizzata tramite un piccolo perno, azionato dal fermaglio, che andava a bloccarsi sulla sezione quando questo veniva spostato dalla stoffa della tasca.

Fra il 1934 ed il 1935 (di nuovo vengono riportate queste due date da fonti diverse) la Chilton introdusse quello che è probabilmente il suo capolavoro, il modello Wing-flow. Il nome della penna derivava dal peculiare pennino, il cui brevetto (nº US-2089449) venne richiesto nel 1935, dotato di alette ribattute intorno all'alimentatore, così che questo non potesse disallinearsi.

Nel 1939 la Chilton produsse la sua ultima penna di qualità, la Golden Quill, introdotta sul mercato in occasione della Fiera Mondiale di New York. La nuova penna era contraddistinta da uno stile semplice ed austero, in netto contrasto con l'opulenza della Wing-flow. La qualità come sempre era impeccabile, ma l'azienda era ormai in crisi e la nuova penna non venne pubblicizzata a sufficienza: le vendite furono scarse (tanto che la penna è molto rara ed oggi ricercatissima dai collezionisti).

Nel 1941, dopo aver introdotto sul mercato penne economiche di bassa qualità (le Chiltonian, vendute per lo più per corrispondenza), la Chilton, incapace di generare vendite sufficienti, chiuse i battenti uscendo definitivamente dal mercato.

Template:CronoMarche |- | 1902 || Nascita della Crocker Pen Company |- | 1923 || Nascita della Chilton Pen Company |- | 1925 || Lanciato il primo modello di Chilton a riempimento pneumatico (o 1924) |- | 1926 || La Chilton si sposta da Boston a Long Island a New York |- | 1926 || Introduzione di modelli in celluloide |- | 1927 || Introdotto il secondo modello di riempimento pneumatico |- | 1930 || Introdotta la Rocker clip |- | 1935 || Introdotto il modello Wing-flow |- | 1936 || Introdotte le iniziali a intarsio sulla Wing-flow |- | 1937 || Brevettato il Lox-Top |- | 1937 o 38 || La Chilton si sposta a Summit, nel New Jersey |- | 1939 || Introdotto il modello Golden Quill |- | 1941 || Chiusura della Chilton |- |}

Template:LegendaModelli |- | Lox-Top || 193x || XX, ? |- | Wing-flow || 1935 || XX, ? |- | Golden Quill || 1939 || XX, ? |- |}

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