Parker "19"

1961-1963

HISTORY

The concept of a cartridge in a fountain pen to make filling it fast and easy was an idea that had been around in different forms since the late 1800s. Even back in the eyedropper days, Parker had experimented with a more portable ink supply, other than the travelling inkwell. Back then, the solution was a tablet of concentrated ink to be dissolved in water, but it was the French sister company of Waterman, JIF-Waterman, who first in the 1920s managed to produce a cartridge that proved to work very well — although Eagle had dabbled with the same thing years earlier.

This first cartridge was, however, made of glass and consequently broke easily and never really took off in the US, although it became quite popular on the European continent on account of its obvious simplicity. During the 1940s, most companies were looking into the new invention, the ball pen, and some companies, like Eversharp, began manufacturing a ball pen with a cartridge filler, the CA, so called because it used a Capillary Action. These pens were, however, short-lived and the cartridge was not very well designed. This pen actually led to the demise of the Eversharp pen company in 1957.

Image © courtesy of Goodoldnorm

A 1961 Parker "19" GT, made in Canada

The first truly functional cartridge for fountain pens was made of plastic, in appearance similar to the ones we are used to seeing today, and this time around it was Waterman in the US who began offering them around 1953. Unfortunately for latter-day collectors, the Waterman CF cartridges are quite different from the modern ones, and if you want to use these in vintage pens, you have to find an equally vintage cartridge and painstakingly fill it with a syringe. Parker had put an incredible lot of money and thought into developing new filling systems — first the vacumatic filler and then the Aerometric filler — and was hesitant to convert to non-integrated filling systems of their own.

They had also had a short-lived experiment with a cigarette lighter called the Parker Flaminaire (1950–1952) that contained a replaceable cartridge of liquid lighter fluid. Unfortunately, these cartridges could not easily be refilled, which soon rendered the discontinued lighter useless. Parker had many complaints from dissatisfied customers who had paid good money for a lighter that would no longer work. Parker decided to learn from that experience, and when they later decided to produce a cartridge, it was destined never to change. You can take any Parker cartridge from any time period and stick it into any cartridge Parker pen and it will fit. Simple, but very customer-friendly.

The Parker 19 range:

Black

Green

Dark Blue

Light Blue

Grey

One of the last fountain pens that Eversharp had designed was the somewhat strange Eversharp "10.000" (said to refer to the number of words one cartridge could handle). It was slim, with a tapered end and had a short metal cap with a square clip, marked with the Eversharp E. But at this time it was becoming increasingly clear that Eversharp would not make it as a pen-producing company, and the pen-making part of Eversharp was sold to Parker in 1957.

Yes, the concept of an easily replaceable cartridge was attractive. Based on the acquired Eversharp patent, Parker began producing plastic ink cartridges already in 1957–58. They sported the dual inscription "Super Quink — fits Eversharp and Parker". Some say that the cartridge patent was the main reason for acquiring Eversharp, although Parker decided to take it one step further. Why force the customer to choose between cartridges and ink bottles? Parker constructed a removable, refillable ink converter that would fit into the new cartridge pen. In 1958, Parker decided to try the new cartridge in their top Parker "51" line. This was highly unsuccessful, probably because its disposable features somehow lessened the status of owning a Parker "51". The cartridge Parker "51" was abruptly discontinued in 1962. But before then, Parker had decided on a new strategy.

Parker did continue the production of the Eversharp "10.000". It was sold under the Eversharp brand name but had the additional Parker logo engraved at the bottom of the cap. Die-hard collectors do not, however, consider this pen a true Parker. Donald Doman, the designer extraordinaire who worked for Parker on many of its models (the Jotter, Parker "61", Parker "VP", Parker "75", Parker "T1" and Liquid Lead — he also designed train cars for Pullman, tools and bathtubs), had already been drafting an entirely new concept for a school pen. Not wanting to differ too much from the prize-winning design of the then milk-cow Parker 51, Doman initially kept the metal cap and the arrow clip and adopted the stylised clip of the Parker 21 Super, introduced in 1956. He also borrowed the tapered body from the Eversharp "10.000", creating a slimmer and lighter pen than the predominant Parker 21 and 51. Since it used cartridges, Parker named it the Parker "45" after the western revolver.

The first Parker "45"s had a completely new kind of steel nib. It was triangular and very small compared to prior Parker nibs. The complete nib/feed could be unscrewed and easily replaced, and many styles of nibs were offered. The patents showing the Parker "45" nib, collector and the converter were filed in 1960 and state Homer T. Green as the inventor. The new pen was introduced in 1960 and was sold alongside the Eversharp "10.000".

A 1961 Parker "19" CT, made in Canada.

There hadn't been a Parker pen with a plastic cap since the Vacumatic. Parker now wanted to compete in the low-priced markets, but by this time most plastic parts were being manufactured in a moulding machine with difficulties, and Parker was having trouble mass-producing cheaper plastic pens. Parker had been working on a process to speed up production by using a new manufacturing technique, constructing the whole pen from the same die. The process was first tried out in the plant in Canada, using the basic features of the Parker "45". The result, Parker "19", introduced in 1961, was decidedly a cheaper pen. It lacked the metal body ring, it didn't have the black ring that made up the easily exchangeable nib/feed combo of the Parker "45", and it had a steel nib. It was offered in the standard colours of black, red, green, dark blue, light blue and grey. Other colours might also have been part of a test production. Demonstrators have also been found. Later pens also came with gold-filled trim and a gold nib. It had the additional cap engraving. The Parker "19" was 140 millimetres long. First-year pens didn't have a replaceable nib/feed unit.

There was also a sister pen to the Parker "19" produced under the Eversharp name, Big E. They are virtually identical, save for the clip, imprints and the section being a tad smaller close to the nib. The Big E was made from the same plastic as the Parker "19". Both pens were priced at $2.98, $5 for a ballpoint/fountain pen set. The Parker "19" was trademarked in 1961.

Before the Parker "45", the Parker pen company moulded their plastic parts in plunger-type injection moulding machines. The plastic was bought as small pellets which were fed into a cylinder where a plunger forced the plastic into a melting chamber where it was forced against the walls while heated until the plastic became very fluid. Then the plastic was injected through a nozzle into the mould. The main problem was that the plastic melted unevenly, since the plastic closer to the heated walls simply had a higher temperature than the plastic further away. There were also problems with the reduced pressure at the nozzle, which limited the complexity of the moulded parts. There was also the added problem of purging old coloured plastics before being able to produce parts in new colours, wasting huge amounts of plastic. It took the workers at Parker four to five hours to clean the machine sufficiently to be able to change colours.

Around 1956, German moulding engineers had begun experimenting with ways to eliminate the faults of the plunger-type moulding machines. They came up with a technique of using a large screw to obtain a constant flow of plastic through the heating system and into the mould. It had the additional advantage that the plastic was kept constantly moving, which rendered a more even temperature. Furthermore, the changing of colour now took ten minutes and left almost no discoloured plastic waste. Also, the need for high pressure was diminished and thus more complex parts could be moulded.

Siblings. A green 1960 Eversharp "10.000" pen followed by a red and a blue Eversharp Big E, made by Parker ca 1961. Two Eversharp Point *7 in turqoise and in grey from around 1964, a 1961 green Parker "19" GT and a red and a black 1962 Parker "45" GT Arrow.

Parker bought their first new moulding machine in 1962, and within a few years the old plunger machines were phased out. In 1962, the first official Parker since the Vacumatic to wear a plastic cap in the US was announced — it was a Parker "45", now sporting a 14-karat gold nib. It sold at the astonishingly low price of $3.95, including five free cartridges, and was bubble-packed to a card. It was announced to be aimed directly at the then 22 million young people in high schools and colleges. At the same time, both Parker "19" and the Eversharp Big E were refashioned to incorporate a replaceable nib in the style of the Parker "45". This was sold with a free cartridge and new converter, which ordinarily cost $0.49. Later, a felt-tip version called Tip-Wic was introduced in the mid 1960s.

A plastic-capped companion to the Big E, the Eversharp Challenger, "Will challenge competition", was also introduced at a meagre $1.00. With two free cartridges, it was also sold bubble-packed to a card. Colours offered were: black, red, deep blue, grey, green and light blue. Furthermore, in 1962 the Eversharp "10.000" cartridge pen, which sold for $1.98 also with two free cartridges, was offered with a promotional coupon that allowed for a refund of $1.00 together with the two used cartridges. Colours offered were black, red, blue, grey, green and white, but it was clearly running out of steam.

The Parker "45" of course became very popular; the novel filling system was soon in demand, and it was eventually applied to other Parker models, such as late models of the Parker 61, the Parker 75 and many other subsequent models. Today, no Parker pens are manufactured with an integrated filling system.

The Parker "19" is by all means a cheap Parker, significant only because it's rather rare, with only a one-year-plus run, perhaps with added value as a curiosity to the Parker "45" collector and, of course, in pen history. It was phased out in 1963.

(Updated 2019)