US1351574A - Fountain-pen - Google Patents

Description

C. R. KEERAN.

FOUNTAIN PEN.

APPLICATION FILED APII.2.I9I1.

Patented Aug. l31, 1920.

UNITED zsrArss PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES It. KEERAN, or CHICAGO. ILLINOIS, AssICNoR, :erMasiva`AssIeivivin'ivfrs,` To

THE YWAHI. COMPANY, or WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, VA CORPORATION CFDELA- WARE'. 1

FOUNTAIN-PEN.

Specification ofl Letters Patent. Patented Allg; 31, 1920.

Application filed April 2, 1917. serial Nausea-98.

To all wlw/1n t may concern: i i

Be it known that I', CHARLES R. KEERAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fountain-Pens, of which the following is a specification.

My invention is a fountain pen, and particularly of the class of fountain pens in which there is a rubber sack adapted tovhold supply of ink and feed the same to apen nib and also provided with means for deflat-ing the sack for the purpose of filling it with a fresh supply of ink. f

One of the objectsof my invention isvto provide a pen of the aforementioned class,

which will hold a much larger supply of inl; than pens of the prior art, and will have a device by which the ink sack may be completely filled with ink instead of only partially filled, as in other pens of thiscla'ss.

A further obj ect of my invention is to provide a novel means of retaining the lever which is used to fill the pen in either its open or its closed position. This I accomplish by providing a lever which is inthe nature of a toggle joint and arranging `the leverage so thatsaid lever will be held secui-ely in its closed `position by a force directed along the length of the lever itself.

A further object of my invention is the provision of an intermediate stopping placev for the lever used in refilling the pen with the object of enabling one completely to fill the ink sack instead of only to partially ll the same as in the case of the pens of the i prior art.

A further' object of my invention is the provision of a fountain pen provided with a lever device-by which the pen may be refilled without the use of the customary dropper, -and by making the pen barrel having a longitudinal elliptical section. I further f provide the ink sack with a similar' section and provide a presser bar which is normally curved to conform to the outline of the ink sack when thelsame is in its normal position and is flexibleand provided with means for curving lthe vpresseri'bar in thel opposite direction to conform to the shape of the ink sack when the same is deflated for the purpose of. filling the pin. By this expedient I gain an increased capacity of the ink sack,

for, obviously, if this sack is of longitudinal bar, and

elliptical section it will afford a greater capacity for ink than if 'the sack were made` with straight inside lines, as was customary heretofore in self filling pens'provided with aleverV for the purpose of operating the ink sack.

A further objectl of invention is provide a means ofstiffening the rubber sach ,s o that a large sack can be inserted easily into the barrel. In thev prior art it has been customary to use a rubber sack small enough to be dropped into thebarrel easily.

Howeven this resulted in a very material reduction in the 'sack capacity.

'In my hereinafter described combination,

tion willbe apparent to thoseskilled in the art and will be set forth more particularly `in the following specification and claims:

My invention will `be best understood by.

reference to the accompanying figures, in which- Figure l is a longitudinal section of my improved pen showing the operating lever lin its closed or normal position;

Fig. 2 is a viewof the parts shown in Fig.

. l, but having the ink sack deflated;

Fig. 3 is a'topfview ofv the operating lever; Figx 4 is a partialsectional view of the operating lever 'and its mounting;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the presser Fig. 6 is a detail view of the wire stiffeiier for the Ink sack, this view being taken at right anglesto the view shown in Fig. 1.

- Referring to Fig. 1, it willbe seen that I have provided a pen body or casing l0,

Vwhich isvpreferably of vhard rubber and v nib l2 and the feed bar 13. The body 10,

as will be observed by reference to Fig. 1,

)is of larger diameter in the center than at` either end. The object of; this particular shape will hereinafter be described.

for the ink yfeed (not shown), and at its rear end the plug 11 has an attaching portion 14, on which' is placed the 'elastic ink sack 15. This ink sack, like the casing 10,

`has a larger diameter' at its mid-section than at either end and therefore conforms to the outline of the inside l of the casing 10. Mounted in the back of the casing 10 is a spring 16, in the shape of a hook, andhaving a forwardly extending portion 17, which engages a hole A18 in the end of the presser bar 19. The presser bar 19 has in its vrear portion a V-shapedv slot 20, which is adapted to engage the spring 16 and also has riveted on it an ear 21. The presserbar is operated by means of 'a lever 22, whichY is pivoted in a' slot inthe casing 10 on a pin'23. Mounted on the lever l 22 is a roller 24, which-is adapted' to engage a channel 29 in the presserbar 19 and also the nose 25, which Y is adapted to engage a slot 26 in the presser bar 19 and therebyhold the lever 22 in its .vertical position. The vnose 25 is adapted to engage a ledge 28 on the edge ofthe ear 21, and thus serve tohold the presser bar in its'raised position when the lever 22 is in its normal position.

v Referring to F ig. 1, it will be seen that when the lever 22 is in its normal position that the spring` hook 17 is put under tension by the presser bar 19, and it will be also observed that the pin 23, which forms the pivot of thelever 22, is below a line flated 'drawn from the ledge 28 and the hole 18.

Therefore, the tension of the spring 16 serves to maintain the lever 22 securely in its closed position.

The presserbar 19 is normally given a shape to conform to the interior of the casing 10; that is, it is convex towardjthe lever v2.2.Y However', when said presser bar is de- The notch 20 `serves as a guide for the presser bar, asthe same is raised and lowered during the expansion of the rubber sack 15. ln order to assemble my improved lpen, it is necessary to first insert the presserV vbar so that the notch 20 is in'V contact with the shanlr'of the'spring 16. The presser bar is then raised so that the hook 17 will engagein the hole 18. The lever 22 kis then vmanipulated to bring the presser bar in the position shown in lF ig. 1. ln this position The .feed bar 13,contains the customary channel the plug 11, on which is mounted the rubber sack 15, may be easily inserted, and when in its position-,the thickness of the rubber saclrtogether with-the stiffener 3() will presser bar 19 and the hook 17. Y

. The ink sack 15 is provided with a stiffener 30. This is preferably inthe form of a vlight piece of wire shaped somewhat .the

Vform of a hair pin and having its points prevent Ythe `disengagement, of the.

suitably held in the feed plug 13 and havbore of the casing 10 so that it maybe easily Aslid into place. This, of course, attains the ease of assemblage at the.` expense of link capacity.n On the other hand,l the tube "of the ink sack 15 may be made a tight fit in the pen casing 10,' in which levent while ad'-v ditional ink capacity is gain'ed,'the pen extremely diflicultto assemble.

' I consider the use lofthe stiflener 30, or

the equivalent thereof, a very important" part of my inventionv and wish to claim it broadly.

Having vdescribed the vstructure -of my im proved pen, l will now describe its operation .Y

vWhen the ink sack 15 is empty and it is desired tofill the pen, the lever 22, which has been held in its normal position by the tension of the spring. 16 as transmitted nose 25, is raised into the position shown in Fig. 2. The pen nib is then inserted into 'through the vpresser bar 19, ear 21 to the an ink supply and the lever 22 is thrown y back into its normal position shown in Fig` 1'. The ink sack 15 will then expand, drawing up the ink and partially `filling itself. It is not possible to completely ll the ink sack on this operation, since it will be observed from Fig. that when the ink-sack is defiated the forward end of said sack con` tains a quantity of air, such, for instance, as shown in the space 28. l/Vhen the sack expands, since the point 12 is in the' ink supply the bubble of air contained in th-e space 30L will at once go to theV highest point of the ink sack, that is, to the rear end of the pen. lever 22y cannot possibly completely lillthe sack 15, The pen is then withdrawn. from th-e ink and held in the position withthe feed bar 13 uppermost. The air that is in the ink sack 15u/ill, of course, rise to` the top end of the sack.V The lever 22 isthen again manipulated byfbeing broughtv to a vposition Thus a single manipulation .ofv the l -otherwise be wasted.

where the roller 24 and the nose 25 are both in engagement with the presser bar 19. This action will not expel any ink from the sack, since the top part of the sack contains only the air formeriy contained inthe space 28. However, it will expel all of the air, and if any ink is forced from the sack, it will be held by capillary attraction on thefeed bar 13 ,and pen 12. It will be observed that ate position after thesack has beenpartially filled with ink that all of the air will be expelled from said sack and it will then contain nothing butinlr. The nib 12 is again inserted in the ink-.supply and the lever 22 is restored to itsV normalf position, shown in Fig. 1.I The sack will again expand, sucking up more inkfrom the ink container, and will then be completely full lof ink, since all ofthe airhasbeen expelled by the operation of bringing the ,lever 22 to its intermediate position after the first lling ofthe sack. Y f Y f I believe I am new in providing a lever for a self-filling pen which will have a denite intermediate position for the purpose of expelling all the air from the ink sack and filling the same entirely with ink, and I wish to claim Vthe same broadly.

' I believe I am also .new in providing a iever which is kept closed by a toggle joint action caused by exerting a spring pressure approximately in the direction of the lever,

and I wish to claim' the same broadly. ,Iv

also believe it is novel to provide an ink barrel, a flexible saclr of approximately longitudinal elliptical section and a iiexiblepresser Vbar adapted to conformto said section to the end ofproviding a greater ink capacity while keeping the same diameter of the part held by the fingers. It will be observed that the enlarged portion of the barrel of my im proved pen comes in the space between the thumb and first finger and that said en-` larged portion occupiesspace whichrwould Niany modifications may be made in the precise structure herein shown without departing fronithe spirit of my invention.

I claim: 1-

l. In a fountain pen, the combination of an elliptical casing the wall of which curves substantially from end to end of the casing, a pen, a feeding nib, an inksaek attached to said feeding nib, said ink sack being approximately of elliptical section similarly curving from end to end thereof, a flexible presser bar adapted to conform to the opposite curvatures of the casing wall, and a lever for operating said presser bar to defiate said sack.

2. In a fountain pen, the combination of a pen, a feedbar, an elliptical casing'serving to provide a mount for said pen and feedbar the wall of the casing curving substanset forth.

.tially from end to lend thereof, a deflatable ink sack of approximately elliptical section contained within said casing similarly curverated'by said lever, said fiexible presser bar being'adapted to Vconform to the opposite curvatures of the casing wall. when the lever is brought to this intermediinltsaclr for' deflating the same, and means -to operate said presser bar and form it convex toward said ink sack for the purposes 4. In a fountain pen, the combination of a pen casing, a Alongitudinal slot in said casing, a lever pivoted in saidcasing, aspring, and means forholding the leverfclosed Vby exerting thereonthe tension of saidspring Valong a line substantially parallel vto the poftherein, a presser bar concave toward said f sition ofsaid lever when said lever is closed. i*

5. Ina fountain pen, the combination of a pen casing, a longitudinal slot thereina. lever pivoted in said slot and having one end extending on the outside of said casing to form a handle whereby said lever may be manually operated, Aa presser bar within the casing and adapted to bev operated by the portion of said lever extending within said casing, and an-anti-friction Vdevice at the point of contact between said lever andsaid presser bar, and means on the lever adjacent to said anti-friction device for holding the lever open.

6. In a fountain pen, thecombination of a pen casing, a longitudinal slot therein, a

lever pivotedin said slot and having one end extending on the outside of said Ycasing to form a handle whereby said lever maybe manuallyY operated, a presser barwithiii the casing and adapted to be operatedby the portion of said lever extending within said casing, a roller on the end ofv said lever to operate said presser bar, anda -nose-onthe lever adjacent to said roller for holding the lever open.

7. In a fountain pen, the combination of a casing, a longitudinalislot therein, a levei' pivoted in said slot, a presser bar adapted to the end ofw said casing and adapted to en-` gage a hole in said presser bar and thus give said presser bar a tendency to move longitudinally of said casing, an ear on said I presser bar adapted to be engaged by said lever, the arrangement being such that when said lever is in its closed position the engagement of the lever and ear places the spring under tension.- f- 9. Ina fountain pen, the combination of a easing,-a pivotally fixed lever having a handle portion'extending en one side of its pivot, and an operating portion extending on the other side thereof, a presser bar, a

rspring attached to said presser bar, and a lng en said presser bar adapted to contact with the operatingr end of said lever to put the s rino' .under tension when the lever is closed, said lug being so positioned that when said lever is in a closed position the pivot will be'between said presser' bar and the line of action of said spring.v

Y 10. r If-he method of fill-ing a fountain pen whichl contains a deflatable ink reservoir, said method consisting in first deflating said reservoir, inserting the pen in an ink supply and allowing it to lill by atmospheric pressure, then turning the pen end Vfor end, partially deflating said reservoir and again inserting the pen in inlr andV allowing the' .sack` and means for operating the same intive position.

13.. In. a fountain pen, the combination of cluding means to give saidpresser bar a tension to move in the direction of its lengthV for holding said operating meansin inacan ink sack, a presser bar for deflating the sack, means for operating the same and 'a spring attached to said bar influenced by said operating means and exerting a tension directed along the .length of said bar forV Vholding said operating means in inactive position.

14. In a fountain pen, theV combination of a casing, an ink sack, a presser bar for de- Hating said sack, a spring'attachedto said bar and exerting a tension directed along the length of said bar, andv a .leverpivotally fixed to operate said bar, the arrangement ofthe spring, presser bar and lever being suclrthat when said lever is in its closed i position the tension of saidspring transmitted through said bar in `a direction par- `allel to 4the length'of said vbarvliolds said lever in contact with thecasing.

15. In a fountain pen,thecombination of a casing, a deflatable sack contained therein, apresser bar fordeflating said sack, a lever' pivotally fixed in thecasing for operating said presser bar, anda spring operative on said lever and presser bar, the arrangement -of lever, presser bar and spring .being such that starting with the lever in an open posiT tion, actuation of the', lever firstincreases the tension of the spring until'the lever has reached a' certain point vand then .further motion of the lever decreases the tension of the spring.

16. In a fountainpen, the combination of a easing, av defiatablefink sa'cl contained therein, a presser bar for deflating said ink` sack, means to give said presser bar a tendency to move in the'v direction of its length, a lug on said presser bar, a lever spaced from .said lug when open but adapted to contact with said lug in closing, the arrangement of said presser bar, lug and lever being such that said `presser bar and Alever'form the element ofa toggle joint. i f

17. InaV fountain pen, a combination of a casing, a'lever pivoted in said casing, said lever having a handle portion on'one side of its pivot and an operating portion on the ether side of its pivot, a deflatable ink sack in said casing, a presser bar for operating said ink sack, a spring giving said presser bar a tendency to move in the direction of the length of said bar, and means mounted on said presser barV adapted t0 Contact with the operating end of said lever tor'enden said spring effective in holding the handle of said lever firmly against said casing when said lever is in itsclosed position, but to separate 'from contact therewith to render said spring ineffective on said lever when.

said lever is in its open position.v

In witness whereof I have hereuntol subscribed my name. A Y

' orniRLEsi-. KEERAN.

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