Talk:Fountain pen

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	Fountain pen is a former featured article. Please see the links under Article Milestones below for its original nomination page (for older articles, check the nomination archive) and why it was removed.
	This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on April 5, 2004.
Article Milestones Date Process Result January 19, 2004 Refreshing of brilliant prose Kept March 24, 2006 Featured article review Demoted Current Status: Former featured article

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Contents 1 photo request 2 some copyediting perhaps required 3 gravitation, surface tension 4 nibs? 5 filling mechanisms? 6 Request for references 7 Left-handed people 8 Overcrowding 9 Indian Ink 10 Spam 11 brands, porsche 12 collecting 13 The Sultan of Egypt 14 Timeline Complications

[edit] photo request

It would be nice if there was a picture of a Fountain pen to go with the article. Anyone want to try and find a public domain image?

Someone could perhaps photograph theirs?

[edit] some copyediting perhaps required

The pen is said to be a status symbol, but if you ask people using fountain pens why they do, they will probably answer it is for aesthetic and comfort reasons. Arguably no other kind of pen can reach the same level of fluid and effortless writing and produce such lively line. This could perhaps be mentioned.

This seems to be a flow problem in the text. Some parts come off denying a thing and a little afterwards there's an "also"-chapter. It could use a lot of rephrasing and arranging.

Yes, and it has reached a size where a division between the introduction, the historical part and the other parts might be useful. AlainV. 2003-12-06

I'm a moderator for The Fountain Pen Network (www.fountainpennetwork.com), and know the central opinions of fountain pen users. I'll have a read through this article again, and fix some of this division up. I'll make sure it's well explained on the edit pages. Pactio kiss 13:39, 25 January 2007 (UTC)Pactio_kiss

[edit] gravitation, surface tension

Ramir 09:23, 5 Apr 2004 (UTC): I put links to "gravitation" and "surface tension". If you don't like it, remove them, and put a note here for others who want to link to those articles.

[edit] nibs?

I'm curious why there is no separate article on nibs, the redirect sends you here? --Phoebus 23:15, 11 Jun 2004 (UTC)

This seems wrong to me, too. Nibs get used on dip pens, too.

try the site http://www.pens-more.com

There is already a highly informative website that covers that area. Try http://www.richardspens.com and search "Nibs" Pactio kiss 13:40, 25 January 2007 (UTC)Pactio_kiss

[edit] filling mechanisms?

Various filling mechanisms also have to be listed and discussed either inline or in separate articles. --Sivaraj 07:24, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC)

There seems to have been quite a bit of addition and deletion of filling systems. Having looked at previous edits, the detail was quite overwhelming and started concentrating on each manufacturer's particular system and patents.

It appears to me that here it would make sense only to include the generic filling systems, not the specifics. The specifics would be placed on each of the individual manufacturers pages.

That is the key filling systems would be:

- Eyedropper - Crescent - Piston - Lever - Button - Cartridge

?

Unfortunately, in the world of vintage fountain pens, some filling mechanisms that were only used by specific brands were a cornerstone to fountain pen development and history. They cannot be neglected. Such examples are the Vacumatic filling system by Parker, Aerometric filling system by Parker "51"s and the Sheaffer Snorkel filling system. Some specific filling mechanisms require a mention.

[edit] Request for references

Hi, I am working to encourage implementation of the goals of the Wikipedia:Verifiability policy. Part of that is to make sure articles cite their sources. This is particularly important for featured articles, since they are a prominent part of Wikipedia. The Fact and Reference Check Project has more information. Thank you, and please leave me a message when a few references have been added to the article. - Taxman 19:33, Apr 22, 2005 (UTC)

I've added some references from various news articles. Pactio kiss 13:02, 29 January 2007 (UTC)Pactio_kiss

[edit] Left-handed people

I would like to see some mention to the difficulties on the use of fountain pens by left-handed people. It seems that there are special pens made for lhp, but I have yet to find a true reference. Luis Dantas 06:50, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

Your wish is my command ;-) A VERY complete treatise on the subject has been written by one of the great nibmeisters still extant - Jim Mottishaw. His article on the subject "The Left-handed Writers Page" at <http://www.nibs.com/Left-hand%20writers.htm> has also been reprinted by the Pen Collectors of America <http://www.pencollectors.com/pennant/spring00/nibworks.html>

Additional excellent resources relevant to the topic are:

"Varieties of left-handed writing" http://www.well.com/user/smalin/lefthand.htm

"Pen hold and hand position for writing left-handed" http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspages.nsf/LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/Pen+hold+and+hand+position+for+writing+left-handed?opendocument

"Left-handedness" http://briem.ismennt.is/4/4.1.3a/4.1.3.4.left.htm

"Teaching Left-Handers to Write" http://handedness.org/action/leftwrite.html

Andrew Rózsa 12.30.2005

[edit] Overcrowding

It seems to me that there's a whole lot of information here rather densely packed - perhaps so much that a newcomer to fountain pens would be confused and discouraged. I understand the reasons behind this, since apparently overzealous FP fans have come up in droves to support their favourite hobby on the Wiki. But maybe we could lean back on the more esoteric knowledge here, and concentrate on the straight facts. A little copy editing wouldn't hurt either. Just a thought. --God_ofcoffee 06:57, 14 Feb 2006 (UTC)

I read this whole page when I was a newcomer to fountain pens. Contrary to your concern, I have found this big mass of information very interesting and informative :-) Pactio kiss 13:42, 25 January 2007 (UTC)Pactio_kiss

[edit] Indian Ink

"In addition, they cannot be used with the various oil- and particle-based inks (such as India ink)..." I have a fountain pen and i use Indian Ink for it with no problem

I guess you're lucky so far. India ink contains particles in suspension which can block the feed of the pen, especially if it's allowed to dry out.

India ink is a big no-no for fountain pens. I don't know how you've managed to use them in fountain pens so far, but it's guaranteed to do damage. Pactio kiss 13:41, 25 January 2007 (UTC)Pactio_kiss

[edit] Spam

Whats with all the spam & commericial links? shouldn't we take care of that? Ddahlberg 17:07, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

• Since no one took the time to do it, I sorted and deleted through the least informative websites. Ddahlberg 12:50, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] brands, porsche

I seriously doubt porsche manufactures fountain pens. They probably just license their name to some other maker; it's possible they do some of the design. The makers section should probably be retitled "brands", similar to the ink section. -- Akb4 06:03, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

The licensee is Faber-Castell as far as writing implements are concerned.--Cancun771 13:46, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] collecting

fountain pen collecting seems to be a large field, which is given little coverage in this article. perhaps a seperate article about it could be created? (this leads me to wonder if there should be (or is?) a template or style for articles on collecting various things...) -- Akb4 06:03, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The Sultan of Egypt

Can anybody verify this bit of information about the "Sultan" of Egypt demanding a pen in the 10th century? With an independent source? It was put in anonymously on the 13th of March last year. According to the wiki on the title of Sultan, as well as the Mamluk and Ayyubid_dynasty, the islamic rulers of Egypt only began to style themselves as Sultans from the 12th century onwards. In the 10th century, ist should much rather have been an Emir. If this is not corrected and/or properly referenced in a week, I will delete it.--Cancun771 13:58, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Timeline Complications

Purvis invented the ink-feeding tube and received a patent in 1890. The very next sentence reads: "The first fountain pens making use of all these key ingredients appeared in the 1850s." How can something that received a patent in 1890 be used in 1850? S. Randall 11:31, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Similarly, in History: "The earliest historical record of a reservoir pen dates to the 10th century. " then shortly after, "The earliest surviving reservoir pens date to the 1st century." Are these dates BCE? 64.0.88.181 15:03, 2 March 2007 (UTC)