The First Fountain Pen Patent

I love fountain pens. So I want to start by taking a look at the first fountain pen.

Many websites claim Petrache Poenaru was one of the first inventors of the fountain pen. Poenaru patented his fountain pen in France on 25 May 1827.

Drawings from Petrache Poenaru's patent

His patent describes a pen comprising a tube made from the large swan quill (A), with a cap at one end (B and C), and a series of tubes (D, E, F) fitted with a nib (G) at the second end. At the base of the tube F is a small hole. The nib (G) can be made from the goose quill or a metal.

The tube (A) is a reservoir to hold ink which escapes through the hole, allowing the user to write with the nib.

A cap (H) has a needle at the base. When the pen is capped, the needle fits in the hole to prevent the ink leaking and covers the nib.

In Poenaru’s patent he doesn’t claim to have invented the fountain pen but, improved on the existing pen, contrary to what most websites say. The advantage of Poenaru’s fountain pen is that it is lighter and less breakable in comparison to metal or glass. The quill tube also allows the ink to flow to the nib by squeezing the tube rather than shaking the pen.

Poenaru’s patent suggests that fountain pens made around that time were eyedropper pens, typically made from metal or glass. There was no feed system, a small hole allows ink to flow through the pen. As the volume of ink decreases inside the pen it would create a vacuum. Once that happens the pen would have flow problems as the ink would not want to leave the tube. That could be why you would need to shake or squeeze the pen to get the ink flowing.

In modern eye-dropper pens, ink blurping can be a problem because the heat from your hand heats up the air molecules in the body of the pen causing the gas to expand and push ink out of the feed. Metal is a good thermal conductor while glass isn’t. I’m not sure how good a quill is as a thermal conductor but it is likely that expanding gas would have played a part in Poenaru’s pen to keep the ink flowing.

What do you think, do you think Poenaru’s pen would have been practical to use?