George ParkerBorn 1 Nov 1863; died 19 Jul 1937 at age 73.George Safford Parker was an American inventor who perfected the fountain pen and founded the Parker Pen Company to manufacture it. He began in a teaching career which introduced him to the unreliability of existing fountain pens used by his students. Through selling and repairing them, he learned of their construction. He ceased teaching in 1888 to experiment with his own design. By 8 Mar 1892, he incorporated Parker Pen Company. He subsequently patented many improvements, and was particularly successful in creating a reliable ink-flow system. During WW I, his Trench Pen utilized a tablet of pigment to be inserted into the pen and turned to fluid ink by filling the barrel with water. |
