The

Parker Parker may refer to: People * Parker (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Parker (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname Arts and entertainment * ''Parke ...

Vacumatic

fountain pen A fountain pen is a writing instrument that uses a metal nib (pen), nib to apply Fountain pen ink, water-based ink, or special pigment ink—suitable for fountain pens—to paper. It is distinguished from earlier dip pens by using an internal r ...

was launched in 1932, and would come to out-sell the Parker

Duofold The Parker Duofold is a range of fountain pens produced by the Parker Pen Company. History The first model was produced in 1921 and was a large pen – 5.5 inches long when capped. It was made of a showy bright red hard rubber and expensively ...

, the then top seller. The pen was originally marketed under the name of Golden Arrow, a reference to the new arrow clip but was again changed to Vacuum Filler in reference to its ink reservoir filling action. The Vacumatic featured a brand new filling mechanism which took 5 years to develop at a cost of $125,000. Parker boasted the model to be the first self-filler without a sac; while this was not entirely true, the filling mechanism was still a great innovation. By using a diaphragm rather than a sac, the whole barrel can be used as a reservoir. The principal workings are essentially like that of the earlier button fillers like the Duofold as the depression of the plunger pushed on the rubber sac and forced out the air (creating a vacuum) and when the rubber regained its natural form the ink got sucked into the pen to replace the air. The difference was that the previous button was replaced with a fat (approximately 4 mm) plunger that was used to operate the diaphragm. The plunger could be locked in a down position with a twist of the thumb and is referred to as the Lock-Down Fill, or Twist-Fill. Although the pen came in many sizes and colors, the most widely recognizable Vacumatics featured alternating horizontal bands of pearlescent and clear

celluloid Celluloids are a class of materials produced by mixing nitrocellulose and camphor, often with added dyes and other agents. Once much more common for its use as photographic film before the advent of safer methods, celluloid's common present-day ...

. These clear bands allowed the user to see the level of ink in the barrel. Several generations of Vacumatic were produced. The pen remained Parker's top-of-the-line product until the launch of the 51 in 1941. The Parker Vacumatic was phased out in 1948 but remained in production in Canada until 1953.

References

{{Reflist Vacumatic Products introduced in 1933