World War II and the Fountain Pen, Part III

War rationing and patriotism on the home front led to creatively-designed wartime fountain pens.

- RICHARD BINDER

In wartime, patriotism is a major factor in maintaining morale on the home front. During World War II, manufacturers capitalized on patriotism to sell their merchandise—or, as in the case of the virtually unobtainable Parker “51", to stoke demand in anticipation of the postwar future. So much of patriotic Americans' daily life was about supporting the "boys over there" that Olive Drab became a popular color. It even showed up in the pen display cases of stationery stores.

Wartime pens in America did not spring suddenly into existence after Pearl Harbor. Realizing early on that Americans would be going into battle, Solomon M. Sager reintroduced the trench pen, a class of World War 1 eyedropper fillers that made their own ink by mixing a dried ink pellet with water in the barrel; but Sager added the multiple-fill feature pioneered in the '20s and '30s. His patented Graphomatic Inkmaker featured a cartridge containing dried ink. Mounted into a plug that screwed into the back of the barrel and covered by a blind cap, the cartridge released the dried ink into solution in the water in the barrel. Shown here is one of Sager's Inkmaker pens in "Military Khaki"; the Inkmaker also appeared in Jet Black, Burgundy, Navy Blue, and Hospital White.

Sager was careful to ensure that the Inkmaker met the needs of the military, foremost of which (after eliminating the need to bottled ink in the field) was a military clip, so that the pen would not disturb the appearance of a soldier's uniform while being carried in his pocket. He also ensured that it used no potentially critical resources: the nib was 14 karat gold, the feed was plastic, the clip was made of the same plastic as the silver, and the seal at the back of the barrel was made of a flexible plastic. There was no rubber anywhere in the pen.