Writing Instruments: From the Collection - The Parker 61 with 'Rainbow' Cap

Now this is something a little different that belongs to me. Those that collect Parker would find this one of the unique fountain pens from the renown pen maker - the Parker 61. This was a pen, when first introduced in 1956 had a tagline ' Unlike Any Pen In The World...or Any Other'. You can see it in the photograph above.

The Parker 61 was unlike any other pen at that time or even to this day. It had a different way of filling it with ink. Instead of using a plunger, pump, syringe or any mechanical method, the 61 relied on its capillary ink filling system where you immerse the unscrewed rear end of the pen into a bottle of ink and it will fill up via absorbtion and ink will go up the telfon tube. Much like a piece of cloth which absorbs liquid, this does the same. 

It was a novel way of keeping the pen relatively clean as only one point on contact with the ink well and that is then covered by screwing on the body or barrel of the pen. The tip is clean and does not have to be wiped clean like what you would normally do after refilling the pen. So it was because of this the 61 was a totally revolutionary system...that somehow did not really catch on. Surprising isn't it?

According to reviews and from what I read, the reason why this system did not take off was the fact that the manufacturing costs for the pen was actually more expensive than the traditional ink filling systems. Furthermore, the teflon tube did require a wipe down after you dip it into ink. This was seldom done by users and somehow the excess would clog up the pen after a while. 

So it was quite a waste to a novel piece of engineering. Aside from that, it also had an interesting rainbow patterned cap or cover which Parker called the 'Heirloom' series. It featured the rainbow pattern in various gold filled configurations. Some were made with the combination of two different metals and this caused a lot of production issues. 

Mine is a two toned gold filled cap with a green body and is made in U.S.A. I have not much knowledge about it in terms of the exact date of manufacture (this could be a late model pen) but I must say that it is a beautiful looking pen. I had last filled it up a few years ago just to see whether it was working. It was, and needed ten or so seconds of it with its teflon tube dipped into the inkwell. 

The Parker 61 was produced from 1956 to 1983. Quite a long life for a pen as unique as this. Not many must have survived here in Malaysia. Or they could be sitting in the drawer still untouched after many years.