News — McNiven and Cameron pen

I recently wrote about a MacNiven & Cameron 'The Cameron Pen', dating from around 1912.  The pen is, essentially, a bulb filler but it originally had two metal bars that were used to compress the sac, much like a modern 'aerometric' affair.  I have now finished work on the pen but am still unable to source the filler bars, but I live in hope. It's a hard rubber pen, in outstanding condition, with no signs of oxidation, it must have been kept in the dark for most of its life.  It uses a full length ink sac so all of the...

It's amazing how ancient pens occasionally produce an innoivation that would have revolutionised the industry had they taken it a little bit further.  In this case MacNiven and Cameron devised a filling system that was only a tiny bit removed from an Aerometric filler.  Had they seen the natural improvement they would have jumped ahead about forty years, missing out button fillers and lever systems altogether. The pen was the 'Cameron', a hard rubber, Gold nibbed affair: The pen shown is missing the filler bars at the moment but the arrangement can be seen in a c.1912 advert for the pen: All...