Parker 61 - a Pen from another World

The Parker 61 came into existence around the mid 1950s after the success of the super hit model, the Parker 51. Although the model 51 pen from Parker was hugely popular among the masses due to its hooded nib which did not let it dry when the pen was unused or uncapped for a while, there were drawbacks to it as well. Parker got complaints regarding the model 51, most of which related to the hooded nib that made it difficult to gather in an instant, the up or the down side of the pen. In addition, there was the additional problem of filling the pens as they had to be screwed, squeezed and levered to draw the ink. All of this was messy and made the writer stain his hands and sometimes the writing paper as well.

The Parker 61 is a pen from another world was an answer to all these problems. Although the design of the model 61 was quite similar to the Parker 51, yet the capillary action which enabled the nib of the pen to draw ink made it a revolutionary pen of that era. The unique thing about the Parker sixty one was that filling it was the simplest considering the other pens of that time. The user just had to drop the pen nib down in the ink bottle and the wick inside drew up loads of ink. In addition, there was no need to wipe the pen clean as the Teflon coating of the filler repelled ink thereby requiring no cleaning.

Features of Parker 61

The Parker 61 came into being after much research and development. The success of the Parker 51 made the designers go for a similar design of the model 61. They however changed the filling system, making it the USP of fountain pen number 61. It had the same cylinder point and the nib under the hood. However, leaving aside the capillary action filling system, there were two other differences between the Parker 51 and the 61 models. First of these was the little arrow that was inlaid behind the point to make the user aware of the writing side of the pen, which was a complaint with the 51 model. The second of the difference was the "rainbow" chasing on the nickel cap. The rainbow caps gave a striking appearance to the pen 61.

Although the sixty one model was quite popular due to its capillary action filling system, yet it was not devoid of its drawbacks. The 61 model of the fountain pen was difficult to clean. Moreover, the users did not bother too much about keeping their pens clean, thereby, causing the pens to eventually get clogged. Additionally, despite the fewer parts in the fountain pen 61, the manufacturing costs of the pen were still high as compared to its benefits. Parker finally had to revert to the conventional cartridge system instead of the capillary filler.

Nevertheless, the 61 model was indeed a revolutionary pen with its capillary action which was developed by a team of 50 research scientists who took twelve years to develop the system.

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