Penkala's solid-ink fountain pen
Estilográfica de tinta sólida de Penkala
- Date
- 1906-1907 · confidence medium
- Place
- Zagreb, Croatia
- Credited to
- Slavoljub Eduard Penkala
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A reservoir pen using a solid ink pellet that is dissolved with water inside the barrel, avoiding the leaks of liquid ink. Penkala made it at his Zagreb factory, one of the largest in the sector at the time.
Priority for the 'first solid-ink fountain pen' rests mainly on Croatian sources; reservoir pens and mechanical pencils had existed earlier (Mordan, 1822, for the mechanical pencil). Penkala registered the patent for the automatic pencil on 24 January 1906.
What it led to
- the Penkala-Moster factory in Zagreb, exporting pencils and pens across Europe
- the Penkala mechanical pencil (patent of January 1906)
- 'penkala' as a Croatian word for the mechanical pencil