Wirt pen feeds

Two piece Wirt feed – the earliest

The top piece is flat hard rubber. The external portion is polished to be rounded on top and have a rounded point at the tip. The other piece slightly narrows towards one end, and is basically a wedge to hold the overfeed, and I suspect, to add additional blockage of ink flow to better control the flow to the nib.

Paddle overfeed

The paddle feed is made from a flat piece of hard rubber, rolled to fit the inside of the section. Externally it looks identical to the two piece feed.

Vented underfeed

While we now refer to this style feed as the vented underfeed, at the time ads called this the “Loop Feeder.” Image to right is from Geyer’s Stationer April 11, 1912.

US-311554 Wirt 1885 patentDownload
US-978420 Wirt underfeedDownload