Well-Read Life™

The Bomber Jacket Zip Air Folio

During a break in a Levenger board meeting recently, I mentioned to our head of product development how much I was loving my new 13-inch Apple MacBook Air. 

“I wish Levenger had some kind of case for it,” I said. “Just something simple, like a sleeve, made out of our Bomber Jacket leather, to protect it when I put it in my backpack.” It was a passing comment before we were called back to our meeting.

I had nearly forgotten about my wish when, a few months later, a package arrived from Levenger. It contained one of our green gift boxes embossed with “Established 1987,” which always makes me feel old. I lifted the lid to find what looked like a zip-around notepad folio made out of our Bomber Jacket leather. 

I was perplexed. I hadn’t ordered a notepad folio. But when I unzipped it, there was no notepad inside. Instead I saw two little leather pockets that were evidently stitched in to secure a laptop. Oh! I thought. This must be for my MacBook Air! But...I had imagined a simple sleeve. This looked...complicated. 

But I knew I had to try it. Our product team had clearly put a lot of work into something I had casually asked for. I opened my MacBook and slipped the keyboard side into the two leather pockets. Hmmm. They not only hold the MacBook but give me two leather pads where my wrists rest on the laptop. That’s nice.

Then I tipped the screen into the two elastic corners on the top part. Okay, those tabs don’t cover any of the screen, that’s good. But wait—will my MacBook turn off when I close the lid? I shut the case just like I shut the laptop and, sure enough, the laptop went dark. I zipped the case closed and picked it up. The leather felt so nice and cushy and protective, yet the case still retained the slim form factor that Apple created for its bestselling laptop. 

Maybe my initial impression was wrong. 

But I would still have to wait and see. Only after some serious time living with the case would I be able to judge it properly. 

Three Months Later, an EDC

As do many of us, I use my MacBook Air for many hours a day. I work mostly in my home office, but regularly take my MacBook to the kitchen, sit on our sofa, or even sit outdoors within WiFi range. And after three months, this is what I have to report: I never took my MacBook out of the prototype case.

I’ve grown accustomed to the leather padding for my wrists—it’s just a touch of luxury (two touches, actually), but hey, why not? 

And I’ve grown accustomed to not worrying about my MacBook getting damaged by slipping to the floor, or something being spilled on it, because it’s protected on all sides from a hard, and sometimes wet, world.

When I do leave home for a midday meeting, I usually don’t bother to slip this case in my backpack but just take the case itself. The outside pocket holds a slim Circa notebook or a paper file, while inside I put a pen in the pen loop. It has become my EDC (EveryDay Carry) for midday meetings. For longer travel, I do slip it into my backpack, where my MacBook is super protected.

I’m smiling at our product development team. They listened to my request, but rightly ignored my suggestion for how to make it. They went beyond what I had imagined and created this useful, handsome product that feels as good as it works. Today, I don’t want to be without it. 

If you, too, use a 13-inch MacBook Air for many hours a day, I think you might feel the same way. 

With Lighting, Too, Less Can Be More

When I unpacked, assembled, and placed this lamp next to my favorite seat for reading, I was reminded of what we naturally want from new technology, but don’t always get: more performance, with less fuss. The Overarching Lamp is a small but important triumph of simplicity.

With it, you receive just the light you need in order to enjoy your novel or to see clearly your close work. Press the finger-friendly, rubber switch and, voila! 

You might think that 3 watts won’t give you enough light, but witness the magic of LEDs focused with a convex lens. I actually find the light too powerful if pointed directly at my book. But deflect the beam off to one side, and there you are. It’s easier than fussing with a dimmer. 

While the first generation of LED lights were often clinically white in color, the Overarching Lamp produces wonderfully warm light, the light of sunrise and sunset, the campfire color we humans tend to prefer in our homes. 

The less-is-more guiding principle also rings true in its outward appearance. Rather than being burdened with a style statement, like troublesome checked bags, Overarching Lamp travels light, with only a silver or black flight suit, and thus fits into whatever style you have going on in your home.

Simplicity extends to the bulb, which you never have to change since it will last for 50,000 hours. 

Added warmth comes from a halo of light encircling the head of the lamp, which provides just a friendly amount of ambient light. This head is so small, only 1-½” in diameter, you can conceal it within your fist like a magician, while it gently warms your fingers on chilly mornings. 

Enjoy Overarching Lamps in floor and desk models, in brushed silver or matte black. Consider buying two for either side of your sofa or bed, and thus avoid battles for what may become the favorite reading light in your home. 

Learn Fast, Learn Well

We can thank Hermann Ebbinghaus. Born in Germany in 1850, he was the first to study quantitatively our capacity to memorize, and our proclivity to forget. He graphed how our recall of recently learned facts fades quickly at first, and then gradually. Pondering this graph, he wondered what would happen if we quickly reinforced what we are trying to learn, and then repeated the reinforcement at increasing spaced intervals thereafter. What would be the optimum number of repetitions and intervals in order to obtain the best memorization with the least study time?

Today Ebbinghaus´s pioneering work is put to use in what are called spaced repetition systems, which lots of app makers employ to help us learn. But the apps haven’t torpedoed the heritage technology of paper flash cards. To the contrary, it turns out that the physical act of writing by hand and handling a card helps reinforce our learning. These movements tap into our physical selves in a way that merely tapping keys cannot.

Any index cards can work, yet a standard index card box can’t do the job. Another smart German named Sebastian Leitner designed an elongated box with enough compartments to provide the physical locations necessary. Followers of Leitner made their own boxes, usually out of shoeboxes and tape, but our designers were confident they could make something both more functional and more beautiful.

Of course it would be made of wood, but what kind? The wood grain would need to be long, straight and stable in all temperatures. It would need 8 compartments, yet the dividers would need to be easily removable so that one compartment could double in size if need be.

Our Levenger Leitner Box is, therefore, beautifully crafted of bamboo (like the old slide rules, devices demanding even more precision).

An Exacting Path or a Wandering One

If you follow the included instructions as to which cards to review on which days, you’ll reap the rewards of the best memory return on your invested time. If you are preparing for a test on a fixed date, this is your path.

A second way to use your Leitner is more casual, which is what I do with my Spanish. I write down idioms and dichos that I encounter in my reading just as I find them, in long sentences or phrases. These cards (with English on the flip side) follow a progression, starting their careers in the first compartment and advancing one compartment back when I get it right. Even though I am more casual about the timing and sequence of repetition, I still gain much from the method.

Whatever you want to learn and commit to memory, I hope your own Levenger Leitner Box will become one of your beloved tools for decades to come.

Yours,

Steve Leveen

 

Established 1987

When companies advertise “Since 1969” as The Gap does, or “Established 1987” as Levenger does on our gift boxes, the suggestion is “See, we’ve been around for years so we must be doing something right…” But as co-founders of Levenger, we look at these little proclamations a bit differently. We see our Established 1987 as a responsibility.

We have a responsibility to know what to keep, and what to change. We still want the warm, dimmable halogen lights that we began with 34 years ago, but also the new cool-as-a-cucumber LED lights that pack more lumens per watt. We still want our luxurious, top-grain leathers, but also those sleek new synthetics for our Circa notebooks. And unlike some online stores that grew up knowing nothing else, we remember how satisfying it can be to call up customer service and get an informed human being. “Why sure, Ms. Smith, we can monogram that and I´ll make sure we include your gift card, too. I know how important it would be to me to receive such a gift....” 

Automation has its place, but so does genuine human connection, which, since 1987, has been the best part of our jobs.

Steve & Lori Leveen

Co-founders

Sometimes going back is the way forward.

For most of recorded history, pens behaved themselves. That is, they stayed close at hand in a fixed spot, never going out on the town. This is because for thousands of years, people wrote with cut feathers. These quills were trimmed with a pen knife and then rested near the writer’s inkpot. Rarely did they travel with their owners (Charles Dickens was an exception), and never very tidily.

Only when humans figured out how to design pens that carried their own ink supply—an innovation known as the fountain pen—did pens become portable. The fountain pen’s cap crowned the achievement: portable and (relatively) unspillable.

But portability came with an unexpected side effect: some pens left home, never to return. Other pens got misplaced, left in a bag or jacket pocket, and not there at your desk when you sat down to write—blast it!

Feeling secure in the knowledge that your pen stays home, patiently waiting for you right where you left it, is a simple pleasure to savor. And that is why we are happy to offer a major step backwards in writing technology—the Peninsula Pen.

Like a welcoming lighthouse extending out into the turbulent waters of life and then beckoning you back to port, your Peninsula Pen is something you can depend on. Once you lift it from its pedestal and heft its elongated, elegant body in your hand, you’ll understand what the world gave up with abbreviated traveling pens. 

Peninsula doesn’t have to fit in a bag or pocket, and so it stretches out luxuriously, the way goose feathers did.  It bothers not with a traveling cap. It travels no farther than your arm’s length, then comes back to its port. 

Sit at your favorite writing spot, write a love note, pen a  correspondence card, then put your Peninsula back where you know it will stay, until you reach for it again.

Sometimes going back is the way forward. 

Steve Leveen, Co-founder

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

There are so many wonderful things about being the Co-Founders of Levenger. But at this time of year, our favorite part is picking out gift ideas for our nearest and dearest. If you can't decide what to treat yourself or give to others, maybe this will help.

From Steve:

Levenger Bookweight

Caution: May cause Christmas stocking to sag. 

Reports of the death of the printed book have been exaggerated. And thus we listened to customers and brought back our traditional Leather Bookweight. Can any desk be without one? Not mine. Under its delicious, full-grain leather is the same kind of microfiber cloth used for cleaning eye glasses, so pages are properly pampered. Banish the stapler, hole punch, or six-shooter you might be using to keep your books open. Relax in the simple wisdom of this time-tested solution. 

Choose a monogram, or simply, DAD. 

Bomber Jacket Tablet Stand

Even if it’s just your phone, what a simple pleasure it is to be able to set it up, rather than down. Next to your computer, in the kitchen to hold a recipe (iPad or paper), or to cradle your Kindle in your lap while reading in bed, it just works better when you set it at a comfortable angle, hands free.  You may never want to be without this lightweight, adjustable stand that is as rewarding to touch as it is to use.

Bomber Jacket 2-Pocket Folio

With all our digital devices, we use less paper today, but when we do use paper, it’s all the more meaningful. So the time has come to give our 21st century papers the setting they merit. That was the design philosophy behind our sleek 2 Pocket Folio. The soft, pebbly, Bomber Jacket leather makes your fingertips linger. During a meeting, this can serve as a lux placemat for laptops and tablets. Then, open it to reveal your report, your resume, your call to action, your proposal. A worthy new quiver for that wondrous heritage technology we call paper. 

True Writer, back in Sea Glass

If you’ve ever picked up sea glass on the beach, you know it’s a gift. Like a garden, sea glass is an example of inspired choreography between human made and nature made. Ever patient sea and sand soften our accidents, and lay them, like jewels, at our feet. We paid tribute to these translucent wonders in 2007 when we premiered our Sea Glass True Writer. It sold well, but we retired the design a few years later. But customers weren’t ready to say goodbye. So this year, we answered with our encore Sea Glass fountain pens, roller balls and ballpoints that are even sweeter than the original. Our new models have sea glass buttons on the tops of the caps (the originals were black) and the True Writer script logo is now engraved on the back of the belly band.

True Writers, now 21 years old, are of legal drinking age, and the fountain pens drink responsibly from your choice of Levenger inky microbrews. Set your needle down on a favorite LP and relax to write a card, slowly, the old fashioned way. By the time you press the stamp on the envelope, you’ll hear the gentle thewp, thewp, thewp that lets you know it’s time to lift the arm and flip your record to the other side.

From Lori:

Luxe Midnight Leather Circa Foldover 

Wow, the Luxe Midnight Leather Foldover brings my notebook up to functional luxury status.  The midnight blue leather reminds me of the deep blue skies of New England.  And, it feels deliciously soft to my hand, while also being durable for everyday use.  Add the optional Aurora or Seashell White Discs (in your choice of sizes) and you have a beautiful, personalized notebook for your notes, journal, or new novel.  As a gift, it will be cherished for years.  Add a monogram or subject emboss on the front for that added personal touch.

Luxe Folio Ensemble

Meetings and holiday celebrations may be virtual this year, but tangible gifts are appreciated more than ever.  To enhance one’s own workplace, or that of a friend, nothing beats the Luxe Folio Ensemble.  It features our irresistible Midnight Blue Luxe Leather letter-size folio, the stunning Herringbone Anniversary True Writer Rollerball, and extra Luxe Freeleaf Pads (with smooth, sumptuous paper).  Such a beautiful gift for a colleague, newly promoted or graduated friend or family member, or to honor yourself for surviving 2020.  You’ll be decked out when in-person meetings rev up again.  Cheers!

Carrie Satchel

When I go out now, I try to stack many appointments and errands together. I’ve found the Carrie Satchel is the best bag for my new life.  I can take my snacks, water bottle, notebook, pen, wallet, and mask—and the compartments let me stay organized for every activity.  The softness of the leather and construction gives me a comforting, casual look, while inside is as orderly as a file cabinet. It is a bag that means action, yet it waits patiently when I stop working, always ready for my next adventure.  Kind of like my dog Chet.

Carrie Tablet and Tech Storage Trio, Set of 3

An instant hit given my constant struggle to stay organized. These 3 pouches are soft enough for jewelry or tech tools and let me keep cords and adapters neatly. A thoughtful gift for anyone who wants to move quickly from bag to bag, or desk to bag, in a flash.  I love the blush and chili pepper colors which stand out in my deep tote bags. 

Welcome 2020 with Traditional Technology

She is maybe the fastest person I’d seen at navigating the web. Before I could even finish asking my question, she seemed to find the answer online. She was an undergraduate at Stanford, and I was fortunate to be working with her on a project. But when it came time to schedule our next meeting, I was shocked by what she did. She snapped closed her laptop, reached into her bag, and lifted out a medium sized agenda--a paper agenda.

Seeing the look on my face, she said, “Yeah, I find this faster and easier. I just like being able to see everything on paper.” 

I had to pinch myself. 

But when I relayed this story to our Chief Marketing Officer, Margaret Moraskie, she wasn’t surprised. “We’re seeing an interest in our paper products in general among younger customers. I think they see paper as an affordable luxury.” While the press is writing about how young people are glued to their screens and walking into traffic, at Levenger, we see them buying paper. And they particularly like paper calendars, which were officially made obsolete before the class of 2020 was born. 

It warms my heart, I have to say, that our future doctors, lawyers and computer scientists (the number one major at Stanford), are enjoying the quieter pleasures of that thin, traditional technology we call paper. 

So, let’s get to the goods: Our bestselling calendar products are our Circa Daily Agenda Refills--in letter or junior size. Most customers already have a Circa notebook they like, maybe leather, maybe book cloth, they might also have high-speed aluminum discs, and are using the paper formats they like best. Then, they press in these agenda refills just where they want them, in just the quantity they want (maybe three months, maybe six). 

Listening to our discriminating customers over the years, we now provide multiple ways for them to see their future--detailed daily views for some, for others, seeing a week at one time is just right. All formats also come with big-picture monthly and yearly views to assist in their longer-term plans.

Other customers prefer to buy their agendas as complete finished notebooks, which they can also enhance by swapping in larger discs, which allow for extra paper, or by slipping this plastic covered notebook into a leather case. They know that Circa notebooks are like Lego--the parts snap together, plug and play. (Sorry, we haven’t licensed Batman covers yet.)

Still other customers go real old school and use our calendar 3x5 cards, which were officially made obsolete when Prohibition ended. These hopelessly 20th-Century folks (I love you) seem to like the idea of carrying just the little cards they need in one of our Pocket Briefcases. 

Read the reviews and you’ll find that Levenger customers appreciate that their paper calendars won’t run out of power, won’t send urgent emails demanding their latest upgrade, and won’t be hacked by the Russians. Customers enjoy their private “peace” of paper. 

As technology author Kevin Kelly writes, new technology doesn’t completely kill the old. “It’s not either-or, it’s and.” Thus, thankfully, we still enjoy our beloved sailboats, bicycles, candles--and our dear old, (queue the spa music) paper calendars.

The True Writer Turns Twenty

When we launched our first True Writer pen in 1999, it was a strange thing to do. After all, the nation was in the midst of the dot-com boom. The smart companies were betting on virtual things. Levenger, by contrast, sold old-school real things—bookcases, leather notebooks, 3x5 cards and other decidedly low-tech “Tools for Serious Readers.”

The explosive tech boom at the century’s end seemed to bring with it yearnings for these older things.here was a rage for fat cigars and equally fat fountain pens, especially those with the Mont Blanc snowy logo on top. Things that had gone out of style before the Eisenhower administration were back.

So when the the big money was looking forward, we looked back. We appreciated that our customers were buying the fat-cat Mont Blancs, yet we knew from studying the history of writing instruments that most people back in the heyday of fountain pens, before WWII, used less expensive pens made not with nibs of gold, but with nibs of steel.

An old cigar box

In gaining a hands-on feeling for fountain pen history, we got a lucky break. My grandfather, George W. Knock, had been a penmanship and typing instructor, teaching for most of his career at North High School in Syracuse, New York. He passed away in 1957.

When my mother saw we were selling fountain pens, she called me, laughing. “Your grandfather would be so pleased—his grandson selling fountain pens! ” Then, as an afterthought, she said, “ I found an old cigar box of pens in his desk and put them in the mail to you.”

A battered cigar box of my grandfather’s held the beginning of a True (Writer) story.

When they arrived, it was like Christmas.

My grandfather had left us well-used Parkers, Sheaffers, Esterbrooks and other brands now lost to memory, including a beautiful tortoiseshell pen from Moore Pen Company. There was an astonishing variety of colors, including a number of pens in a sort of marbleized green that must have been popular back in the day. The pens hadn’t been used in decades, but when we washed them out and dipped them in new Levenger ink, the old pens wrote just fine. It was a gift.

And that’s when the light bulb came on. Fountain pens didn’t have to be costly status symbols. We envisioned creating a new pen in the spirit of the best of the everyday working pens of old—functional, honest, well made, long-lasting, pretty—maybe even inspiring—and not costing as much as a car payment.

We found the right German company that could make high-quality yet affordable steel nibs, feeds, and converters for filling the pen with ink from a bottle. A little company in Taiwan still made gleaming pen barrels of polished resin, the old-fashioned way.

We needed a name that would convey the sensibility and flair of what we hoped would be an enduring series of pens. Our head merchant, Denise Tedaldi, came up with “True Writer,”which seemed to capture the essence of a tool that would stay true, write after write.

Thus prepared, we launched our first pen in May, 1999—in that marbleized green we had found in my grandfather’s cardboard treasure chest.

101 Dalmations...and True Writers

It sold.

And thank goodness it did, because we had bet big on tooling and inventory commitments.

And it still sells.

I was surprised when our product team told me how many True Writers have come out in the last 20 years: 101

That’s not counting all the different modes —ballpoint, roller ball—and different point sizes of fountain pen nibs.

The Levenger Kyoto True Writer (2006) , on the left, next to its inspiration: The Moore tortoiseshell pen that George W. Knock, my grandfather, owned.

 

It sure feels good to be celebrating the True Writer’s twentieth birthday. We have updated the True Writer Timeline to include the history of all the pens that have come out under the True Writer banner since 1999, so you can find out just when yours was introduced.

My thanks to our dear Levenger customers who purchased more than a quarter-million True Writers over the last two decades. Collectors of Levengeralia can enjoy a limited edition Anniversary pen.

I’d also like to thank George W. Knock and my mother for the gift of his cigar box full of pens. As the penmanship teacher at his high school, every springtime he would write each graduate’s formal name on his or her diploma. I think he would have been pleased to know that his legacy also includes the thousands of Americans who have used their True Writers in the 21st century to pen their own words, worthy and wise.

###

The only example of my grandfather writing my name is this inscription in my copy of Now We Are Six. I was two when he wrote this. He passed away later that year.


###

 

Reclaim Your Peace and Tranquility in a Noisy World: Introducing Peacephones™ by Koss and Levenger

Many of us work in noisy, distracting environments—at airports, coffee shops, even our own offices with colleagues all around. It’s often a struggle to get enough peace and quiet just to think.

Fortunately, we can thank the Beats company, now owned by Apple, for making the wearing of over-the-ear headphones fashionable, or at least acceptable, even while walking in airports or sitting at desks. And fortunately for me, a few years ago Michael Koss asked me to join his board.

Hearing is believing

The Koss company, founded in 1958, invented the headphone industry. While the field  is now populated with giants, Koss still makes some of the finest professional-grade equipment available. During a break at one board meeting, I asked Michael what he would recommend as the best headphone to create peace and quiet while traveling. He thought for a moment and said, “Try our model for professional sound engineers.”

“But it’s not the sound quality I care so much about,” I said. “It’s the quiet.”

“I know, but first you’ll want the best sound isolation you can get, which is what these give you, with their D-shaped ear cups, and you want something comfortable, lightweight and foldable for travel.” 

‘But aren’t sound-canceling headphones better?’

That’s what I asked Michael, and was surprised by his answer.

“Sound-canceling ’phones, which we also make, are good for blocking out constant, droning types of noises, especially in the lower frequencies.” (That’s what makes them so good on long airplane trips.) “But they can’t counteract the variable, unpredictable sounds of human speech. For that, you want over-the-ear, passive sound isolation.”

And the special D-shape ear cups, he explained, are not only comfortable, they also minimize the volume of air inside the ear cup. That, along with the supersoft, conforming foam, produces something approaching recording-booth-like quiet, and also the comfort demanded by sound engineers who wear these babies all day.”

I was still looking doubtful. “Try ’em,” he said. “These are like a raincoat for sound.”

Peace and tranquility to go

So I did...and was blown away. Rather, I was whispered away—to a new land of peaceful productivity. The conversation in the row behind me, the PA announcing the airline’s latest credit card offer, the fussy baby somewhere, faded as if a block away. Before my plane touched down, I was hooked. Now I don’t leave home without them; it’s just so nice to be able to bring peace and tranquility with me wherever I go.

I told Michael he was right and that I was sold. Moreover, I felt pretty sure that Levenger customers—many of whom read and write on the go—would love these, too. So the teams at Koss and Levenger set about outfitting the ’phones and their pack case so that they’re optimized for peace-loving road warriors venturing forth in our cacophonous world. Their newest armour is now the Peacephones.

Add a pair to your Every Day Carry

 For peace and quiet, you don’t need a cord, so with Peacephones you don’t have to have one. Plug in only when you want to listen to music, a podcast or an audiobook. What’s more, Peacephones have two cord jacks, one on each ear cup, so the cord stays clear of your keyboarding or writing by hand.

And by the way, when you do listen to music, buckle up for a sound quality that will rock your Mozart; you’ll be listening the way audio professionals do. (That’s why the four of us who put the America the Bilingual podcast together, all use these, too.)

For the case, the Levenger team chose luxurious but durable full-grain black leather that matches the studio black of the Peacephones. And at only 6 x 9 x 2 inches, it tucks in most bags quite contentedly. Inside the case you’ll find a zip pocket that’s perfect for the extra cord (read on). And for heaven’s sake, slip a business card in there, too, so some Good Samaritan can return these to you. We designed this cuddly little leather calzone to earn a cherished position in your EDC.

An incentive to spread peace in the world

The Koss + Levenger product teams understand that in the real world, people have to take calls while in the middle of their peaceful productivity, so in addition to the studio coil cord, we include a cord with an onboard mic for making calls in new-found quiet.

Of all the tools Levenger sells for peaceful productivity, Peacephones have become one of the most valuable for me, and I think they just might become that for you once you slip on this raincoat for sound.

Four Rules for Flying with a Fountain Pen

In case you didn’t get that memo that came out in 1954, fountain pens are obsolete. I know, I love them too. They are just so pleasing—the way they write with real, liquid ink, and give you that distinctive broad downstroke and thin horizontal stroke. That’s what writing by hand is all about.

But remember that fountain pens were designed decades before people were fool enough to go up in airplanes. If you carry one aloft, you’re messing with a technological Jurassic Park. But since I know some of my fellow travelers do just that, I offer four simple rules for flying with your fountain pen:

Rule No. 1: Don’t.

Rule No. 2: Since I suspect you’ll ignore Rule 1, then at least fill it up all the way—or better yet, drain it completely. Half measures are asking for inky fingers and a dry cleaning bill.

Rule No. 3: If you’re still ignoring Rule 1 and have elected the “fill it up all the way” route in Rule 2, for your safety and the safety of those around you, don’t use your pen on the plane. It won’t kill you to use a ballpoint for a few hours. Then once you’ve landed, head to the nearest restroom.

Rule No. 4: Once safely inside the restroom, open your treasured fountain pen over a sink. Don’t be fooled by seeing no ink on the pen—it’s just hiding. Rinse out the cap (and thank me when you see inky water come out). Rinse the nib and the rest of the pen, too. Dry with paper towels, making sure not to get paper fragments stuck in the nib.

The potato chip factor

When you go up in an airplane, the cabin is pressurized, but not all the way to sea level. When you reach your cruising altitude of, typically, 35,000 feet, the air inside the cabin will be at the equivalent of about 7,000 to 8,000 feet.* This is like driving over a moderately high pass in the mountains. Did you ever notice potato chip bags puffing up as you do? That’s because they were sealed at sea level; once surrounded by the thinner air in the mountains, the relatively compressed air inside the bag of chips wants out.

Which is just what the air inside your fountain pen wants. And if there’s ink in the way, that ink is coming out first—ready or not. Filling your pen as full as you can will minimize the air that can expand, but even a little air can cause your pen to become a squirt gun.

Keeping ink in the pen—then and now

In their defense, fountain pens used to be high tech themselves. Back when Thomas Edison was etching sound into wax and Gustave Eiffel was erecting an iron tower over Paris, other inventors were reinventing the way humans put words on paper. After many an inky failure, they accomplished the age-old dream of literate humans worldwide—to have a pen with its own onboard ink supply. Finally, humans would be liberated from that pesky ink pot we previously had to carry with us like an unwelcome little brother. Instead of dipping our plumes or steel nibs every line or two, ink flowed—as if from a fountain—right out the tip of our pen. Amazing.

Even if you lived in the Alps, a fountain pen would work because the air up high was thin all the time. It was the rapid change in air pressure that airplanes visited upon us that revealed the Achilles heel of the fountain pen.

Not to be left on the tarmac, the pen industry came out with the ballpoint. The ballpoint and the modern jet airliner both graduated from college shortly after World War II and started working together. The paste ink of the ballpoint, with some grease behind it, slides down its tube as you write, impervious to altitude changes. It was now safe to move about the cabin and write postcards to Mom. Newer rollerballs and gel ink ball pens behave basically the same, just using different ink formulations.

Touchdown

Now you know the facts. When you ignore Rule 1, Rules 2-4 will let you travel with your land-loving, gloriously antiquated fountain pen and avoid fuel spills. Then you can enjoy miles of real writing pleasure...when you have arrived.

—————-

*My thanks to Captain Wayne J. Welch, Retired, of American Airlines, who explained pressure change inside airplanes. To pressurize cabins all the way to sea level would require having heavier fuselages, reducing payloads, and adding cost. Most passengers can put up with the equivalent of 7,000 to 8,000 feet for most flight times.