Description

The Fisher Bullet Pen

The original Bullet Space Pen was conceived in July of 1948 by Paul Fisher, who was soon machining a new pen design shaped from solid aluminium. This became our first Fisher ball point pen, the #400 Bullet Pen, and arguably the most popular pen of the twentieth century. This pen is now composed of all brass with a chrome finish. Cited as an outstanding example of industrial art, the classic design of the Fisher Bullet Pen has been exhibited for years in the New York Museum of Modern Art.

Fishers Pressurized Cartridges:

The secret behind the unique capabilities of our pens lies in the ink cartridge itself. Our refills are hermetically sealed, pressurized with nitrogen gas, and feature a tungsten carbide ballpoint tip – the same extra hard metal that is used to make armour-piercing ammunition. No longer relying on gravity to write, our pens are able to function at any angle, even upside down. In order to prevent leaks from the gas pressure, our ink has to be thick, thixotropic to be exact. Fisher ink is actually more of a gel than a liquid when it is at rest, with a consistency similar to that of toothpaste. It is only when pressure is applied to the ballpoint that the ink will take on the spreadable properties of a liquid, while still retaining the stickiness needed to adhere to nearly any material.

Facts and History of the Space Pens:

The story of the Space Pen really begins with its inventor, Paul C. Fisher. Before he took to making pens, Paul worked in an airplane propeller factory during World War II. It was there that he gained valuable experience with ball bearings, knowledge that would come in handy down the road for creating ballpoints.

In the end he had developed what he considered to be the perfect pen – a pen with ink that would not be exposed to air, rely on gravity, leak or dry up, and that wrote underwater and in extreme temperatures. His breakthrough happened to be perfectly timed with the space race and he offered the pens to NASA for consideration.