Profile: The Parker Vacumatic

In My Collection

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	This 1941 advertisement, from the Saturday Evening Post, features a romantic couple as it promotes the Vacumatic as “the Jewel of Pendom” with which Romance Starts and Romance Blooms. To the lower right two servicemen are expressing their desire for a Parker; the U.S.A. was ramping up to the war that everyone knew was coming, and Parker pens, with a clip design that allowed the user to button his pocket flap over the pen in accordance with regulations, were popular in the military. The Blue Diamond is visible just to the right of the Parker name at the bottom.

What’s in a name? In August 1932, Parker began test marketing the next generation in fountain pens, the Golden Arrow. This radical new pen featured a compact plunger-operated pump filler (described in Anatomy of a Fountain Pen II: The Parker Vacumatic) that nestled at the back end of the barrel, eliminating the space-hungry pressure bar and sac. Parker had bought the rights to this design (U.S. Patent Nº 1,904,358, applied for on September 14, 1928 and issued on April 18, 1933) from Professor Arthur C. Dahlberg, an instructor in machine design at the University of Wisconsin, and had then spent some time perfecting it. The pen’s design was highlighted by a stylish new arrow-shaped clip created by Joseph Platt, and the barrel was made of alternating opaque and transparent rings so that the user could see how much ink remained. The company’s advertising (see example to the left) made much of the fact that the “revolutionary” new pen offered a far greater ink capacity than was available in competing models. (Revised July 15, 2008)

The name Golden Arrow may have encountered legal difficulties, as there was already on the market a British pen with that name, or it may be that Parker wanted to emphasize the advantages of the new filling system; in any case, the name was soon changed to Vacuum Filler. The pen was received very well, and Parker announced it to the world in a full-page Saturday Evening Post advertisement on March 18, 1933.

But the new name wasn’t exactly the most exciting; and in July 1933, according to the February 1934 ParkerGram, Parker changed it to the more mellifluous (and marketable) Vacumatic. Advertising with the Vacumatic name began appearing in late September, and with that name change and some minor aesthetic tweaks, the stage was set for the birth of a legend.

These pens illustrate barrel transparency. The burgundy Vacumatic Standard, made in 1934, has the remarkable barrel transparency that resulted from the use of colored rings that were made with transparent celluloid. The black Major, made in 1945, has solid opaque colored rings, which point up the dramatic “optic” effect produced by the contrast between colored and transparent areas.

Different, Yet Still the Same

Although there were several design changes, some minor and some quite significant (detailed in Design Features: The Parker Vacumatic), the Vacumatic line remained in Parker U.S.A.’s stable until about 1948 and perhaps as late as 1953 elsewhere. Perhaps the most visible design change was the disappearance of the jeweled tassie from the blind cap; this change, at the beginning of 1942, resulted from the wartime need to conserve critical matériel.

This 1942 Maxima illustrates the single-jewel design.

During its lifetime, the Vacumatic provided design features for the Striped Duofold and the “51”; these models used the same mechanical clip design (and on the “51”, the identical aesthetics as well) and the proven Vacumatic filler. In 1948, with the introduction of its new Aero-metric filler, Parker ceased using the lifetime warranty symbol it had introduced in 1939, the Blue Diamond, and discontinued American production of Vacumatic-filling pens as well.

As were most pens of its era, the Vacumatic was produced in a variety of sizes, from the Oversize and Senior Maxima to the mid-size Major and Standard and the slightly shorter Junior, to the very small Deb and Sub-Deb. Slender models and an astonishing variety of miscellaneous sizes, such as desk pens, ring-tops, and fat vest-pocket models, were also available.

These two desk pens, from 1939 (above) and 1941 (below), both have Speedline fillers;
but they show a remarkable variation in their exterior designs. The upper pen bears on
its band the star that Parker used briefly before introducing the Blue Diamond.

How Big Is a Vac?

The total range of sizes produced over the Vacumatic’s lifetime is broad enough that assembling a comprehensive list would be nearly impossible. For comparative reference, here are several of the most common models, together with their principal dimensions. These are most of the Vacs you’re likely to find at antique shops, flea markets, and other sources “in the wild”:

In addition to a striking clip design and a jewel-like striated body, higher-line models of the Vacumatic featured a palladium-plated nib. The Junior, dressed in celluloid designs of marbled colors, Shadow Wave, Crystal, and the famous “Golden Web” (called simply Brown by Parker), bore a plain gold nib, and gradually the gold nib appeared on striated pens such as the Major. Most Vacumatics today have plain nibs. Their attractive appearance and the fact that they are less common make plated nibs more desirable; and because the plating wears as the nib is rubbed to clean it, plated nibs in good condition are highly prized. The plated nib shown here is on a 1938 Silver Pearl Standard. Similarly, the better pens had striated cap and blind-cap jewels to match their barrel color, while Juniors had black jewels. (Some Speedline models had “bullseye” blind-cap jewels rather than striated.) Colored jewels were phased out with the advent of the single-jewel models. The cap illustrated here is from a 1935 Burgundy Standard.

Over the lifetime of the Vacumatic, Parker offered the pen in a broad array of colors; but not all of the colors were offered at the same time. When the Vacumatic went on the market in March 1933, the Standard line was offered in black, Burgundy Pearl, and Silver Pearl, while the Junior line, introduced in June, was offered in black, marbled Grey or Burgundy, and Crystal. At the end, Vacumatics were available in Emerald Green Pearl, Azure Blue Pearl, Golden Pearl, and Silver Pearl.

Silver Pearl, as illustrated by this 1938 Standard, is the only color that remained
unchanged throughout the entire lifetime of the Vacumatic. Parker plated the trim
of Silver Pearl pens with nickel or chrome; other Vacumatics had gold-filled trim.

This article shows the striped “Pearl” colors, then the Junior colors (“Golden Web,” marbled, and Shadow Wave), and finally the black versions.

Striated Colors
Color	Name	Years
	Burgundy Pearl	1933-1941
	Golden Pearl	1936-1948
	Emerald Pearl	1935-1948
	Azure Blue Pearl	1940-1948
	Silver Pearl	1933-1948
Junior Colors
Color	Name	Years
	Burgundy*	1933-1938
	Green*	1935-1938
	Grey*	1933-1938
	Brown (“Golden Web”)*	1936-1938
	Shadow Wave Black*	1938-1939
	Shadow Wave Burgundy*	1938-1939
	Shadow Wave Brown*	1938-1939
	Shadow Wave Green*	1938-1939
	Shadow Wave Grey*	1938-1939
Blacks
Color	Name	Years
	Opaque Black	1933-1938
	Crystal (completely transparent barrel)*	1933-1934
	Black Visometer (early longitudinal striped)*	1935
	Laminated Black*	1935-1948
	Black Visometer (later reticulated version)*	1936-1938?

I am very grateful to Michael Richter, who compiled the color information and much of the dating information, and has graciously given permission for me to use his work here. Some of the patterned color illustrations in the table are from photographs of actual pens, and others (marked with asterisk) were painted by Michael. Solid colors are computer generated and carefully matched to actual pens. (3D highlighting was added with a computer.) Some of the information in this article was provided by David Isaacson.

Notes:

1. The sizes given in the table were measured from actual individual specimens and should not be taken as “official” measurements. Manufacturing variations exist, and the various models did change somewhat in size over the years.

The information in this article is as accurate as possible, but you should not take it as absolutely authoritative.

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