Geo. S. Parker first pen.
To supplement his meager salary as an instructor, George obtained permission to sell John Holland pens to the Valentine students. But these pens were easily broken, due to the fact that the feeds were made with a long, thin tube which extended into the pen barrel. Once broken the pens would not write or would flood.
George S. Parker handmade his first pen in 1888. It contained a simple improvement; a notched feed carved lengthwise and divided in two at the end to allow ink to flow back into the chamber thus improving the flow and avoiding flooding. After repairing some John Holland pens for the students, he decided to make his own pens using some simple tools. Eventually, he stopped selling these pens and just ordered barrels and caps from H.A. Goodrich Co. He paid a premium price for Goodrich to stamp “Geo. S. Parker” on the barrel. He assembled these Parker pens at his residence (first at 8 Milton Avenue and then at Myers) using the broken John Holland sections and nibs.
“Mr. Valentine gave me the opportunity of helping out my rather meager salary by selling fountain pens. I bought the pens of the John Holland Company of Cincinnati –very imperfect pen they were, at that. Always being more or less of an inventive turn of mind, I set about to improve the Holland pens. I bought a file; a little scroll saw and other paraphernalia necessary to make a feeder that would work better than the imperfect Holland pen at that time.
Consequently, after fixing over most of the Holland pens, the idea struck me -if I had to rebuild the Holland pens, why not make a Parker Pen? I, therefore, took up by correspondence the matter of getting some rubber rod and other material from a rubber company. During my spare moments after teaching and office hours, I bought the holders and made the feeder myself. The pens worked very nicely. I then took a patent out on this device and continued to sell pens in the school but replacing the Holland pens with my own.”