Platignum pens!
Nick from England
it 'pla-TIG-num'.
This rather irritated another boy, Chris, who *insisted* is was pronounced
in a similar way to 'platinum', lol - with no stress on the 'TIG'!
Tickled me at the time and still does
I've *no* idea if Chris was right, but 'pla-TIG-num' sounds classier!
Other pens are available.
Nick from England
Athel Cornish-Bowden
In the far-off days when I owned one, I pronounced the g.
> --
athel
Nick from England
"Athel Cornish-Bowden" <acor...@ifr88.cnrs-mrs.fr> wrote in message
news:93a42c...@mid.individual.net...
So did Chris, but he didn't stress the TIG.
Nick from England
contrex
wrote:
> One day, at school, I remarked I had a Platignum fountain pen,
> pronouncing it 'pla-TIG-num'.
> This rather irritated another boy, Chris, who *insisted* is was
> pronounced in a similar way to 'platinum', lol - with no stress on the
> 'TIG'!
Osmiroid were a bit classier and tended to leak less - I had quite a
few of both makes - I pronounced it PlatIGnum, sounding the 'g'. I
remember a boy in my class at Alleyns wrote in a chemistry test that
Pt was the chemical symbol for the element "Platignum".
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
<mike.j...@gmail.com> wrote:
>On May 15, 4:08 pm, "Nick from England" <pacif...@btopenworld.com>
>wrote:
>
>> One day, at school, I remarked I had a Platignum fountain pen,
>> pronouncing it 'pla-TIG-num'.
>> This rather irritated another boy, Chris, who *insisted* is was
>> pronounced in a similar way to 'platinum', lol - with no stress on the
>> 'TIG'!
>
>Osmiroid were a bit classier and tended to leak less - I had quite a
>few of both makes - I pronounced it PlatIGnum, sounding the 'g'.
Me too.
> I
>remember a boy in my class at Alleyns wrote in a chemistry test that
>Pt was the chemical symbol for the element "Platignum".
Well I suppose "Platignum" is an isotope of "Platinum". It has an extra
"g" in the nucleus.
--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.english.usage)
musika
Peter Duncanson (BrE) <ma...@peterduncanson.net> typed:
PLAtignum for me.
--
Ray
UK
Nick from England
> On May 15, 4:08 pm, "Nick from England" <pacif...@btopenworld.com>
> wrote:
>
> > One day, at school, I remarked I had a Platignum fountain pen,
> > pronouncing it 'pla-TIG-num'.
> > This rather irritated another boy, Chris, who *insisted* is was
> > pronounced in a similar way to 'platinum', lol - with no stress on the
> > 'TIG'!
>
> Osmiroid were a bit classier and tended to leak less - I had quite a
> remember a boy in my class at Alleyns wrote in a chemistry test that
> Pt was the chemical symbol for the element "Platignum".
Also PT flew around with Chuck in a Whirlybird, but that, as my Dad
used to tell me, "has nothing to do with the case!".
Nick from England
Nick from England
wrote:
> On Sun, 15 May 2011 08:50:48 -0700 (PDT), contrex
>
> >On May 15, 4:08 pm, "Nick from England" <pacif...@btopenworld.com>
> >wrote:
>
> >> One day, at school, I remarked I had a Platignum fountain pen,
> >> pronouncing it 'pla-TIG-num'.
> >> This rather irritated another boy, Chris, who *insisted* is was
> >> pronounced in a similar way to 'platinum', lol - with no stress on the
> >> 'TIG'!
>
> >Osmiroid were a bit classier and tended to leak less - I had quite a
> >few of both makes - I pronounced it PlatIGnum, sounding the 'g'.
>
> Me too.
so stressing the TIG?
> > I
> >remember a boy in my class at Alleyns wrote in a chemistry test that
> >Pt was the chemical symbol for the element "Platignum".
>
> Well I suppose "Platignum" is an isotope of "Platinum". It has an extra
> "g" in the nucleus.
"I wish I was clever like you, Brian!".
Nick from England
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
<paci...@btopenworld.com> wrote:
>On May 15, 4:58 pm, "Peter Duncanson (BrE)" <m...@peterduncanson.net>
>wrote:
>> On Sun, 15 May 2011 08:50:48 -0700 (PDT), contrex
>>
>> <mike.j.har...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> >On May 15, 4:08 pm, "Nick from England" <pacif...@btopenworld.com>
>> >wrote:
>>
>> >> One day, at school, I remarked I had a Platignum fountain pen,
>> >> pronouncing it 'pla-TIG-num'.
>> >> This rather irritated another boy, Chris, who *insisted* is was
>> >> pronounced in a similar way to 'platinum', lol - with no stress on the
>> >> 'TIG'!
>>
>> >Osmiroid were a bit classier and tended to leak less - I had quite a
>> >few of both makes - I pronounced it PlatIGnum, sounding the 'g'.
>>
>> Me too.
>
>so stressing the TIG?
>
Yes. I had never heard anyone say the word so I just guessed, as I did
when I read "determined" - "deeter mined".
>> > I
>> >remember a boy in my class at Alleyns wrote in a chemistry test that
>> >Pt was the chemical symbol for the element "Platignum".
>>
>> Well I suppose "Platignum" is an isotope of "Platinum". It has an extra
>> "g" in the nucleus.
>
>"I wish I was clever like you, Brian!".
>
>Nick from England
--
Nick from England
news:iqotlg$94e$1...@dont-email.me...
with Stephens Radiant Blue Ink - much nicer than Quink! :-D
Nick from England
graham
"Nick from England" <paci...@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:iqog4e$nmk$1...@dont-email.me...
I always had a Parker!
Graham
Nick from England
news:pvTzp.4574$4d6....@newsfe01.iad...
<g> Ya don't gotta brag!
Nick from England
graham
I still have the old Parker - it must be ~60yrs old AND I still have a
bottle of Quink! Strange what one carts around the world{:-)
Graham
Nick from England
Goodness, so have I - my Platignum Silverline fountain pen and, IIRC, some
Quink Ink!
Nick from England
Anton Shepelev
> Graham:
>
> > I still have the old Parker - it must be ~60yrs old AND
> > I still have a bottle of Quink! Strange what one carts
> > around the world{:-)
>
> Goodness, so have I - my Platignum Silverline fountain pen
> and, IIRC, some Quink Ink!
But me wonders if you still use your vintage instruments...
I have recently been presented a Parker and I can't use the
regular ball-point pens no more.
Anton
Anton Shepelev
> I have recently been presented a Parker and I can't use
> the regular ball-point pens no more.
Sorry for the double negation.
Anton
Nick from England
news:20110515223234.9...@gmail.com...
> Nick from England:
>
>> Graham:
>>
>> > I still have the old Parker - it must be ~60yrs old AND
>> > I still have a bottle of Quink! Strange what one carts
>> > around the world{:-)
>>
>> Goodness, so have I - my Platignum Silverline fountain pen
>> and, IIRC, some Quink Ink!
>
> But me wonders if you still use your vintage instruments...
Not for decades - the rubber bit that hold the ink must have perished!
> I have recently been presented a Parker and I can't use the
> regular ball-point pens no more.
Much classier.
Nick from England
Nick from England
It don't matter no how! :-)
Nick from England
Anton Shepelev
> Not for decades -- the rubber bit that hold the ink must
> have perished!
Well, you could just try it! The other likely problem will
be the ink channel being clogged by dried ink, but this can
be mended by leaving the pen in warm water overnight or
sucking water in and out as if when refilling...
> Much classier.
Surely -- matte black body and a golden nib. But what I
appreciate the most is the smoothness and easiness of writ-
ing, after which even a good ball-point feels like it is
almost scratching through the paper.
Anton
John Dean
When I had one I pronounced *all* the letters ...
They're still around -
--
John Dean
Oxford
Nick from England
> Nick from England:
>
>> Not for decades -- the rubber bit that hold the ink must
>> have perished!
>
> Well, you could just try it! The other likely problem will
> be the ink channel being clogged by dried ink, but this can
> be mended by leaving the pen in warm water overnight or
> sucking water in and out as if when refilling...
I could, I suppose, but I may make a terrible mess!
It might well still work, though; they made things better back then.
>> Much classier.
>
> Surely -- matte black body and a golden nib. But what I
> appreciate the most is the smoothness and easiness of writ-
> ing, after which even a good ball-point feels like it is
> almost scratching through the paper.
Yes, much better - at school we weren't allowed to use Biros (ball-point
pens).
Nick from England
graham
Neither were we and, until Mum bought me a fountain pen, I had to use
scratchy "dip" pens and had the job of filling the ink-wells in the desks.
Graham
Nick from England
<g> Yeah, we had those - one step up from a quill!
Nick from England
graham
Graham
Nick from England
<g>Can't remember, but I had one at home!
Ian Jackson
<mUs...@SPAMNOTexcite.com> writes
>In news:5stvs6lcvsr1fjtip...@4ax.com,
>Peter Duncanson (BrE) <ma...@peterduncanson.net> typed:
>> On Sun, 15 May 2011 08:50:48 -0700 (PDT), contrex
>> <mike.j...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On May 15, 4:08 pm, "Nick from England" <pacif...@btopenworld.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> One day, at school, I remarked I had a Platignum fountain pen,
>>>> pronouncing it 'pla-TIG-num'.
>>>> This rather irritated another boy, Chris, who *insisted* is was
>>>> pronounced in a similar way to 'platinum', lol - with no stress on
>>>> the 'TIG'!
>>> Osmiroid were a bit classier and tended to leak less - I had quite
>>>
>> Me too.
>>
>>> I
>>> remember a boy in my class at Alleyns wrote in a chemistry test that
>>> Pt was the chemical symbol for the element "Platignum".
>> Well I suppose "Platignum" is an isotope of "Platinum". It has an
>> extra "g" in the nucleus.
>
>PLAtignum for me.
>
--
Ian
Ian Jackson
writes
>
>
>Did you start with mini blackboards and chalk?
>Graham
>
You mean chalk and 'slates'? In my case, the answer is "Yes".
--
Ian
Nick from England
news:5Wo7oaHm...@g3ohx.demon.co.uk...
LOL - # And the wonderful thing about Tiggers!
Nick from England
tony cooper
Even worse for us upside-down lefty writers. The nib gouged out holes
in the paper.
--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida
Daniel James
> subject: Platignum pens!
You master of nostalgia, you!
> ... I remarked I had a Platignum fountain pen, pronouncing
> it 'pla-TIG-num' ... another boy, Chris, ... *insisted* is
> was pronounced in a similar way to 'platinum', lol - with no
> stress on the 'TIG'!
I believe the name "Platignum" was conceived in an attempt to make it
seem as though these rather inexpensive (and leak-prone, yes) fountain
pens were like Platinum and so better than those with mere *Gold* nibs.
If so, it would seem that the Platinum-like pronunciation was intended.
I do remember that others emphasized the -tig-, which seemed silly but
nothing to become exercised over.
> Other pens are available.
Fewer and fewer ... and they don't work with the iPad.
Cheers,
Daniel.
Daniel James
> But me wonders if you still use your vintage instruments...
My Platignum and Osmiroid fountain pens from primary school days were
consigned to the dustbin (with blue-black hands) many years ago, but I
still have the Parker 25 (cheap, nasty, steel-nibbed thing) I bought
for secondary school lying unused, in a drawer.
I lost the Parker 45 (nice, plastic bodied but with a gold nib) I had
at university. Sad, that.
I still have and still use the Parker 75 Lacque that I bought during my
first job, when I needed to do some boring documentation and decided a
new pen might help cheer me up. It's a fine instrument, and is holding
up to the passage of time far better than my ability to write without a
keyboard. I use it so seldom now that I almost always need to refill it
before I can write anything ... evaporation, you know.
Cheers,
Daniel.
Athel Cornish-Bowden
Thanks for letting us know. I was going to ask that.
--
athel
Athel Cornish-Bowden
I doubt it. Platinum's a very expensive metal, and, at least in my
youth, Platignum pens were at the cheap end the market.
> I always had a Parker!
> Graham
--
athel
Athel Cornish-Bowden
<paci...@btopenworld.com> said:
>
> "Athel Cornish-Bowden" <acor...@ifr88.cnrs-mrs.fr> wrote in message
> news:93a42c...@mid.individual.net...
>> On 2011-05-15 14:15:03 +0200, Nick from England said:
>>
>>> One day, at school, I remarked I had a Platignum fountain pen,
>>> pronouncing it 'pla-TIG-num'.
>>> This rather irritated another boy, Chris, who *insisted* is was
>>> pronounced in a similar way to 'platinum', lol - with no stress on the
>>> 'TIG'!
>>>
>>> Tickled me at the time and still does
>>>
>>> I've *no* idea if Chris was right, but 'pla-TIG-num' sounds classier!
>>>
>>> Other pens are available.
>>
>> In the far-off days when I owned one, I pronounced the g.
>
> So did Chris, but he didn't stress the TIG.
OK, right, I missed the thrust of your question. I'm not sure how often
I uttered the word, but I _thought_ of it with stress on the "tig".
--
athel
Glenn Knickerbocker
>I've *no* idea if Chris was right, but 'pla-TIG-num' sounds classier!
The Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary:
http://books.google.com/books?id=CyoNk-FVdXIC&pg=PA393&dq=platignum
says either that or "plat-IG-num," with the second syllable stressed
either way. Snopake's own web site and YouTube videos are silent on the
question.
ŹR "Carl Sagan is more educational than J.R.R. Tolkien even though they
were both total stoners." K. http://users.bestweb.net/~notr/cosmic.html
graham
fade. About once every term, we would all be trooped out into the
playground to hit the felt pads (I'm sure we called them "rubbers") against
the school wall to get rid of the chalk dust.
Graham
Jack Campin
> I doubt it. Platinum's a very expensive metal, and, at least in my
> youth, Platignum pens were at the cheap end the market.
You don't need very much platinum to plate something. The "silver"
bands you get on china and glassware are made of platinum.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
e m a i l : j a c k @ c a m p i n . m e . u k
Jack Campin, 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU, Scotland
mobile 07800 739 557 <http://www.campin.me.uk> Twitter: JackCampin
Athel Cornish-Bowden
>>> I think that the nibs had a platinum tip.
>> I doubt it. Platinum's a very expensive metal, and, at least in my
>> youth, Platignum pens were at the cheap end the market.
>
> You don't need very much platinum to plate something.
True, but manufacturers still reckon that you should pay a hell of a
lot for something if they can claim that it has gold or platinum in it.
> --
athel
Ian Dalziel
Slates. Dusters. ~50.
Ian Jackson
<17af74b5-bfeb-4c58...@glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com>
, Ian Dalziel <ianda...@gmail.com> writes
Our slates were definitely called "slates" - but I'm sure they were only
plywood, painted matt black. They had a wooden frame/surround. In those
days (1940s), they were, I suppose, sort-of embryonic iPads.
--
Ian
Nick from England
news:n732t69k9ld7906ej...@4ax.com...
Yes, those nibs were sharp - good fountain pens (Platignum, Parker,
Osmirod?) had nice, smooth nibs, but, possibly, cheaper pens had spiky,
scratchy nibs which would teach you, quick smart, not to be a cheapskate!
:-D
Nick from England - Platignum country.
Nick from England
news:VA.0000032...@me.invalid...
> In article <iqog4e$nmk$1...@dont-email.me>, Nick from England wrote:
>> subject: Platignum pens!
>
> You master of nostalgia, you!
LOL
>> ... I remarked I had a Platignum fountain pen, pronouncing
>> it 'pla-TIG-num' ... another boy, Chris, ... *insisted* is
>> was pronounced in a similar way to 'platinum', lol - with no
>> stress on the 'TIG'!
>
> I believe the name "Platignum" was conceived in an attempt to make it
> seem as though these rather inexpensive (and leak-prone, yes) fountain
> pens were like Platinum and so better than those with mere *Gold* nibs.
> If so, it would seem that the Platinum-like pronunciation was intended.
That could well be - might be worth checking out the Platignum website or
emailing them!
> I do remember that others emphasized the -tig-, which seemed silly but
> nothing to become exercised over.
A bit swanky!
>> Other pens are available.
>
> Fewer and fewer ... and they don't work with the iPad.
<g>
Nick from England
Nick from England
news:djb2t651busgrvmof...@4ax.com...
> On Sun, 15 May 2011 13:15:03 +0100, Nick from England wrote:
>>I've *no* idea if Chris was right, but 'pla-TIG-num' sounds classier!
>
> The Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary:
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=CyoNk-FVdXIC&pg=PA393&dq=platignum
>
> says either that or "plat-IG-num," with the second syllable stressed
> either way. Snopake's own web site and YouTube videos are silent on the
> question.
Thanks for that - who'd have thought Platignum'd be in a dictionary!
Nick from England
Patok
> On Sun, 15 May 2011 13:15:03 +0100, Nick from England wrote:
>> I've *no* idea if Chris was right, but 'pla-TIG-num' sounds classier!
>
> The Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary:
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=CyoNk-FVdXIC&pg=PA393&dq=platignum
>
> says either that or "plat-IG-num," with the second syllable stressed
> either way.
How can a "syllable" be stressed? The vowels are what is stressed, and the
two I's are equally stressed here, poor things.
--
You'd be crazy to e-mail me with the crazy. But leave the div alone.
*
Whoever bans a book, shall be banished. Whoever burns a book, shall burn.
tony cooper
Parker has been mentioned frequently in this thread, but Sheaffer and
Waterman fountain pens were less expensive but good pens.
Platignum was unknown to me in the US, and Osmirod was like Pelikan -
a draftman's pen.
Glenn Knickerbocker
> I always had a Parker!
> Graham
Well, that would make you a big man on paper.
Glenn Knickerbocker
> How can a "syllable" be stressed? The vowels are what is stressed, and
> the two I's are equally stressed here, poor things.
Just because you Slavic speakers (and all those Romance speakers) write
accent marks on the vowels, that doesn't mean nothing happens to the
consonants. It took some thought, but I managed to come up with an
example in my limited Russian vocabulary that didn't involve vowel
reductions: Compare indicative and comparative *sidite*, "you (pl.)
sit." I think you'll notice increases in volume, duration, and
stricture of the initial consonant of the stressed syllable. In
English, the changes can be even more, uh, pronounced, since stress
often determines whether plosives are aspirated.
ŹR
Patok
I still don't quite understand the difference between the two English cases.
Your Russian example is not very helpful because there is actually a difference
in the stress levels between the indicative and the imperative (I assume that's
what you meant, 'comparative' makes no sense in this context) forms. The stress
level of the imperative form is excessive, precisely to distinguish it from the
normal stress, when it happens to be on the same vowel. And since it doesn't
work in isolation (as you note), it affects the consonants around it.
While the example we are discussing, essentially splits the word into
different syllable patterns - pla-TIG-num and plat-IG-num. I really can't
imagine what the difference in pronunciation between the two might be, if the
'I' is stressed at the same level in both. No doubt there would be a difference
if the syllabication was explicitly said out, but how is it in normal speech, if
one doesn't want to emphasize it? Is the 't' in 'TIG' more pronounced and louder
than it is when it is in 'plat'?
Nick from England
> On Mon, 16 May 2011 22:12:42 +0100, "Nick from England"
> <paci...@btopenworld.com> wrote:
>
>>>><g> Yeah, we had those - one step up from a quill!
>>>>
>>> Even worse for us upside-down lefty writers. The nib gouged out holes
>>> in the paper.
>>
>>Yes, those nibs were sharp - good fountain pens (Platignum, Parker,
>>Osmirod?) had nice, smooth nibs, but, possibly, cheaper pens had spiky,
>>scratchy nibs which would teach you, quick smart, not to be a cheapskate!
>
> Parker has been mentioned frequently in this thread, but Sheaffer and
> Waterman fountain pens were less expensive but good pens.
We had Watermans Ink, IIRC, but I've never heard of Shaeffer (?) and
Waterman fountain pens; Parkers were for rich people and we wuz poor! :-D
> Platignum was unknown to me in the US, and Osmirod was like Pelikan -
> a draftman's pen.
I'd never heard of Osmirod or Osmiroid or whatever - snobbery behind
ownership of those, mayhap!
Nick from England
Jack Campin
>> Waterman fountain pens were less expensive but good pens.
> We had Watermans Ink, IIRC, but I've never heard of Shaeffer (?) and
> Waterman fountain pens; Parkers were for rich people and we wuz poor! :-D
>> Platignum was unknown to me in the US, and Osmirod was like Pelikan -
>> a draftman's pen.
> I'd never heard of Osmirod or Osmiroid or whatever - snobbery behind
> ownership of those, mayhap!
Osmiroid were the low end of the market, schoolkids used them.
I presume the name was because the nib was plated with osmium.
I like wide nibs. Sheaffer and Lamy do those well. I use a Platignum
calligraphy pen set (twin nibs, one wide and one narrow) but it tends
to clog.
Daniel James
> [Tony Cooper wrote:]
> > Parker has been mentioned frequently in this thread, but Sheaffer
> > and Waterman fountain pens were less expensive but good pens.
>
> We had Watermans Ink, IIRC, but I've never heard of Shaeffer (?)
> and Waterman fountain pens; Parkers were for rich people and we
> wuz poor! :-D
I vaguely knew about Waterman pens, when I was at primary school
writing with a leaky Platignum, but only from elderly and
no-longer-working pens in the bureau drawer at home, I don't think I
heard of Sheaffer until much later. Certainly Parker, Sheaffer, and
Waterman were all a price bracket or two above the Platignum and
Osmiroid pens we had at school.
The Parker 45 fountain pen I had when at secondary school (from about
the age of 16, IIRC) was only 45/- (Ł2.25 to any youngsters who may be
reading) and my steel-nibbed Parker 25 was even cheaper. I believe the
"entry level" Sheaffer was considerably more, though it may well be
that the most expensive Parker was more than any Sheaffer ... they'd be
well outside my league.
Parker, Waterman, and Sheaffer are all American makes, and it seems to
me that Parker has been the most successful at establishing itself
internationally (or, at least, here in the UK).
This is interesting ... http://penroom.co.uk/
As far as I can tell, nobody makes a decent fountain pen in the UK any
more ... it's all the above American makes and a few unusual ones like
Visconti (Italian) and Montblanc (who sound French but are German).
Probably all made in China, anyway. Everything else is.
Cheers,
Daniel.
John Dean
> In article <iqt85j$5vu$1...@dont-email.me>, Nick from England wrote:
>> [Tony Cooper wrote:]
>>> Parker has been mentioned frequently in this thread, but Sheaffer
>>> and Waterman fountain pens were less expensive but good pens.
>>
>> We had Watermans Ink, IIRC, but I've never heard of Shaeffer (?)
>> and Waterman fountain pens; Parkers were for rich people and we
>> wuz poor! :-D
>
> I vaguely knew about Waterman pens, when I was at primary school
> writing with a leaky Platignum, but only from elderly and
> no-longer-working pens in the bureau drawer at home, I don't think I
> heard of Sheaffer until much later.
Remember the Sheaffer snorkel?
http://www.rickconner.net/penspotters/sheaffer.snorkel.html
I had one and it was almost as much fun playing with the filling mechanism
as actually using it.
I have a Waterman at the moment.
--
John Dean
Oxford
tony cooper
wrote:
>In article <iqt85j$5vu$1...@dont-email.me>, Nick from England wrote:
>> [Tony Cooper wrote:]
>> > Parker has been mentioned frequently in this thread, but Sheaffer
>> > and Waterman fountain pens were less expensive but good pens.
>>
>> We had Watermans Ink, IIRC, but I've never heard of Shaeffer (?)
>> and Waterman fountain pens; Parkers were for rich people and we
>> wuz poor! :-D
>
>I vaguely knew about Waterman pens, when I was at primary school
>writing with a leaky Platignum, but only from elderly and
>no-longer-working pens in the bureau drawer at home, I don't think I
>heard of Sheaffer until much later. Certainly Parker, Sheaffer, and
>Waterman were all a price bracket or two above the Platignum and
>Osmiroid pens we had at school.
>
>The Parker 45 fountain pen I had when at secondary school (from about
>the age of 16, IIRC) was only 45/- (Ł2.25 to any youngsters who may be
>reading) and my steel-nibbed Parker 25 was even cheaper. I believe the
>"entry level" Sheaffer was considerably more, though it may well be
>that the most expensive Parker was more than any Sheaffer ... they'd be
>well outside my league.
>
>Parker, Waterman, and Sheaffer are all American makes, and it seems to
>me that Parker has been the most successful at establishing itself
>internationally (or, at least, here in the UK).
Parker, now part of the Sanford division of Newell Rubbermaid, Inc,
has closed down their US manufacturing facility, but may be
contracting production out since the brand is still available. They
haven't been a family-owned business since 1993 when it was acquired
by Gillette (the razor blade people).
Parker had a manufacturing facility in the UK. They acquired the
Valentine Pen Company in Newhaven, East Sussex in 1987. Here's
something on the Valentine Pen:
A cousin of mine married one of the Parkers, and he's writing a book
on the history of Parker Pens. When they were married, I wanted to
give them a Cross pen and pencil set as a wedding present, but my wife
talked me out of it. Instead, we got them a Waterford ring holder.
Waterman closed shop in 1954, but the rights are owned by the Sanford
division of Newell Rubbermaid, the same company that now owns Parker.
Waterman's a big name here in Central Florida because the family
estate was in Eustis, Florida and the hospital there is Waterman
Memorial Hospital. Or was. The Adventist Health System bought the
hospital.
Anytime you provide a history of a company it seems you have to
include the now and previous owners of the company. Companies are
traded around like baseball cards.
Nick from England
> >> Parker has been mentioned frequently in this thread, but Sheaffer and
> >> Waterman fountain pens were less expensive but good pens.
> > We had Watermans Ink, IIRC, but I've never heard of Shaeffer (?) and
> > Waterman fountain pens; Parkers were for rich people and we wuz poor! :-D
> >> Platignum was unknown to me in the US, and Osmirod was like Pelikan -
> >> a draftman's pen.
> > I'd never heard of Osmirod or Osmiroid or whatever - snobbery behind
> > ownership of those, mayhap!
>
> Osmiroid were the low end of the market, schoolkids used them.
>
> I presume the name was because the nib was plated with osmium.
http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/glossary/O.htm
So Platignum may have been derived from platinum and Osmiroid from
osmium!
If so, Platignum copied the idea for Osmiroid cos Plat's from 1919 and
Os's from 1824 - Os has been taken over by a Chinese company and the
pens don't have the original quality, I read!
> I like wide nibs. Sheaffer and Lamy do those well. I use a Platignum
> calligraphy pen set (twin nibs, one wide and one narrow) but it tends
> to clog.
I remember wide nibs for italic writing - ya had ta hold the nib at 45
degrees, IIRC!
Nick from England
Glenn Knickerbocker
> While the example we are discussing, essentially splits the word into
>different syllable patterns - pla-TIG-num and plat-IG-num. I really can't
>imagine what the difference in pronunciation between the two might be, if the
>'I' is stressed at the same level in both. No doubt there would be a difference
>if the syllabication was explicitly said out, but how is it in normal speech, if
>one doesn't want to emphasize it? Is the 't' in 'TIG' more pronounced and louder
>than it is when it is in 'plat'?
The vowel in the first syllable is different: schwa in "pla-" vs. short
A in "plat-". And yes, "t" is more forceful and usually aspirated at the
start of a stressed syllable, and usually unaspirated at the end of a
syllable or the start of an unstressed syllable.
(And yes, I meant "imperative" and probably typed it correctly the first
two or three times--and my Russian's gotten even more limited than it
was; I somehow thought the indicative *sidite* had the stem stressed. I
guess you could compare *sidi* and *sidya*, though the unstressed -ya
might not be exactly the same as -i.)
ŹR Around here, the fun is always filled with blanks.
http://users.bestweb.net/~notr/arkville.html --Theresa Willis
Anton Shepelev
> I guess you could compare *sidi* and *sidya*,
> though the unstressed -ya might not be exactly the
> same as -i.)
In "sidi" the last "i" is stressed. In "sidya" --
the first (and only) "i" is.
Anton
Glenn Knickerbocker
> In "sidi" the last "i" is stressed. In "sidya" --
> the first (and only) "i" is.
Right, that's exactly the distinction I was trying to illustrate.
ŹR
Philip Morten
>
> Yes, much better - at school we weren't allowed to use Biros (ball-point
> pens).
Nor were we (late sixties), except by our French teacher who said if his
bank and his bookmaker were OK with biro then it was good enough for him.
--
Philip Morten
Jozanny
> Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
> > On 2011-05-15 14:15:03 +0200, Nick from England said:
>
> >> One day, at school, I remarked I had a Platignum fountain pen,
> >> pronouncing it 'pla-TIG-num'.
> >> pronounced in a similar way to 'platinum', lol - with no stress on
> >> the 'TIG'!
>
>
>
>
> > In the far-off days when I owned one, I pronounced the g.
>
>
> They're still around -
>
> http://www.platignum.com/
>
> --
> John Dean
> Oxford- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
How is it properly pronounced? I'd say it with the hard g probably.
Daniel James
<69d26dd4-41d6-49ae...@f15g2000pro.googlegroups.com>,
> http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/glossary/O.htm
>
> So Platignum may have been derived from platinum and Osmiroid from
> osmium!
Ah, good find.
... its Iridinoid and Osmiroid nibs.
So, Osmiroid for Osmium and Indiroid for Indium ... or maybe Osmiroid
for Osmium/Iridium and Iridinoid for Iridium/Platinum? The site you
cite suggests that metals such as these might have been present in
alloys used for nib making, but I doubt that there was ever more than a
trace of some of these expensive (and toxic, at least in the case of
Osmium) elements.
[Have you seen my new pen? It has a Plutonoid nib -- makes any ink glow
in the dark!]
> Os has been taken over by a Chinese company and the
> pens don't have the original quality, I read!
Osmiroid was bought by Berol who are now owned by (or owned by the same
people as, as the case may be) Paper Mate.
I believe the most recent pens to bear the Osmiroid name were made in
China in the late 1990s (one site I was reading yesterday said 1999), I
don't know whether they were made under the auspices of Paper
Mate/Berol.
Cheers,
Daniel.
Daniel James
> Here's
> something on the Valentine Pen:
>
> http://vintagefountainpens.co.uk/uk2ecommerce/product/no_3891_rare_valentine_button_filling_fountain_pen
Interesting ... I rather wish the photograph showed more of the pen,
but I think I can guess how it must have looked.
There are clearly many people with a great interest in old pens,
which makes me wish I hadn't thrown out the assortment of old
writing implements I found in my mother's writing desk, after her
death. They may not have had any value, but perhaps someone would
have been pleased to own them.
Cheers,
Daniel.
Daniel James
> I presume the name was because the nib was plated with osmium.
Given the high toxicity of Osmium that seems extremely unlikely!
Osmium is also very expensive, but that fits with the pattern of using
Gold and suggesting Platinum in pens' names.
Cheers,
Daniel.
Jack Campin
>> I presume the name was because the nib was plated with osmium.
> Given the high toxicity of Osmium that seems extremely unlikely!
http://www.rsc.org/chemsoc/visualelements/pages/osmium.html
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Iridiosmium
http://www.ipa-news.com/en/27-0-Osmium.html
http://theodoregray.com/periodictabledisplay/Elements/076/index.s9.html
Daniel James
> As far as I can tell, nobody makes a decent fountain pen in the UK
> any more ...
Um ... apart from Conway Stewart and Sigma ...
http://www.conwaystewart.com/home.php
.. are there others?
Cheers,
Daniel.
John Dean
Me too
--
John Dean
Oxford
Odysseus
Jack Campin <bo...@purr.demon.co.uk> wrote:
<snip>
> Osmiroid were the low end of the market, schoolkids used them.
>
> I presume the name was because the nib was plated with osmium.
Probably the alloy osmiridium. According to
<http://hans.presto.tripod.com/nibs/osmiroid02.html>
another brand of nib made by E.S. Perry was "Iridinoid".
--
Odysseus
Nick from England
wrote:
<g> 'Sgood when a teacher has a sense of humour.
Biros are less constricting and tend to let the ballpoint slither
hither, thither and non!
Fountain pens are better for your handwriting or, as Americans might
say, penmanship! :-D
Nick from England
Nick from England
> In article
Thanks for all that, Daniel - amazing how much interest a little pen
can engender!
Nick from England
Daniel James
wrote:
> >> I presume the name was because the nib was plated with osmium.
> > Given the high toxicity of Osmium that seems extremely unlikely!
>
> http://www.rsc.org/chemsoc/visualelements/pages/osmium.html
Your point, I take it is that Osmium is "used in making high quality pen
nibs" ... and that is, of course, the case.
My point was that is it extremely unlikely that there was ever a pen whose
"nib was plated with osmium". That is, that there was ever a pen whose nib
was plated with pure(ish) Osmium metal in the same way that many pen nibs
are plated with pure(ish) metallic Gold.
Alloys are a different matter entirely, there are many well-known
non-toxic alloys that contain highly toxic elements -- dental amalgam
contains Mercury, for example.
In your fourth link:
> http://theodoregray.com/periodictabledisplay/Elements/076/index.s9.html
they say "usually as an alloy". I suspect they mean "always as an alloy",
or perhaps "usually as an alloy with Iridium" or something of that sort.
Cheers,
Daniel.
Patok
> On Mon, 16 May 2011 21:29:23 -0400, Patok wrote:
>> While the example we are discussing, essentially splits the word into
>> different syllable patterns - pla-TIG-num and plat-IG-num. I really can't
>> imagine what the difference in pronunciation between the two might be, if the
>> 'I' is stressed at the same level in both. No doubt there would be a difference
>> if the syllabication was explicitly said out, but how is it in normal speech, if
>> one doesn't want to emphasize it? Is the 't' in 'TIG' more pronounced and louder
>> than it is when it is in 'plat'?
>
> The vowel in the first syllable is different: schwa in "pla-" vs. short
> A in "plat-". And yes, "t" is more forceful and usually aspirated at the
> start of a stressed syllable, and usually unaspirated at the end of a
> syllable or the start of an unstressed syllable.
Thanks for the explanation. Fascinating. I can't imagine (you were correct)
such differences in Bulgarian or Russian (Anton may correct me here if there are
examples). Especially in Bulgarian, such differences (if present, and noticed by
the listener) would be chalked up to individual speech defects. Or regional
variation, but again, in order to be noticed, the variation would have to be
much more drastic - like stressing a different vowel, for ex. What's more,
syllabication in Bulgarian does not permit more than one split pattern; you
can't have -IG- as syllable.
Anton Shepelev
> I can't imagine (you were correct) such differ-
> ences in Bulgarian or Russian (Anton may correct
> me here if there are examples).
Separate consonants may be stressed in Russian. T
and P may be almost spit, hissing and resonant (R,
L, M, N) sounds can be emphasized and prolonged (now
remember the Gollum-speech). For example, listen to
Vladimir Vysotskiy stressing R in his song "Koni
priveredlivye" and in many others. It works great
with his baritone.
Anton