In 1888 George S. Parker, a telegraphy teacher, started the Parker Pen company in Janesville, Wisconsin in response to his students' complaints that their pens alternated between too much ink flow or no ink flow at all. at the time, he supplemented his teaching salary by selling pens for the John Holland Gold Pen Company, based in Cincinnatti, so it wasn't too much of a leap to begin creating his own pens. The changes to the fountain pen industry began with Parker's improvement on the feed, and for the following 30 years, Parker spearheaded the development of fountain pen design. Numerous patents were awarded, including a 1904 patent for a mechanically filled "lever" filler (up to that time almost all pens were eye-drop filler). Parker became a household name, and continues to be one of the most recognizable and trusted writing instrument companies today.

Parker flyer (1903)

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