5 Central Ave
Orange. NJ
1935-1938
Arlington NJ [Newark/Secretary}
Joseph Wustman started a fountain pen company about 1935 with a ink-maker
style pen. Ink-maker pens became popular during the late days of WWI
when it was not very safe to carry around ink. The early ink-makers
used ink pellets or powdered ink which was mixed with water. The
Camel pens only had to be filled with water and the
concentrated ink inside would supposedly produce ink. The ink was
contained in a small canister at the back end of the pen. The ink they
made varied in thickness and the pens just didn't work well.
Customers found they worked much better when just filled with
regular ink. They had a blindcap on the end of the barrel that was
unscrewed to reveal a large filler button. The button worked a
pressure bar much the same as a Duofolds. The bladder was open
on both ends and connected to the section and the button. The
original Camel pens were only sold for about 3 years and they
basically had only one model. It was a high quality pen with a great
barrel imprint of 2 Camels holding a pen in a glass of water [since
you filled the pen with water]. The pens came in only one size but
different lengths. They seemed to have 2 different clips.
Their main advertising slogan was : "The pen that makes it's own
ink". There are
some later Camel pens that are lever fillers, but aside from the
markings, these pens have almost nothing in common with the
originals. They appear to be made by Wearever and just stamped with
the Camel imprint [the stamping wasn't very good on most of them].
Some have the Arlington [Newark Pen] address in the barrel imprint. Wustman
also ran the Newark pen company which was in business before Camel
and also after, so he may have been running both companies at the
same time. Newark
sold a line of pens called the Secretary, but eventually
the company became the Secretary pen co. Secretary made some really
odd fountain pens in the 50s and 60s that seemed to have been made as
a companion piece to their main business, which was "floaty" pencils and pens.
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