In a popular episode of “Seinfeld,” appropriately entitled “The Pen,” Jerry and Elaine travel to Florida to see his parents. There, a neighbor, Jack Klompus, shows off a pen that the astronauts used in space because of its ability to still write, even when upside-down.
Being enamored by the pen, Jack insists that Jerry it. While it was not named and was a different version than was used in space, that pen was made by Fisher Space Pen.
The Boulder City-based company, which has been in town for nearly 50 years, has had an even longer history of its pen being used by astronauts, hence the name.
More than 50 people turned out Saturday to hear the history of the pen and the company behind it. The discussion and presentation were led by Paul Fisher, who shares the name of his grandfather, the founder of the company.
“He was an inventor and innovator,” he said of his grandfather, who died in 2006. “He was the product of the Great Depression and he had that go-get-it kind of attitude.”
The elder Fisher made ball bearings of all sizes during World War II for the war effort. But after the war, he had to divert his efforts in terms of manufacturing. That’s when he focused his attention on the ball point pen, which he fine-tuned and revolutionized.
“Fisher Space Pens are built for more than just outer space,” their website states. “The fact is, due to the patented sealed and pressurized ink cartridge, they will write in just about any condition and on almost any surface. Underwater or over grease and in extreme temperatures (-30 to +250 F/-35 to +121 C). Upside-down or floating in a gravity-free zone. It doesn’t matter, our pens will perform. Our sealed and pressurized ink cartridges last three times longer than the average pen with an estimated 100-year shelf life.”
Fisher said that these days, people are so used to communicating via their phones or laptops that handwriting was been affected.
“My grandparents and their parents had beautiful handwriting and that was a statement about your status, education or who you were,” he said just before announcing that everyone in attendance was to be given one of their pens. “Text messaging today, that’s what a piece of paper and ball point pen was in the past.”
Following a brief video showing how the pens are assembled at their Boulder City plant and gift shop at 711 Yucca St., Fisher said the pen saw a handful of iterations in the later 1940s and in the 1950s. In 1953, Fisher invented the universal refill cartridge, which could be used in more brand-name pens.
Fisher tried his hand at politics, running against John F. Kennedy in the 1960 Democrat primary. He also ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1954 and then again in 1986.
As to how the pen solidified its out-of-this world name, the website states, “In 1967, after over two years of rigorous testing by NASA, the Space Pen was selected for use by the astronauts of Apollo 7 and has been used on all manned space flights since. The overall design of the Original Astronaut Pen has not changed in over 50 years, and the pen that you buy today, except for several minor aesthetic changes, is nearly identical to the one taken to the moon in 1969.”
“I’ll tell you a little secret, it’s harder to write underwater than it is in space,” he said. “The space thing is awesome. When the Cold War was really going and the country wanted to go to the moon, that was the point when my grandfather started reaching out to NASA. For two years, he banged on their door, sent letters while trying to network. But nothing. Then one day, they called him up and said, ‘Hey, we heard you have a pen.’”
“It was his creation of the sealed and pressurized ink cartridge that literally launched the company into space in 1966,” the website states. “Debuting on the Apollo 7 mission in 1968, Fisher Space Pen has been on every NASA crewed space flight since. In fact, Fisher Space Pen now has its own permanent exhibit inside the Apollo / Saturn V Center at Kennedy Space Center, which proudly shares our history and products with some three million people a year. Our products have also managed to find themselves onboard the International Space Station and have been utilized by Russian and Chinese space programs.”