Stylographs were a rather interesting variation on writing instruments that appeared around the start of the 20th century. The advent of the technical capability to produce very small metal components (such as microscopic tubes and very thin wire) made it possible to make the stylograph a reality. It was initially thought that this design would replace the fountain pen, but in a rather short time it became clear that they did not have the writing facility that fountain pens have. However, they did find a very important niche in drawing/drafting and helped to revolutionize the industrial machine (draftsmen could create all kinds of highly detailed technical drawings).
I first discovered technical pens when I was in high school. At that time Koh-i-noor was the well known brand name and I acquired a set of their stylographs. They were cartridge fillers, where you would use a special squeeze bottle to refill the cartridge when it ran dry. But one day I came across an older version in an art store. It was much more visually appealing, with its streamlined and tapered shiny black body. The integrated piston filling mechanism felt superior to me over the cartridge filler. However, the drawback was that you couldn't see how much ink was left in the pen. I bought it anyway and kept it in my arsenal of stylographs.
Years later, the advent of eBay exposed me to a plethora of the older Kohinoor stylographs, which I added to my collection. But one day I came across an oddly named version of this stylograph, called a "Tintenkuli". It was in rather bad shape, but I was shocked at how high the auction closed on it. It seemed absurd, compared to the $10 going rate for the Kohinoor model of the same design. Why was there such an interest? I would eventually come to find out, much to the dismay of my wallet! This discovery sent me down a path of acquiring a wide range of these older stylographs. But beyond their historical significance, many of them are quite beautiful to behold. And so, my collection began, all thanks to a man by the name of Dr. Wilhelm Riepe
In 1920, a German man by the name of Dr. Wilhelm Riepe became acquainted with the stylographic pen while visiting America. He noticed that instead of a nib, the tip of the pen had a small metal tube with a thin wire running within it. The wire would guide a gradual flow of ink out of the tube, producing a nicely consistent fine line. The wire was attached to a counter weight that would close off the ink flow when pointing the pen downward--pressing on the tip onto paper forced the wire to push the weight up, creating a gap that allowed the ink to flow. This was not a known writing instrument in Europe, so Dr. Riepe took one with him when he returned home to Germany. After giving it away to a relative, word got around and soon he was receiving requests for more. Since Dr. Riepe was involved with the manufacturing of medical instruments, he decided to try making his own stylograph. He managed to succeed in creating a replica, and even improved upon the original one he had obtained in America. The pen was very well received.
Dr. Riepe decided that he would need to mass produce this stylograph, so in 1928 he founded the Tintenkuli Handels GmbH factory based in Hamburg. His company produced innovative stylographic pens that featured a piston filling mechanism, an ink window, a well balanced ink feeding mechanism, and easily interchanged stylographic writing tips. The success of the pen grew and export surged to approximately 30 countries. The name chosen for the pen, "Tintenkuli", is the combination of "Tinten" (ink) and "Kuli" (worker). Thus, "ink worker". At that time in history, it was common to refer to a manual laborer from China or India as a "Coolie" or "Kuli", which could be taken as a racial slur. Thus, Dr. Wilhelm decided that the Tintenkuli pens were later referred to as "Tiku" pens (first two letters of each word), to be more politically correct. Eventually the slur was forgotten (thankfully!) and in Germany, "kuli" is now a synonym "ballpoint".