George Safford Parker
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{short description|American inventor of leak-resistant fountain pen (1863-1937)}}
{{Other people|George Parker}}
{{Infobox engineer
|image = George Safford Parker.jpg
|name = George Safford Parker
|nationality = American
|birth_date = {{birth date|1863|11|1}}
|birth_place = Shullsburg, Wisconsin
|death_date = {{death date and age|1937|7|19|1863|11|1}}
|death_place = Chicago, Illinois
|education = Upper Iowa University
|spouse =
|parents =
|children =
|discipline =
|institutions = Parker Pen Company
|practice_name =
|significant_projects =
|significant_design =
|significant_advance = Fountain pen
|significant_awards =
}}
George Safford Parker (November 1, 1863, Shullsburg – July 19, 1937, Chicago) was an American inventor and industrialist.
Biography
=Early life=
Parker was born in Shullsburg, Wisconsin in November 1863, and graduated from Upper Iowa University in Fayette, Iowa.
He worked as a telegraphy instructor in Janesville, Wisconsin, and had a sideline repairing and selling fountain pens. Dismayed by the unreliability of the pens, he experimented with ways to prevent ink leaks.
=Career as Inventor and Industrialist=
In 1888 he founded the Parker Pen Company and the next year he received his first fountain pen patent. By 1908, his factory on Main Street in Janesville was reportedly the largest pen manufacturing facility in the world. Parker eventually became one of the world's premier pen brands, and one of the first brands with a global presence.
=Legacy=
George S. Parker High School in Janesville is his namesake.{{Cite web |url=http://patentmuseum.com/ebayhtmls/parker.html |title=Parker's first patent |access-date=January 24, 2006 |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303215259/http://patentmuseum.com/ebayhtmls/parker.html |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web |url=http://www.usgennet.org/usa/wi/county/rock/Bus/HistBus012.html |title=Parker Pen history |access-date=January 24, 2006 |archive-date=May 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513003043/http://www.usgennet.org/usa/wi/county/rock/Bus/HistBus012.html |url-status=dead }}William Fiske Brown (ed.). [https://archive.org/stream/rockcountywiscon02brow#page/n7/mode/2up Rock County, Wisconsin: A New History of Its Cities, Villages, Towns, Citizens and Varied Interests, from the Earliest Times, Up to Date]. vol. 2. , Chicago: C. F. Cooper & Company, 1908, p. 1075.
Notes
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Category:American manufacturing businesspeople
Category:19th-century American inventors
Category:20th-century American inventors
Category:People from Janesville, Wisconsin