Even though it was priced more than double its chief competitor, Eversharp's Skyline, the Parker '51' became the best selling fountain pen of all time, with over $400,000,000 in sales. In a poll conducted by the Illinois Institute of Technology, it was voted the fourth best industrial design of the twentieth century. Yet, very little is known about its development and many of those responsible remain a mystery.

America's great depression was a blow to the writing instrument manufacturers from which many would not recover. By 1933 many Americans were struggling to put food on the table. But in that trying year, young Kenneth Parker, newly elected president of the Parker Pen Co., stunned competitors by introducing the Vacumatic pen, the Company's first new model in 11 years. Kenneth Parker was no ordinary pen company executive. In 1923, at the age of 28, he convinced Parker Pen's Board of Directors to gamble the entire future of the company on a risky $125,000 advertising campaign to promote the new Duofold pen, while his father, George, was on an extended sea voyage to Asia and Africa. Kenneth believed in the philosophy of artificial obsolescence identified by the famous Hungarian-born industrial designer, Maholy-Nagy.

The economy in the United States is based upon frequent change of models and a quick turnover, because by this method a country rich in resources, raw materials and human ingenuity can afford to be wasteful by declaring models obsolete long before their technical usefulness has ceased.

Kenneth was constantly pushing the development of newer and better pens, even on the heels of the introduction of new models such as the Vacumatic. It is believed that the '51' was developed with this philosophy in mind.

Prior to joining the Company, Pickus was an instructor of metallurgy on the faculty of Yale University. In 1940 Ivan Tefft applied for a patent for Pickus' process for making pen nib tips from platinum carbide and gold. A year later, Tefft applied for a patent for sintering nib tips from a Ruthenium alloy. Both patents were granted. 'Osmiridium,' an alloy of iridium, osmium and platinum, was the choice for the '51' pen nib tips from its introduction in 1941 until 1944, when Ruthenium replaced it on all '51' points.

By the late 1930's the components were all available for Kenneth Parker to launch what many collectors consider to be the greatest fountain pen ever made. Kenneth had a flair for design, and insisted the new pen was to be entirely unique in every way, and so he turned to the last member of this research and development triumvirate, Marlin Baker, to put it all together. He was not disappointed .

We know very little of Marlin Baker. Parker Pen's 1941 catalog pictures him along with Galen Sayler and Milton Pickus. Baker is identified as a research engineer. The February, 1942 Pen & Quink News indicates that he was formerly of the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During the time he was employed by Parker Pen, Baker was awarded twelve writing instrument patents, eight of them for the Parker '51,' including the design patents for the cap and barrel, and patents for the shell, the collector, the cap and the cap clutch. He was even granted a patent for manufacturing the '51' tubular nib, which was not slit, but instead tipped prior to forming. Baker also patented the '51' flighter with its extended sterling silver breather tube, and the aerometric '51' with a visulated squeeze filler. Two patents for a slip cap fountain pen were awarded to him posthumously.

In 1928 the Company established an ink research fellowship in a Chicago, Illinois commercial laboratory with the idea of developing better fountain pen inks than those available. A chemist, Galen Sayler, was hired for the project. In 1930, Sayler was transferred from Chicago to Janesville to establish a small laboratory at the Company headquarters. At the same time the Company hired a full time patent attorney, Ivan Tefft, formerly of the Wahl Eversharp Company. Tefft supervised new projects and patented new writing instrument designs and improvements created by what was to become the research and development department. Tefft was also an inventor and held a dozen writing instrument patents, including the patent for the Sealomatic deskbowl. Eventually Sayler developed two new writing fluids which Tefft patented for the Parker Pen Company: Super Quink, a self cleaning writing ink sold for general fountain pen use, and a non-conventional instant drying, or 'high velocity' ink of alkali composition. Sayler's new alkali writing fluid, named Superchrome, dried by absorption rather than evaporation. However, this quick-drying ink corroded the Pyralin used to make most pen barrels and caps. Sayler searched for a non-corrosive plastic and eventually found the answer: an opaque duPont plastic called Lucite. The '51' was the first fountain pen fashioned of Lucite and Sayler's '51' ink was offered at the same time for exclusive use in this new pen, which was advertised to 'write dry with wet ink.'.

Another phenomenon which led to the development of the '51' pen was a shortage of iridium, the rare, hard metallic element welded to the tip of the gold pen nibs. Iridium was most commonly found in the Ural Mountains, Brazil, Borneo and Australia. Iridium was scarce and expensive. So, Parker Pen Company's research and development department employed a metallurgist, Robert Pickus, to find an alternative.

There are 23 separate component pieces of the '51' pen which required 238 operations to manufacture and assemble, of which 42 were by hand. The finished product weighs slightly more than one ounce. The '51' pen was manufactured to extreme tolerances of one thousandth of an inch, making it prohibitively expensive to reproduce today. The introductory model retailed at $12.50 compared to the Skyline, which sold at only $5.00. Between 1941, the year of its introduction, and 1953, the last year for which records are available, over 12 million units were sold, making it by far the most popular fountain pen of all time. '51' production ceased in 1959.