There is no one true inventor of the fountain pen, however, the first mentions of fountain pens go back hundreds of years and the earliest is from the 10th century. Most early surviving pens are from the 18th century and are made of metal and had cut quills as nibs. Although Nicholas Bion didn’t ever claim to have invented the pens, he was first to mention them in an essay in 1709. Fountain pen manufacturing exploded in the 19th century with the important innovations of hard rubber which was cheap and durable, iridium-tipped gold nibs, and superior inks.
Before gold nibs, stainless steel nibs were used. Being the main area for the gold nib trade, the fountain pen industry took off in New York City. Here, industry majors such as Waterman, Todd, and Wirt battled it out for control of the market. Whoever was quickest to offer the latest innovations had the upper hand in a trade focused on necessity as the mother of invention. Although Waterman did patent a mechanism that harnesses the principle of capillary attraction for his pens, he was not the first nor was he the inventor of the practical fountain pen as the company boldly claimed at one time.
Before these more "practical," self-filler pens, pens used to have to be unscrewed and refilled with eyedroppers. This process was slow and tedious and often lead to leakage inside the tips and corroded the metal parts inside the pen. Self-filler pens use a rubber sac to hold the ink. The sac is compressed and then released by a range of apparatuses to fill the pen. The most popular and successful of these self-fillers was the Conklin crescent-filler. Over time, celluloid was used to substitute the hard rubber. This made it possible to produce a wide variety of colors and designs. Although ball point pen production started up around the 1950’s, these were often unpredictable and unreliable. The fountain pen industry enjoyed growing success due to its quality of design and product. Although, today, fountain pens are used in Europe by schoolchildren, in the United States they are marketed as luxurious items.