The Waterman Fountain Pen has a very interesting history. In 1879, a forty-five year old insurance salesman named Lewis Waterman, had an appointment with a very important client for a considerably large insurance policy deal. As he headed towards the meeting, he decided to stop and purchase one of the new fountain pens that had just come onto the market. He ended up convincing his client to take the policy, but when Waterman handed him the pen, it wouldn’t write and then would only blot. Waterman’s client could not sign the policy, and he ended up losing the client and the sale.
Waterman decided that he was going to figure out how to fix the pen so it would never blot. The device is composed of three main parts. The nib, which comes into contact with the paper, the feed, which controls the ink flow from the reservoir to the nib. Then, there is the round barrel that holds the nib and feed on the writing end and protects the ink reservoir internally. Waterman examined his defective pen to the point where he realized where the problem was, and figured out how to repair it. After he experimented with the pen and other similar instruments he discovered that the basic problem was the tube action within the pen. His idea was to add an air hole in the nib and three grooves inside the feed device which improved air flow with the ink reservoir in the pen.
With the help of his brother, Elijah, he hand made his first fountain pen and used it for two years until a customer approached him and insisted on buying it. Waterman had to make himself another pen and soon found himself in the fountain pen making business. He first used hardwood and later, as it became more and more available, hard rubber. Seeing that his mechanism was working, in 1883, he applied for a patent which he received the following year. An acquaintance advised Waterman to advertise in a popular magazine and, soon after, he received numerous orders for his pens.
In 1901, Waterman died, but his pens were selling at the rate of 1000 per day. Soon after, many other companies began blooming and the competition exploded.