Waterman (writing instruments)

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Waterman Factory in Manhattan 1910
Watermann writing instruments manufactured for the French Concorde

Waterman Writing Instruments is an early American, now French, manufacturer of fountain pens . The company was founded in 1883 by Lewis Edson Waterman , produced the first fountain pen with regular ink flow , and is one of the few pioneering writing instrument manufacturers that still exist today.

history

Fig. From the patent specification

On February 12, 1884, Lewis Edson Waterman patented the so-called three-gap ink delivery system . The concept based on the capillary effect ensures a regular flow of ink and a clean typeface. In addition, the pen no longer had to be dipped into the ink. The "Regular" established the success of the Waterman brand. The company, initially founded under the name The Ideal Pen Company , was renamed the LE Waterman Company four years later .

The improvements to the fountain pen and the aggressive marketing made a major contribution to making the fountain pen a mass product. After LE Waterman's death in 1901, the company was carried on by his nephew, expanded overseas and eventually sold 350,000 writing instruments a year. In 1904, the company developed the safety clip , which ensured that writing implements would no longer fall out of the breast pocket. In 1907 the safety pen followed , which could not leak, and in 1913 a self-filling system was invented.

The peak of Waterman writing instrument production was in the 1920s. In 1929, hard rubber was also replaced by shellac at Waterman .

In 1927 a French researcher invented the glass ink cartridge , which was patented in 1936 and which changed the future of the fountain pen.

During the Second World War , the popularity of the name Waterman was saved mainly by the license production of a French company owned by Jules Fagard , who successfully marketed their products under the JiF-Waterman brand. In the 1930s she also developed the first, still glass, ink cartridge. After the war, the US brand Waterman was taken over by the Gillette group, which sold it to Sanford together with Parker and Paper Mate in 2000 , Sanford in turn is a subsidiary of Newell Rubbermaid .

In 1953, the glass ink cartridge was replaced by a plastic cartridge, thereby expanding the range of uses for the fountain pen.

today

The brand's writing instruments have been manufactured in Saint-Herblain near Nantes , France, since 1967 . The plant produces 5 million writing instruments annually , 70 percent of which are exported to 110 countries. Today Waterman is the world's second largest fountain pen manufacturer.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article on patent application from What is what?
  2. ↑ Patent number 293545 ( Memento from October 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

Commons : Waterman  - collection of images, videos and audio files