The History of the Waterman Pen Company

The desire to make a sale has never been as fruitful as the sale that Lewis Waterman failed to make in 1883. As a New York insurance salesman, Waterman was always keen to impress his prospective clients. On this occasion, he invested in a new reservoir pen which he believed looked superior to a traditional dip pen and ink well. His new pen failed to impress or write at all and the important contract remained unsigned, his client taking the failing pen as a bad omen.  It was this event that led Lewis Waterman to develop the first commercially viable fountain pen.

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