Waterman Safety Pen |
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At the end of the 19th century the only fountain pen on general sale was the ‘eyedropper’ pen. It had a very simple design consisting of an empty barrel with a grip section. Every time you needed to refill the pen, the pen had to be opened up which meant it was susceptible to leaking. Before the advent of self filling pens with sealed ink supplies, the Safety pen solved the problem of leaking pens, and are heavily associated with Waterman Pens. Although there is some debate about who invented the safety pen, many collectors attribute the invention to Waterman, who brought out their first safety pen in 1907.
The design of the Waterman safety pen was built around the idea of retracting the nib into the barrel. The nib is mounted on a retracting screw which allows the nib to fit entirely inside the barrel, with a tight fitting cap. In order to start writing, the user would push the cap on the end and turn it to reveal the nib. The sealed design prevented leakage as well as surrounding the nib with ink so it was kept moist and ready to write. The nib, like all Waterman pens, had a very thin and flexible end.
The unique design of the Waterman safety pen gave it a distinctive appearance and has been widely copied by companies such as Montblanc. The pen had a small nib point so that it could fit inside the barrel, a short cap and a lip around the end of the barrel for attaching the cap. There were very specific instructions issued by Waterman as to how to fill the safety pen. Although the safety pen was very popular at the turn of the 20th century, there have been very few contemporary models.
