Waterman’s “J” Pens: A Mystery Solved

For over 35 years Waterman collectors have puzzled over an extraordinarily rare model typically described as a slip-cap safety pen, with an end knob of distinctive form imprinted 1XJ (“X” denoting the nib size). Some have guessed that it was some sort of prototype or experiment. Few have given full consideration to how nonsensical a slip-cap safety pen would be.

Although the J-series pens do not appear in any known Waterman catalog, they are mentioned in both company and retailer advertisements and – most helpfully – in a Canadian instruction sheet that I found several years ago. The “J” stands for “jointless” and while the nib retraction mechanism is the same as that found on early Waterman safeties, the nib is only intended to be retracted for filling. Once the pen is filled the nib is to be extended and the pen capped. 

The first ads that mention Waterman’s Jointless date to the last quarter of 1909. The first that I could find appeared in September with all of the rest appearing in December. Many more followed in the first half of 1910 with only sporadic sightings thereafter. The last Waterman ad that I could find that mentions the Jointless is in the May 29, 1913 Geyer’s Stationer – though it does get a passing mention in 1915 in a published transcript of a Waterman executive’s lecture on sales. There it appears only at the tail end of a list of miscellaneous models outside of Waterman’s “active line”, suggesting that it was by then out of production but still in inventory or available on demand (American Stationer, vol. 77, May 22, 1915, p. 30).

Abraham & Strauss ad, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 18 Oct 1909, p. 8; perhaps a soft launch – a limited test release – as no further mentions are to be found until regular mentions begin two months later.

Bookseller and Stationer (Canada), May 1910, p. 4

Ads and instructions only mention three sizes: 12J, 14J, and 15J. Examples of all three sizes are known, all in black hard rubber – though reportedly at least one in red hard rubber is extant. All examples that I have examined have the early internal mechanism with helical grooves cut into the barrel which make the nib carrier twist as it is extended and retracted. 

This mechanism was adopted by Waterman for their safety pens in 1908 to avoid infringing Peck & O’Meara’s patent 523,234, then held by the Modern Pen Company (A. A. Waterman), and appears to have been used only until that patent’s expiration in July 1911. Whether Jointless production continued after that date is an open question. Perhaps it did, for our instruction sheet also has a spare parts page where for both safety and jointless models “Interior Spirals” are listed – a term that could in no way be applied to the straight-track equivalents used in their  earlier versions.

So what was Waterman thinking? The goal was surely to compete with arch-rival Parker, whose own Jointless had been on the market since c. 1898. Parker’s version required the nib assembly to be pulled out manually from the front of the barrel, a process just as messy as dealing with ink residue at the joint of a conventional dropper-filled pen. Waterman’s version obviated that issue, but at the cost of making the pen as complicated as a safety without the benefits of a safety. And this right at the same time that Waterman brought out its sleeve-filler, a simple design which made filling yet cleaner and more convenient. Perhaps no surprise that the Waterman Jointless was so quickly forgotten.

NOTE: Some extant Jointless pens have unusual protrusions on top of their caps, which in at least some cases are made to be inserted into a matching recess in the turning knob (similar to certain Caw's safety models). I have yet to see any mention or illustration of this feature in contemporary advertisements, however.

Premature latex sac failure and ammonia

For quite a few years now pen collectors have been trying to determine why latex rubber ink sacs fail -- and in particular, why they sometimes fail so quickly. Certain inks have been implicated, and yet efforts to conduct controlled experiments have for the most part not succeeded in producing consistent results and clear conclusions (the exception being highly alkaline inks, which have long been known to attack sacs).

Some time ago I asked my old friend Peter Amis, longtime proprietor of the Pen Sac Company, if he could provide any insight into why newly-made sacs didn't seem to be holding up as well as those made in the 1950s and 1960s, but I never got a clear answer. Peter recently passed away, far too soon -- a huge loss to the pen community. During Peter's illness, Todd Eberspacher stepped in to help keep the Pen Sac Company going, eventually leading to an agreement to take the business over. 

Todd has shared with me much about what he has had to learn about the making of pen sacs. It turns out that environmental and workplace safety issues have led to major changes in how latex pen sacs are made, with the toxic solvents used in the past replaced by water-based solutions. This has affected durability in much the same way as the switch from oil-based to latex house paints. And the new formulations are in part activated by ammonia -- which I am told makes them particularly vulnerable to subsequent ammonia exposure.

The risks ammonia poses to gold nibs has already been documented at length here. That it is also bad for sacs has not been noted previously but should now be accepted as fact. Ammonia-containing pen flush products should not be used on either gold nibs or in pens with latex rubber sacs, including Vacumatic diaphragms. 

A Waterman prototype surprise

Many years ago I acquired a group of prototype Waterman Hundred Year pens, all of first year design but most in colors that never made it into production. Recently I finally got around to cleaning them up for proper photographic documentation, and inside the pen shown above there was an interesting surprise.

There was actually a bit of a clue beforehand -- "LEW" and "X" and "I" scratched into the bottom of the feed. Plus of course the pen's completely nonstandard color, an opaque metallic blue.

Nonetheless, there was no anticipating this. Incidentally, several of the pens in this prototype group came with #7 keyhole-vent nibs. As pre-production examples, they might well have been put together before nibs with the Hundred Year imprint had become available.

And here is a more complete view of the feed. At some point I'll have to look to see if a patent application was filed. 

While some of the pens in this group are pristine, such as the light green metallic example shown above, most had been carried and used, including the blue pen. It was undoubtedly a working prototype and not just a material trial.

Waterman desk set discovery

Inkwells are not a collecting focus for me, particularly those from the 20th century. When this one popped up on eBay, however, I made sure to put in a bid -- and to save photos from the listing, just in case. As things turned out it now resides at my shop. But why my interest in this one?

In large part because it retains its original label, identifying it as the product of the Jennings Brothers Manufacturing Company ("Artware of Distinction") of Bridgeport, Connecticut. 

In larger part, however, because of its clear affiliation with the desk base shown below -- a piece that I don't recall seeing in a catalog or ad, though they are not so rare that I haven't seen a few over the years.

It is widely known that fountain pen makers outsourced all sorts of components, with desk set bases being one of the most obvious examples. Yet we don't always know who actually made what, so this is a particularly fortuitous discovery. Note that the construction is of base metal with a thick gilt bronze surface layer -- well preserved in the inkwell, but with much peeling and losses on the desk base version. The base came with a matching rocker blotter and a set of corner squares to be attached to a desk pad. There surely were other accessories available, though it has been so long since I've seen other ensembles, I no longer recall what other pieces they comprised.

Jennings Brothers also produced a wide range of figurines, often found as bookends. It will be instructive to see how many also appear on catalogued Waterman bases without attribution.

Waterman pens with emblems

  

Back in the later 1990s I bought a collection of Waterman pens with emblems that had been assembled by Jim Krause, an eminent watch, clock, and pen dealer. Most have long since been sold and though I photographed all of them, most of the images were not kept in high resolution form. They are nonetheless a valuable visual record and I am sharing them here, along with some better photos of other Waterman emblems that have passed through my hands more recently.

 

 

 

 

 

Waterman 1919 catalog, p. 49.

1925 Waterman catalog: Reference Library: Waterman – Pen Collectors of America

Urushi rash and how to prevent it

Traditional Asian lacquer finishes have soared in popularity among pen enthusiasts in recent years, with a commensurate increase in the number of companies and artisans offering urushi work on their products. Unfortunately these products are not always allowed to cure fully before being sold -- a process that can take a year under proper conditions after the last coat is applied. This doesn't always affect the surface stability, but it can lead to unpleasant rashes. While a lucky few are immune, most people react to uncured urushi in much the same way that they do to poison ivy and poison oak.

I grew up in an area where poison oak was endemic; exposure was pretty much inevitable for anyone spending much time exploring the woods. I got more than my share of awful rashes as a boy, so when I ran across this video several years ago I resolved to share it as widely as I could.

Whether the exposure comes from insufficiently cured lacquer or from the great outdoors, the principles of managing urushiol exposure are the same. Putting on creams and taking antihistamines are of limited use unless you have completely scrubbed off that tenacious invisible film. And just to be clear, you most certainly should seek out professional medical advice in case of any serious allergic reaction. Prevention beats cure, but prevention is never going to be 100%.

Happy 120th anniversary to the inner cap!

The humble but indispensable inner cap was patented 120 years ago today. One of August Eberstein's  greatest contributions to fountain pen design, US patent 764227.

Gooptu's pens: two that got away

 

The following was written back in 2005 as a short piece for the now long-defunct magazine Stylus. From what I recall it didn't end up getting published, and I never got around to sharing it properly afterwards.

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The two pens shown above were acquired together some years ago.  One is a U.S.-made Waterman 55 from the 1920s; the other is an Indian-made eyedropper-filler with a transparent barrel, probably from the 1940s.  The latter is identified on its clip as a Gooptu’s “Perfection”, and it would appear that the Waterman belonged to its maker – for its barrel bears the personalization “RAI. SAHEB. F. N. GOOPTU/1925” [Fanindra Nath Gooptu, the company founder].

A small story, to be sure, but one that leads to another.  For while an online search for “Gooptu” and “pen” yields nothing about the penmaker [NOTE: this was back in 2005], it leads to an anecdote about Gandhi and another Gooptu pen, as recounted in 1948 by writer, teacher, and politician P. G. Mavalankar (d. 2002):

“It was May 1944. Bapu [Gandhi] was at Juhu.  I went to him with my father. After the talks (between him and my father) were over, I placed in Bapu's hands my autograph- book for his autograph. He took the book with the five- rupee note, and asked for a fountain pen, which was then offered to him by my father. But he returned it, stating that it was of foreign make. He even rejected my pen, which was known as 'Gooptu's Perfection' and was made at Calcutta, under the impression that it was of foreign make. He signed his autograph with a pen lying near him. While signing his autograph, he gave us, in a romantic manner, the history of his own pen. He said: "Once I had been to Banaras.  Mahadev was with me.  I lost my pen there.  Mahadev was naturally upset. So our host, the late Shivaprasad Gupta, presented a pen to me.  He gave one to Mahadev also.  I am still using that pen.  It is entirely Indian-made – manufactured in Banaras – and it works well." After saying this, he said with a smile: "I was told the story (of the manufacture of the pen) by Shivaprasad.  I do not know anything about it. But what he stated must have been true."

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Several years later I ended up selling both of the two pens to an Indian collector, with whom I have unfortunately lost touch. Now, of course, there is much information to be found online about Indian pens and their makers, with Gooptu the subject of a biographical entry in Wikipedia and his pens eagerly sought after though very difficult to find.