Blackboard

April 19, 2015

An Earlier Waterman’s Jointless


, probably never produced.
   




        US patent no. 698,882 was issued to Lewis E. Waterman, Apr 29, 1902, after his death in 1901, and Frank D. Waterman was listed as executor of his uncle’s estate.  It was called a “Safety Fountain-Pen”, and although this was Waterman’s first use of the phrase “Safety Fountain Pen”, they probably meant a fountain pen with a “Safety Cap”, since it was for a pen with two caps, a small, internal or primary cap, and a large, external or secondary cap, which fitted over the first.  It was also Waterman’s first version of their jointless pen, a true jointless.  The conical slip-joint section could be reversed with the nib in the ink chamber, and the small cap placed over the end of the section, so that this internal cap could be used in four different variations of capping the section.  Take a close look at the illustration.  All those cap-within-a-cap variations are a hoot!
It was probably so messy and complicated that it was simply impracticable.

P.S.  Take a look at this other Waterman’s jointless pen.
 

George Kovalenko.

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