This is part of an ongoing project to crowdsource additional information, corrections, comments, and/or criticism as I work towards publishing a standalone book on the subject of Waterman's pencils. If you have anything to add, please email me at jveley@jonathanveley.com
Waterman's "Number 7" series and the "Ink-Vue" have little in common; the former looked backwards as a conventional lever-filler with the same color-coded points that had been available on the brand in its earlier, hard rubber form. The Ink-Vue, on the other hand, was an awkward but novel answer to Parker's Vacumatic.
Nevertheless, the two are linked together, particularly in the eyes of pencil collectors, due to the overlapping use of "Emerald Ray," Waterman's name for a distinctive, zigzag patterned celluloid produced by Celluloid Corporation. Celluloid Corporation granted Waterman the exclusive rights to the material, which Waterman used both to jazz up the stodgy Number 7 line as well as to become the signature look of the new Ink-Vue line.
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| 7-1 Through the end of 1932, Waterman’s “Number 7" had been the same as when it was introduced in 1927: a hard rubber pen, priced at $7, that was offered in a variety of styles of nibs, identified by color to denote the style – it would be nice and neat to say there were seven colors of nibs, but there were at one point six, then later ten. Waterman’s 1933 catalog, however, introduced a reenvisioned version of the Number 7, in celluloid. The colored cap bands that had distinguished the Number 7 in prior years was replaced with a colored dot on the bottom of the barrel. As for the color option of the pen itself, there was but one option: Jet. Accompanying the Model 7 pen was the Model 97 pencil. |
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| 7-2 This excerpt from an advertisement published in the Saturday Evening Post on December 16, 1933, includes the “Number 7" and “pencil to match.” What distinguished the Number 7 from other Waterman models in the lineup, according to this advertisement, was “the most important improvement in fountain pens – the “Tip-Fill” feed. |
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| 7-3 Waterman’s “Tip-Fill” feature was patented by Louis H. Juster of St. Lambert, Quebec, Canada, who applied for patent number 1,882,644 on August 16, 1930. Juster’s patent was issued on October 11, 1932 and was assigned to the L.E. Waterman Company. |
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| 7-4 This 1932 instruction sheet, courtesy of David Nishimura, illustrates the “Tip-Fill” feed’s unique notched feed, at left. Number 7 pens equipped with this feature only needed to be dipped in ink to the depth of the breather hole for filling, eliminating the need to submerge (and then wipe off) the section. |
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| 7-5 At first, the Number 7 pens and Number 97 pencils were offered only in Jet or black; however, in the Christmas 1935 edition of the Pen Prophet, Waterman’s in-house publication, the Number 7 pen is also illustrated in a distinctive new green and black zigzag material dubbed “Emerald Ray.” The new material was advertised in newspapers across the country for the 1935 Christmas season. |
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| 7-6 Waterman Model 97 pencils. In Jet, these were in production from 1933 through at least 1936; in Emerald Ray, they entered production in late 1935. |
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| 7-7 The Pen Prophet promised that customers “will be enthusiastic about Waterman’s exclusive Emerald Ray design.” Waterman did have the exclusive rights to the patent, but the patent did not belong to Waterman; John Hill, an Englishman living in Hillsdale, New Jersey, applied for this design patent on June 7, 1935, and it was issued as Design Patent 96,914 on September 17, 1935. Hill’s patent was assigned to Celluloid Corporation. |
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| 7-8 Waterman was never particular about what was inside its pencils, so long as on the outside they were wrapped up in something that matched the company’s pens. In 2012, the author was asked to use parts from a black Model 97 to repair an Emerald Ray example. After the donor and its intended recipient were disassembled, it was clear that none of the parts inside were interchangeable. Waterman may have licensed or acquired parts from other vendors, but the only pencil mechanism patent Waterman held in its own name – at least in the United States – was Gabriel Larsen’s original 1924 patent. |
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| 7-9 Model 97 pencils were only cataloged in Jet and Emerald Ray; this example, from Gabriel Goldsmith, is an extremely rare example in a smokey grey celluloid. |
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| 7-10 Waterman supply pens and pencils marked with Montgomery Ward’s in-house brand name, Gold Bond, in colors like these and often with slight variations in the trim (see Images 92-48 to 51 and the Lady Patricia one) . . . this one, however, is fully marked as a Waterman. |
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| IV-1 At the same time as Waterman was rolling out the new Emerald Ray on the Number 7 (97 pencil) line, the company unveiled a new model called the “Ink-Vue,” designated Model 84 pens with matching Model 85 pencils. Two colors were offered: Emerald Ray, the same as the Model 97, and “Silver Ray.” |
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| IV-2 While Waterman’s Number 7 pens were nothing new, the Ink-Vue was – for better or worse – loaded with technical innovation. Waterman felt competitive pressure from the Parker Pen Company’s introduction of the Vacumatic in 1932-1933, and the Ink-Vue was Waterman’s answer. The design was an overly complex, lever-actuated bulb filler that mimicked the Vacumatic’s use of a bladder primarily to draw ink into an open barrel, rather than to contain the ink itself. Gabriel Larsen applied to patent the design on July 26, 1930, and he was awarded patent 2,068,419 on January 19, 1937. |
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| IV-3 By the time Waterman’s 1936 catalog was printed, the “Standard Ink-Vue” was available in four colors: Emerald Ray was offered either with gold-filled trim (pen Model 84-E, pencil Model 85-E) or with “chrome mountings” (Models 84-R and 85-R). The other three available colors were Silver Ray (pencil Model 85-S), Copper Ray (pencil Model 85-C), and Jet (pencil Model 85-J). |
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| IV-4 Model 85 Standard Ink-Vue pencils. Emerald Ray and Silver Ray were introduced in late 1935; Copper Ray is not mentioned in the 1935 Christmas issue of The Pen Prophet, but appears in Waterman’s official catalog for 1936. |
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| IV-5 Companies often offered “demonstrators” with either transparent parts or machined cutouts to show off the inner workings of their products. The Copper Ray Standard Ink-Vue from the preceding image has what looks like a cutaway hole in the cap, but all that it demonstrates is that there are spare leads inside. |
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| IV-6 Of the two Silver Ray examples shown here, the upper one has a Standard Ink-Vue clip. The other, at bottom, has the same shape clip imprinted “Waterman’s” and with a tiny globe at the top. These were also found on late-model Thorobred pencils (see Image 92-54 in the Model 92 series article). |
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| IV-8 Waterman’s 1936 catalog also introduced a larger version of the Ink-Vue, with all the same technical features and more upscale trim. These were called the “DeLuxe Ink-Vue,” and it was only cataloged in Emerald Ray, Copper Ray, and Jet. No model numbers are provided for the pens or the pencils. |
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| IV-8a An undated dealers’ sheet in the Pen Collectors of America’s library shows solid gold and gold-trimmed pens, including a DeLuxe Ink-Vue with a wide solid gold band, identified as Model 87-J. The caption further indicates that matching DeLuxe Ink-Vue pencils were the Model 88-J. |
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| IV-9 Waterman DeLuxe Ink-Vue pencils, introduced in 1936; note the color-matched nose sections and the three-piece center bands. It is reasonable to infer from the preceding images that the Copper Ray example at top is Model 88-C, while the Emerald Ray examples at center was Model 88-E. The example at bottom is in an uncataloged brown color. |
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| IV-10 The clips on DeLuxe Ink-Vue pens and pencils are very similar to those on the Model 7 pens and 97 pencils, at top. |
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| IV-11 Of the two Emerald Ray examples shown in Figure IV-9, Ben Tomblinson’s example at top has a typical DeLuxe Ink-Vue clip; the other, at bottom has a Model 97 clip instead. Was this intentional, accidental, or a later repair? |
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| IV-12 Catalog and advertising artwork is often inaccurate. While surviving examples of the DeLuxe Ink-Vue overwhelmingly have the more rounded tops of the clips and slightly different terminus, Waterman’s 1936 catalog appears to show the Model 97 clip on the DeLuxe Ink-Vue (at left); the illustration in the same catalog of the Model 97 (at right) looks like it sports a DeLuxe Ink-Vue clip. |
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| IV-12a The Ink-Vue line was heavily advertised in 1936, but as the Depression dragged on there was a relative dearth of marketing for any Waterman models in 1937. In this portion of an advertisement published in the Saturday Evening Post on May 8, 1937, a Standard Ink-Vue set is marketed as the “Stadium,” with “an” Ink-Vue pen. |
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| IV-12b The Ink-Vue as a model was apparently replaced by the “Blue Streak” series beginning in 1938. Waterman was still procuring its parts from H.P. & E. Day, Inc., and on January 17, 1940 Waterman and Day entered into an agreement regarding Day’s large stock of Waterman parts that had been ordered but not delivered or paid for. Attached to the agreement is an inventory of Day’s stock on hand, including this itemization of a significant number of unsold Ink-Vue and DeLuxe Ink-Vue pencils; note that the DeLuxe Ink-Vue pencil is identified here as Model 88. Image courtesy David Nishimura. |
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| IV-13 Harry Sachnoff of Brooklyn likely saw an opportunity as Waterman abruptly abandoned marketing the “Ink-Vue” without bothering to trademark the name. In this trademark application filed December 29, 1938, Sachnoff claimed that he began using the Ink-Vue name on fountain pens on March 25, 1938, and Registration was granted on June 27, 1939 as Trademark 368,812. Note that the mark was cancelled on June 12, 1940: whether this was due to legal threats from Waterman is unknown, but Sachnoff was no stranger to legal proceedings. |
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IV-14 Harry Sachnoff was one of the pen industry’s more colorful characters, who wound up answering to the Federal Trademark Commission several times. The FTC first enjoined Sachnoff from making false statements on December 11, 1935, when he ordered to refrain from saying (among other things) that he was a “manufacturer” with a factory in Passaic, New Jersey – Sachnoff only purchased jobbed parts for resale and had no manufacturing facilities. Sachnoff was identified as the sole owner of the Park Row Pen Company, which he claimed to the FTC – falsely – that he had shut down in 1931, and he also operated the Argo Pen-Pencil Company, Inc.
This would be the first of several run-ins Sachnoff would have with the FTC, but he did win his last one, which was filed on June 14, 1945: after years of delays, the Commission published a decision on October 6, 1952 dismissing his case because – in quotations in its published decision – Sachnoff “departed this life on December 10, 1950.” Perhaps the FTC was suspicious that he had really “departed this life” – or perhaps they were not convinced that Sachnoff’s lawyers intended “departed this life” to mean that he had died. |
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| IV-15 As mentioned earlier, the Ink-Vue was replaced by Waterman’s new “Blue Streak” line in 1938, although leftover models were liquidated in wholesale catalogs much later. This page from L & C Mayers Company’s 1941 catalog advertised Jet and Emerald Ray DeLuxe Ink-Vue pens and pencils. |