The Mythical Waterman Pencil of 1909

The L.E. Waterman company, as an American pen manufacturer, leaves a legacy of being a pioneer.  In fact, at dinner last night, one of my friends (a non-collector who is for lack of a better word "amused" that I not only collect pencils, but actually took the time to write a book about it) asked me, "Didn't Waterman invent the fountain pen?"

As a pencil manufacturer, however, Waterman wasn't exactly out in front of the pack.  While Sheaffer and Wahl had introduced pencils in 1917 and 1918, respectively (Wahl, of course, having acquired the rights to Charles Keeran's Ever Sharp design of 1913), Waterman didn't offer any pencils at all until 1919, and those weren't even made by Waterman.  As I explore in The Catalogue (pages 161 and 162), Waterman did not introduce a pencil of its own design until 1922.

Here is a fairly typical example of that first generation of original Waterman pencils, imprinted simply "Waterman's" at the top . . .

NOTE:  This article is now included in the print version of The Leadhead's Pencil Blog, available anywhere you buy books, or also from The Legendary Lead Company.

To order, here's the link:  Volume 1 at Legendary Lead Company