What is known about the invention and origin of the first fountain pen?

The first FOUNTAIN PEN

The first FOUNTAIN PEN was reported from Paris by two Dutch travellers, who saw what they described as a ‘marvelous invention’, a silver pen containing its own ink, on sale there for 10 francs in 1656.

`A silver reservoir pen which is very necessary’ is how Samuel Pepys described the earliest-recorded example in Britain, presented to him by William Coventry in August 1663. The following Sunday he used the novel device for taking down a sermon, and he may have written portions of his diary with it. The actual term ‘fountain pen’ is noted as early as 1710, and various rather primitive writing implements, of the kind that amazed the Dutchmen and delighted Pepys, made their appearance during the next two centuries, though never with sufficient impact to supersede the use of the traditional quill. Probably the most successful was the Compound Fountain Pen patented by Joseph Bramah on 23 September 1809. This consisted of a thin silver tube, tapering to a quill nib. Ink was poured in at the top and sealed by an airtight cork stopper. When writing, the flow of ink was activated by gently squeezing the barrel of the pen. The only significant advance made during the next 50 years was the introduction of the rubber ink-sac, patented by Walter Moseley in 1859.

The chief obstacle standing between the fountain pen and the writing public at this stage of development was the lack of any suitable means of controlling the flow of ink. The problem began to occupy the attention of an American insurance salesman, Lewis Edson Waterman, when he had the misfortune to lose the sale of a large policy to a customer. At the critical moment, his fountain pen had discharged its contents over the application form, a circumstance that determined Waterman to produce a practical pen suitable for business use. His lengthy and painstaking experiments eventually came to fruition in 1884 with the three-fissure feed, a system that allowed ink and air to pass in opposite directions at the same time.