Fountain pen designers have applied considerable ingenuity to the changing demands and needs of their customers through the years. Invention of the fountain pen cartridge illustrates this responsive creativity.
Until the cartridge was developed, fountain-pen users had a handsome and portable writing instrument, but could never be too far from a source of ink. This was fine for office-workers but a strain for those who traveled as part of a job. For them, the creation of pen cartridges made fountain pens much more reliable.
Early cartridges, created by JiF Waterman (the French subsidiary of the American Waterman Company) in the 1930s, were made of glass and were designed specifically to fit Waterman pens. Up into the 1960s, Waterman resisted standardization, and collectors must locate special cartridges to fit their pens.
Plastic cartridges have made fountain pens more reliable and less subject to accident. Waterman remains a major manufacturer of cartridges for fountain pens, and international standardization has met the need for finding cartridges that will put a wide variety of collectible fountain pens back into service.
![]() 8 Waterman Fountain Pen Ink Cartridges Long US $3.99
|
![]() Waterman Fountain Pen Ink Cartridges 8 Pk Havana Brown US $4.97
|
![]() Waterman Fountain Pen Ink Cartridges 8 Pk Violet US $4.97
|
![]() Waterman Mini Ink Cartridges Florida Blue X 24 US $9.48
|
![]() Waterman Mini Fountain Pen Ink Cartridges 6 Pk Serenity Blue US $4.49
|
![]() Waterman Fountain Pen Ink Cartridges 8 Pk Blue Black US $4.97
|