He invented the fountain pen following a story behind it. Professionally Waterman was not only the inventor, but he was also the Insurance agent well. During his work, one day he was with his clients and he needed to get the contract signed by the client. But the fountain pen with which the client has to sign the contract was ruined. The contract was ruined due to the leakage of ink over the contract. Which made him and the client delay the contract sign, and when he gets the documents prepared again, he gets to know that the client already signed the contract with another insurance agent. This incident hurts Waterman a lot and which motivated him to make a good quality pen.

Then he with his brother Elijah started to work over an improved version of the fountain pen. They both did the experiment with the different tubes and in the end they found that if the air is also present in the ink holder of the fountain pen through the capillary pipes, ink will flow out of the reservoir under the force of gravity but the flow of ink is so slow that it does not cause leakage of ink. After that, he patented his invention.

Then he sold his pen behind a cigar shop with a 5-year guarantee. After which he opened a company in partnership with Asia Shipman with the name “The Ideal Pen Company” in 1885, but the company didn’t last for too long. So, he again tried to open the company but individually, and he succeeded to found the company in 1887 with the name ‘Waterman Pen Company’. Then, in 1899 he modified the nib of the pen and sort out the problem of the bubble which forms when the pen is nearly empty.