Waterman's Tropic Green

[ToasterPastry]

Waterman's Tropic Green Ink: A Review of Vintage Ink, Circa 1947-1952.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Waterman_Tropic_green_bottle.jpg

 

The Company

 

Lewis Edson Waterman was an inventor originally from Decatur, New York, and later New York City, who is best known for developing a feed system to improve flow and shading of the pen that carried it’s own reservoir of ink.* After working on this pen for nearly ten years, he finally began selling it in the 1880s with great success. The feed system used three channels to allow aqueous flow with the exchange of air into the reservoir. He started his company in New York City, where he lived for another 21 years. After his death at age 64 in 1901, his nephew Frank Waterman, took over Waterman’s operation, helping to build the company as the top manufacturer of fountain pens into the 1930s.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Waterman_building_NYC.jpg

This is the Waterman Building, as it appeared in 1906, 173 to 177 Broadway Avenue at Courtlandt Street in Manhattan. I looked up this building on Google Maps, and it's still there, at least some of it. You'll recognize the facade above the Century 21 shoe store.

 

The Waterman product was an industry trendsetter in both elegance and design. However, by the 1950s, other brands such as Parker or Sheaffer outpaced Waterman in most all aspects. Waterman was also too late to embrace the ballpoint pen. By the mid the mid-1950’s, despite the popularity of the cartridge-filling system, Waterman closed its New York operations, and the company ceased production. Within a few years, the French division of Waterman, purchased by Bic, began producing writing instruments under the new Waterman name. After several transformations, the company is now a division of Gillette.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Waterman_factory_Dec_5_1915_NY_Tribune.jpg

Waterman pen factory, from advertisement in the New York Tribune, December 5, 1915.

 

The Bottle

 

Waterman currently produces their own ink at their factory in Nantes, France. Their past production of writing fluid was probably produced in factories throughout the world according to a specific formulation. Unique bottle styles to specific factories can be found in the United States, Britain, France, Canada, Spain and Japan.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/capstanglass1941.jpg

The Capstan Glass factory in Connelsville, Pennsylvania. This company was reorganized as Anchor Hocking in 1938. The factory has closed, but the buildings still stand.

 

It’s French subsidiary, JIF-Waterman, developed one of the first, if not the first, cartridge filling system in 1936. However, one of its most well-recognized company designs comes from someone outside of Waterman; that is, the Waterman multi-faceted ink bottle. Ted Piazzoli was an employee of Capstan Glass of Connelsville, Pennsylvania. As such, he designed several patented jars and bottles that he signed over the rights to the Capstan company, all but the one iconic Waterman ink bottle, which he sold to Waterman. He was granted the rights to this patent in March 1936. Capstan produced the first jars for Waterman. In 1938, Capstan was reorganized as Anchor Hocking.**

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/capstan_logo.jpg

The Capstan logo found on the bottom of the original Waterman's ink bottles, 1936-1938.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/anchorhockinglogo.jpg

The Anchor-Hocking logo found on the bottom of most early American Waterman's ink bottles after 1938.

 

Piazzoli’s concept is a timeless bit of ingenious industrial design. Ink bottles up until that time were usually narrow-mouthed, designed to support a narrow pen in an upright position, such as the Waterman 52, while filling it. This system worked until the level of ink reached below the top of the feed, necessitating the writer to a fill a separate ink well with the leftover ink. While, Waterman did produce some unusual top-fill reservoir bottles, Ted Piazzoli’s bottle allowed the user to tip the bottle on its edge to capture the last drops of ink, without spilling its contents.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Waterman_tropic_green_ink_small.jpg http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Waterman_south_sea_blue_ink.jpg http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Waterman_vmail_permanent_black_ink.jpg http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Watermans_carnation_red_ink2-1.jpg http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Waterman_aztec_brown_ink.jpg

 

The Ink

 

Waterman inks have always been recognized as well-performing throughout their line of colors. In the 1940s, American Waterman produced a series of inks for fountain pens that included Permanent Black, Washable Blue, Tropic Green, Aztec Brown, Patrician Purple, South Sea Blue, Carnation Red and Blue-Black.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/WatermanInk-3.jpg

 

Nearly all inks of this vintage contained one to three or more dyes, while the "permanent" inks (including blue-black) were likely to also contain iron gallotannate complex. All inks contain constituents as preservatives, for the control of wetting, spreading or drying qualities of ink.

 

I have been trying to find a clean version of Tropic Green for the past couple of years. Three samples of ink have been acquired, known as Variation 1, 2, and 3. The fourth variation just arrived in the mail. Variation 1 is contained in a full bottle, similar in color to var. 2, which was a very small sample acquired through Johnboz. Variation 3 was acquired two years ago. There was sediment on the bottom, and the dyes appeared to be separated. The blue dye has turned, and the ink is rather unsaturated. I have not used the ink. All variations were shown as swab samples. However, only the first variation was the one loaded into the pen. I did create a writing sample using the third variation, just as a comparison.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Green_ink_scans-2.jpg

 

I have used Waterman Tropic Green for one month, loaded into an Eversharp Skyline, green of course. It writes smoothly, not dry. It does not creep onto the nib. It does not drip. This ink resists both bleeding and feathering into the paper, but it is not waterproof. It was somewhat water resistant, though, unless, of course, you plan to soak your written object for 30-days in a swimming pool. It seems to resist water the longer it is cured. The sample I included was soaked in water for 2 minutes shortly after writing it, and then letting it dry on a paper towel. I know some people are obsessed with the permanence of ink. I prefer the resistance to accidental spills but also enjoy removing spills from my clothes or carpet.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Tropic_green_scan_dry.jpg

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Tropic_green_scan_wet-2.jpg

Writing sample. Both dry and wet. Two different variations of this ink are shown. The first variation seen above on the dry is the actual color of this ink, probably as it appeared, or nearly appeared, 70 years ago. The second variation is probably the same ink that faded to an avocado green. I have not used this other variation, but showed a writing sample because of previous interest.

 

While I enjoy the smoothness of the ink, the ‘spring-green’ color is a bit overwhelming to my eyes over the course of a whole page. Over time, though, I got over it, and enjoyed writing with this pen and ink. Not because of the novelty of using 70-year-old ink, but because it writes so smoothly. It lends itself well to writing notes on the sidebar, without being too bright. I may mix a drop of black or brown into the ink at later dates, but appreciate the purity of writing with the original product that has eluded my purchase for the past couple of years.

 

*This feed received patent registration on February 12, 1884. He also developed a successful process for preserving and condensing the juice of grapes.

 

**I have a jar with the Anchor Hocking label at the bottom.

 

Acknowledgments: This article took me a couple of weeks to prepare. Some of the individual bottle pictures are courtesy of Max Davis at 1001 Ink Bottles. The stack of bottles came from Johnboz, one of the FPN members, who collects ink and sells ink formerly through his website Vintage Ink, and now through direct mail. The logo pictures came from a website called Glass Manufacturer's Manufacturers' Marks On Bottles.

Edited December 25, 2011 by ToasterPastry

[lovemy51]

nicely done! that sure looks like a lot of work... thank you, TP and all the cotributors!

[mbradley]

Nicely done, fascinating. Thank you for the review.

Michael

[Michael_V]

Thank you ToasterPastry. Great review of the ink and history behind the company and the bottles. Also . . . you have beautiful handwriting.

 

Cheers.

[jandrese]

Very interesting and well researched. The color is bright but I like it and it reminds me of a green popular for grading papers in Norway. Thanks for sharing.

[lexi0514]

And again, wow. Fascinating stuff. Love the old bottles and boxes.

[pen2paper]

Waterman's ink bottle, (good design), is my personal favorite.

The very first bottle of ink I completely used to the very last drop.

 

Thank you TP. As always, your review is colorful, historical, enriching, concise.

More please? as time allows : )

[Pens Woods]

Thanks for such an in depth and informative article. The photo of the early Waterman Building with its advertising is fantastic! Excellent history article. I have been using Waterman inks for a few years. They're good inks and kind to pens. Again, thanks. Pete

[Muncle]

Very interesting article. It's fascinating to read about vintage inks, when they would have been more useful and not just a novelty developed for those few ink buyers out there.

 

The "turned" colour is actually interesting. I like it a lot. Anybody know a similar colour in today's catalog (very diluted Zhivago, maybe?)

[funkypeanut]

  On 1/3/2012 at 9:35 PM, Muncle said:

Very interesting article. It's fascinating to read about vintage inks, when they would have been more useful and not just a novelty developed for those few ink buyers out there.

 

The "turned" colour is actually interesting. I like it a lot. Anybody know a similar colour in today's catalog (very diluted Zhivago, maybe?)

 

On my screen it looks rather like Sailor Jentle Epinard, which I love.

Thanks for posting these reviews. The vintage inks are fascinating.

[geoduc]

Thanks, TP.

 

It's nice to see the vintage inks and the history behind them. I always look forward to reading your reviews.

[Toolattack]

A really great review.

I love the images and labels of the bottles, thanks for this post.

[Hallel]

Ancient post, but I wanted to say thanks. I picked up a bottle of this at an antiques mall, and this review was very usefull

[PS104]

What a wonderful review. Thank you. I love the old photos, and other pictures of the the factories, bottles and the history of the companies.

I love the colors of the vintage inks, such a departure from the intense and saturated colors of today (with the possible exception of Waterman's Intense Black, which according to some reviews is neither intense nor black. A marketing ploy. It's clear that Don Draper was not in charge of the Waterman account).

 

(The late) Organics Studios had a couple of vintage inks in the repertoire, most notably Blue Merle. I think was the first to be sold out when the announcement was made re the demise of OS.

 

There seems to be forming a wing of the fountain users than prefer using vintage inks in their vintage pens, both for their aesthetic value of matching with a vintage pen and with a vintage ink and for their practical value value. My feeling (and this is not from any scientific survey) is that pen restorers, in general, favor the vintage inks for all pens because of their lack of generated problems. Of course the caveat of all this is that the 'new vintage' inks are manufactured as closely as possible as the original ones were without introducing modern chemicals just to give the appearance of 'vintage'.

[amberleadavis]

Wow, I love review...the comparisons...the Avatar (Grandma is scary and I think that's my best friend's mom).. and the photos.

 

Thank you for sharing.

[Larry Barrieau]

This is an interesting thread. Your tropic green looks brighter than mine. Look at http://fpnlcb.shutterfly.com/pictures Album "waterman bottle" the bottle is 4 oz. and has 12 facets. A beautiful bottle. Here's a picture of three of my empty ones.