When Walter Sheaffer designed his first pen in 1907 he had in mind an instrument which would be more convenient for the writer. What he succeeded in doing was to revolutionise the design and marketing of all fine writing instruments and establish a company whose name would become synonymous the world over with innovation and quality craftsmanship.

Earlier this century when Walter A. Sheaffer first toyed with the idea of developing his own fountain pen, calligraphy was very much in vogue. The pen a man used reflected his personality even more than it does today, and an elegant and reliable pen was essential to his image as were the suits he wore. As a result there was a plethora of every kind of fountain pen imaginable on the market and yet so confident was he that his idea was a winner, Walter Sheaffer, at age forty-five and to the horror of his family, decided to gamble his entire life savings on the success of the Sheaffer refillable fountain pen.

Working in the back room of the Ft. Madison jewellery store he had run since leaving his father's jewellery firm, Walter Sheaffer perfected his ingenious invention. By fitting an inflatable rubber sack into the barrel of the pen, ink could be drawn up through the nib, eliminating the need to fill an eyedropper full of ink and then carefully squeeze the contents into the open barrel of the pen, a delicate operation which often ended in disaster for both handwritten letter and tailored suit, not to mention the scribe's personal image.